Everyday Educator - For Your Scribbler—and Beyond, Part 2
00:00:00.000 | (soft music)
00:00:02.420 | - Welcome friends to this episode
00:00:06.160 | of the Everyday Educator podcast.
00:00:08.920 | I'm your host, Lisa Bailey,
00:00:10.640 | and I'm excited to spend some time with you today
00:00:14.040 | as we encourage one another, learn together,
00:00:17.280 | and ponder the delights and challenges
00:00:20.120 | that make homeschooling the adventure of a lifetime.
00:00:23.560 | Whether you're just considering
00:00:25.760 | this homeschooling possibility
00:00:27.880 | or deep into the daily delight of family learning,
00:00:31.880 | I believe you'll enjoy thinking along with us.
00:00:35.400 | But don't forget,
00:00:36.560 | although this online community is awesome,
00:00:39.920 | you'll find even closer support in a local CC community.
00:00:44.920 | So go to classicalconversations.com
00:00:48.880 | and find a community near you today.
00:00:52.400 | Well, listeners, I am super glad to welcome you back.
00:00:56.560 | I have Katie Beth Pearson with me again today
00:01:00.600 | because we did not get done with our chat from this time.
00:01:05.320 | I want you to know also that I have had a lot of questions
00:01:10.320 | forwarded to me in the last six months
00:01:15.040 | about our very newest resource,
00:01:17.800 | Scribblers at Home Recipes from Lifelong Learners.
00:01:22.480 | There are lots of folks out there,
00:01:24.060 | like through practicum season
00:01:25.880 | and through some of the big media pushes,
00:01:28.200 | there have been lots of folks wondering how to use it,
00:01:31.960 | when to use it, who should use it,
00:01:35.240 | why does everybody think it's so wonderful?
00:01:37.880 | And so today, we are gonna explore those ideas a bit
00:01:42.880 | as we continue to chat with Katie Beth,
00:01:45.820 | because honestly, I think Scribblers
00:01:49.120 | can really help families find some answers
00:01:52.340 | to the questions that they're asking
00:01:54.740 | about homeschooling at the beginning,
00:01:56.740 | homeschooling in the middle,
00:01:58.360 | and homeschooling as our kids get older.
00:02:00.800 | I think Scribblers can help us as families
00:02:03.960 | sort out our priorities and set some real goals,
00:02:08.720 | not just for academics, but for family life.
00:02:11.620 | I really think Scribblers can both help us get started
00:02:17.040 | and stay the course of learning for a lifetime.
00:02:20.620 | So we're gonna poke into it a little bit.
00:02:24.440 | In the context of the conversation
00:02:26.800 | that Katie Beth and I were having last time,
00:02:29.000 | just about homeschooling,
00:02:33.460 | about what is the most humbling aspect
00:02:38.640 | of this homeschooling journey?
00:02:40.580 | What's the greatest joy?
00:02:42.060 | What's the biggest surprise?
00:02:44.140 | Katie Beth, these are the takeaways
00:02:46.240 | that I had from our talk last time,
00:02:50.200 | that it won't be easy, but it will be rewarding,
00:02:55.200 | that wrestling with big ideas is good for everybody,
00:03:02.120 | for kids and teenagers and grownups,
00:03:07.880 | that getting to know your kids by heart
00:03:12.280 | is maybe the best gift of homeschooling,
00:03:17.200 | and that reading together and exploring the world
00:03:22.200 | and talking about God is what homeschooling joy
00:03:27.440 | is all about.
00:03:29.620 | So those takeaways, Katie Beth,
00:03:35.200 | have led me to ask you this question.
00:03:37.560 | What do you already know about Scribblers?
00:03:40.560 | Because a lot of what you said echoed for me
00:03:44.360 | what I know Scribblers at Home is really about.
00:03:48.300 | So let me ask you, I know that your kids are teenagers now.
00:03:53.300 | Do you know much about Scribblers?
00:03:56.360 | Oh, you know, I didn't at first.
00:03:59.920 | I saw the name Scribblers and I thought,
00:04:04.480 | my kids are teenagers.
00:04:05.840 | Why in the world would I glance upon this book,
00:04:09.440 | much less own a copy?
00:04:11.580 | But then I kept reading the title
00:04:14.060 | and I saw recipes for it and I thought,
00:04:16.220 | you know what, sometimes even as an adult,
00:04:20.200 | I have to go back to the grammar of things
00:04:23.200 | because maybe I thought I understood a topic
00:04:26.660 | and then I find myself in deeper conversations
00:04:32.860 | about that topic and I have to circle back around
00:04:36.980 | and go back to the basics and make sure,
00:04:39.680 | do I understand really well whatever that topic is
00:04:43.600 | so I can expand my knowledge base.
00:04:46.080 | And so I grabbed a copy of the Scribblers myself.
00:04:49.580 | Even though we're a teenager household
00:04:52.440 | and I'm an adult, but I just can't put this book down.
00:04:57.440 | It is so beautifully laid out
00:05:00.540 | and it has such wonderful visuals
00:05:04.360 | and I love the simplicity of the recipes
00:05:09.360 | that are inside of it because they're approachable.
00:05:12.960 | Even for teenagers where I can look at them and go,
00:05:17.000 | hey, the power just went out and we're all bored.
00:05:19.540 | Let's open to a random page in this book
00:05:22.520 | and do one of the recipes just to spend time together
00:05:27.180 | because we can't do our research project without internet
00:05:30.120 | or you've already used all of the books on our bookshelf
00:05:33.620 | and you need to pick a couple more things
00:05:36.880 | that technology is required.
00:05:38.280 | So let's just do one of these over here
00:05:40.240 | and enjoy that time together.
00:05:43.500 | - That's really neat.
00:05:45.660 | That's really neat that you picked it up.
00:05:47.500 | I keep having questions from product sales specialists
00:05:52.500 | out in the field saying, hey, people are wondering
00:05:57.060 | if this is just supposed to be for the little kids.
00:06:00.700 | Can I sell this to challenge families?
00:06:03.900 | And I'm like, of course, of course,
00:06:06.980 | because what so many parents, even in our pilot studies,
00:06:12.140 | what a lot of parents discovered was that the chart pages
00:06:17.140 | are absolutely awesome for parents who are trying to get
00:06:23.400 | a big picture view of all of the things,
00:06:29.440 | all of the pieces of information, all of the skills
00:06:34.340 | that we as parents are trying to load into our kids.
00:06:39.860 | Strand by strand, these charts give parents
00:06:43.740 | a really good picture of what is coming
00:06:47.820 | and what that information looks like as it builds.
00:06:52.820 | And so I can see lots of challenge parents wanting the book
00:06:59.100 | just because all the charts, hey, I've had people say,
00:07:04.180 | I want this book because all those charts that I need
00:07:07.340 | are in one place and I don't have to go looking for it.
00:07:11.980 | - I have already tabbed this book with some of the charts
00:07:15.980 | that I think would be helpful for my students
00:07:20.500 | this academic year, right?
00:07:22.820 | We talked last time about wrestling with something
00:07:26.320 | and just kind of digging your heels in
00:07:28.980 | and stubbornly dominating that wrestling match
00:07:32.260 | and making sure that you don't give up.
00:07:35.540 | One of my daughters still struggles with Latin verbs
00:07:39.940 | and lo and behold, you have a beautiful chart
00:07:43.740 | that explains why you need to understand
00:07:46.940 | the four principle parts of a Latin verb
00:07:49.540 | and what the differences between the tenses
00:07:52.740 | and the conjugations are.
00:07:54.500 | And it sums up pages upon pages upon pages
00:07:58.700 | of the Henley book and just a couple of charts
00:08:02.500 | in Scribblers that she can flip through and reference it
00:08:06.260 | as she continues her wrestling match in her weekly studies.
00:08:10.720 | So had I not picked this up,
00:08:13.340 | she would have still been wrestling,
00:08:15.140 | but her wrestling match would have been more exhausting
00:08:17.860 | and I don't know if she would have lost hope
00:08:21.260 | and questioned whether she should just do just enough.
00:08:25.640 | Does that make sense?
00:08:26.860 | - It does make sense.
00:08:28.340 | I know that for me, sometimes as a grownup,
00:08:33.340 | I just want to know all the things.
00:08:36.300 | Okay, so tell me, as grownups,
00:08:39.300 | we need to see the big picture.
00:08:42.180 | Like I need to see all of the pieces
00:08:44.940 | and where I'm going with all of the pieces.
00:08:47.400 | And so I think for us as parents,
00:08:50.260 | the charts are very reassuring because we can see,
00:08:54.860 | okay, so this is the whole piece of pie.
00:08:57.820 | I'm not asking my child necessarily
00:09:01.060 | to see the whole piece of pie,
00:09:03.100 | certainly not to chew up the whole piece of pie,
00:09:06.100 | but as the parent in charge, I need to see it.
00:09:09.260 | I think as our children grow,
00:09:11.180 | so challenge students probably have more of that view
00:09:15.760 | of the chart that parents have
00:09:18.260 | than the view that little kids have.
00:09:19.940 | So I think for our challenge students,
00:09:22.180 | it is really helpful to see the big picture of it.
00:09:27.060 | And I always taught, when we were developing Scribblers,
00:09:30.300 | I told people the activities are for the kids.
00:09:35.300 | The charts are for the parents and it's twofold.
00:09:39.860 | The charts help the parents reclaim the education
00:09:44.860 | that we missed, right?
00:09:47.300 | So these are the pieces that you really need.
00:09:50.820 | But the charts also give the parents the vision
00:09:56.140 | of where all of these pegs of information
00:10:01.140 | are taking our children.
00:10:03.680 | The chart is the culmination of all the pegs
00:10:08.600 | and all the skills that we pour into our children
00:10:12.860 | as they grow.
00:10:14.240 | - Yeah, I love the idea.
00:10:16.540 | First of all, where was this
00:10:18.040 | when my kids were Scribblers age?
00:10:20.100 | - I know. - Right?
00:10:21.300 | - We were all just trying to figure out what we didn't have.
00:10:24.000 | That's where it was. - I know.
00:10:25.720 | But it's wonderful in that the layout of the recipe
00:10:30.720 | tells you your serving suggestion,
00:10:34.340 | which is basically, is this an activity I can do in the car?
00:10:37.460 | Is this an activity I do in the backyard?
00:10:39.780 | Is this, where am I gonna do this, right?
00:10:42.680 | And then you get all of your ingredients together
00:10:46.420 | and you follow the steps.
00:10:47.500 | It's beautifully designed in an approachable way.
00:10:53.380 | So that way you can do it with your littlest learners
00:10:56.860 | who may not understand what the chart is
00:10:59.620 | and they're not expected to.
00:11:01.720 | - Most of the activities don't even suggest
00:11:04.200 | that you show your littlest learners the chart at all.
00:11:07.800 | - No, it's more of a, oh mom,
00:11:10.960 | I don't remember what a polyhedron is.
00:11:13.400 | Can I, oh, let me take a look at this chart.
00:11:16.120 | That's what it is.
00:11:17.320 | And I can use that word while playing with my toddler
00:11:20.800 | or playing with my younger child.
00:11:23.120 | But I don't have to hold them accountable
00:11:26.280 | to remembering or understanding or mastering that knowledge.
00:11:30.460 | I'm just sprinkling those big chewy words
00:11:34.360 | into their vocabulary so that it's not scary
00:11:37.840 | when I need to hold them accountable.
00:11:39.960 | But I can remember what I learned
00:11:42.120 | when I was being held accountable to that knowledge.
00:11:45.660 | And that chart's beautiful to keep me in check
00:11:50.020 | because there are some things I learned in school
00:11:52.520 | I have not used since.
00:11:54.880 | But that doesn't mean that I should shy away
00:11:57.000 | from introducing that information to my own children.
00:12:01.040 | But then as my kids got older and into the challenge years,
00:12:05.240 | I did have to start holding them accountable
00:12:07.920 | to the understanding of the information
00:12:10.420 | so they can use those charts just as much as I do.
00:12:13.420 | - I love it.
00:12:16.480 | I love what you've said because it does give families
00:12:19.600 | the understanding of what is the recipe for
00:12:24.420 | and what is the chart for.
00:12:26.880 | There is, I know you have your scribblers
00:12:30.160 | in front of you too.
00:12:31.900 | There's a literature spread on page 90
00:12:37.760 | that's called the Plays the Thing.
00:12:41.280 | And okay, so if you open it up,
00:12:44.340 | all of the recipes are on the left-hand side of the spread
00:12:48.020 | and all the charts are on the right.
00:12:50.240 | Well, the chart, which is for parents,
00:12:54.200 | is all about the parts of a drama.
00:12:57.760 | Drama is one of the three genres of literature
00:13:01.600 | along with poetry and prose.
00:13:04.520 | And so this gives all the parts of the drama.
00:13:08.120 | So it gives actors, script, act, scene, dialogue,
00:13:12.060 | stage, set, theater, costumes, props,
00:13:15.760 | with definitions of what all of those things are.
00:13:18.940 | So you get the big 50 cent word, the dialogue, okay?
00:13:23.940 | And then, but what does that have to do with my kids?
00:13:28.860 | Well, like you said, you are bringing them along
00:13:32.720 | toward understanding of what a play is
00:13:37.400 | by letting them experience it.
00:13:41.120 | So the activity tells you to read a story
00:13:46.120 | and we suggest The Frog Prince from Old World Echoes,
00:13:51.360 | but you could read any favorite story
00:13:54.040 | from your own book or a library book.
00:13:55.920 | And then what you're gonna do with your children
00:13:58.720 | is explore how the story might be presented as a drama.
00:14:03.140 | So you discuss the characters by asking them questions.
00:14:07.680 | So you ask your kids, what does that character look like?
00:14:11.120 | What do they wear?
00:14:12.360 | What's their attitude like?
00:14:14.500 | So, and then you're just asking your children questions.
00:14:17.240 | So how would you know that they were rich?
00:14:20.420 | How would that characteristic manifest itself
00:14:24.060 | in costumes or clothing or facial expressions?
00:14:28.200 | You know, if it was a hwani princess,
00:14:33.200 | or if she was a shy princess,
00:14:37.040 | how would you show that?
00:14:38.660 | You ask your children, 'cause they know those things.
00:14:42.120 | What do you think that they would be?
00:14:43.980 | Then you discuss the plot by asking more questions.
00:14:47.780 | So what does the princess do first?
00:14:50.640 | And when does she meet the frog?
00:14:52.740 | And what does the frog ask?
00:14:54.920 | And what happens next?
00:14:56.240 | And then with your child, you doing the writing,
00:14:59.320 | if you have a pre-writing or a slow writer,
00:15:02.860 | you make a list of all the things that happened
00:15:06.520 | in the story in order.
00:15:09.200 | Then, depending on the age or abilities of your children,
00:15:12.820 | you create a play that retells the story.
00:15:16.120 | You can write the story down or not.
00:15:18.160 | You can make costumes or not.
00:15:20.780 | You can perform it for an audience or not.
00:15:24.200 | See how open-ended all of this is?
00:15:27.800 | But then you ask them, after you do that,
00:15:29.920 | you sit back and you ask some thinking questions.
00:15:33.360 | It's all about conversation with your children.
00:15:36.640 | So are there lessons to be learned?
00:15:39.480 | Do you think the princess learned anything?
00:15:42.060 | Could we learn anything by studying what happened to her?
00:15:46.060 | What kind of lessons did the frog learn from his actions?
00:15:50.020 | What do we learn from the king's actions?
00:15:53.240 | You could even ask, would you like to be like the princess?
00:15:56.320 | Would you like to be like the frog?
00:15:59.420 | And the cool thing about scribblers is
00:16:02.340 | you can look at this recipe and you think, that was fun.
00:16:05.960 | And now my children know a new word.
00:16:08.580 | They know costumes, they know dialogue, they know scene.
00:16:13.580 | I wrote it down and told them that it was the script.
00:16:16.440 | So they've learned some new words and we had a fun time,
00:16:20.060 | but what did that really do?
00:16:21.740 | Well, the cool thing is that this will give you the yield.
00:16:26.460 | The recipe tells you what you and your children
00:16:29.760 | are getting out of this.
00:16:31.080 | And for this activity, what the yield is,
00:16:34.560 | a deeper understanding of narrative skills.
00:16:38.560 | So look, you thought you were playing with your kids,
00:16:41.520 | but you are giving them a deeper understanding
00:16:43.680 | of narrative skills by engaging in a different way
00:16:48.180 | of telling a story.
00:16:50.340 | So what you did with your children after you read the story,
00:16:54.520 | and then you ask what happened first
00:16:56.400 | and what happened next, deconstructing the story
00:17:00.040 | in order to put it together in a different form,
00:17:04.000 | in the form of a play, gives the children the opportunity
00:17:08.480 | to see the lessons that character development
00:17:13.100 | of a story might offer.
00:17:15.280 | The lessons sometimes, you know as parents,
00:17:18.540 | we always are looking to teach a lesson
00:17:20.180 | and our kids sometimes know that.
00:17:23.080 | I just wanna hear the story,
00:17:24.220 | I don't want it to teach me anything.
00:17:25.840 | I had, my kids said that to me.
00:17:28.120 | But listen, y'all, the lessons are sometimes more winsome
00:17:33.120 | when children discover them on their own.
00:17:37.080 | As you're just asking them questions,
00:17:39.480 | not about themselves and what they would do,
00:17:42.040 | when you're asking them questions
00:17:43.460 | about what did the character do,
00:17:45.580 | and then what happened to the character,
00:17:47.920 | and what did the character learn,
00:17:50.440 | the lessons are more winsome
00:17:52.040 | when they come upon them themselves.
00:17:56.040 | And so, look, what's the big deal about that?
00:17:59.600 | Well, it helped us as parents feel good
00:18:03.860 | about what we know about a play,
00:18:07.080 | 'cause we could study that chart.
00:18:08.960 | It helped us have a great conversation
00:18:11.880 | and a fun time with our kids.
00:18:15.460 | It helped them learn to tell and retell a story
00:18:19.640 | and look at different parts of it
00:18:21.640 | and think about other people's reactions
00:18:26.200 | and other people's actions.
00:18:28.420 | But at the bottom of the recipe is one of my favorite parts.
00:18:33.000 | It's called Tips and Hints.
00:18:35.640 | And this recipe's tips and hints say,
00:18:38.720 | do we ever judge someone by the way they present themselves,
00:18:43.720 | their clothing, their facial expressions, or their words?
00:18:48.200 | Do we make assumptions about others based on expectations
00:18:52.600 | from past experiences?
00:18:55.040 | How does God judge us?
00:18:58.480 | How should we evaluate one another?
00:19:01.560 | Paul offers us some insights in Galatians 2.6.
00:19:05.520 | As many parents through the years have maintained,
00:19:10.180 | actions speak louder than words.
00:19:13.320 | So the tips and hints gives us,
00:19:17.020 | a lot of times, a spiritual application
00:19:19.800 | or a deeper thinking for us as parents
00:19:23.340 | to see where can this, how can this help me
00:19:25.860 | train my child's character?
00:19:29.940 | How can it help me turn them to what God wants them to be,
00:19:34.100 | as well as teach them about drama?
00:19:37.140 | And that's a fun thing.
00:19:40.340 | That's a cool thing for scribblers to do.
00:19:43.420 | I think it was a big undertaking
00:19:48.420 | for one piece of, or one resource to do,
00:19:53.620 | but that's what it tries to do.
00:19:57.460 | It tries to help parents engage their kids
00:20:01.280 | in fun activities that have meaning.
00:20:06.280 | - Yeah, you know, and looking at this,
00:20:09.380 | I could absolutely see my 17-year-old
00:20:12.280 | and my 13-year-old and then my husband and myself
00:20:15.980 | doing this for anything, doing it with a children's story,
00:20:20.020 | doing it with Shakespeare, doing it for some book
00:20:24.480 | that we've read on a larger scale
00:20:26.720 | and thinking more deeply about the ethical problems
00:20:31.460 | that they will see in the world.
00:20:33.660 | What choices did they make that you don't agree with?
00:20:36.820 | Why don't you agree with those choices?
00:20:39.280 | And we are a playful family.
00:20:42.420 | So yeah, we could get caught up in some costumes
00:20:45.500 | in the living room and do some silly voices
00:20:48.700 | and things like that.
00:20:49.660 | And I think it expands.
00:20:52.240 | It helps that mother of a preschooler
00:20:57.120 | or father of a preschooler who's looking
00:20:59.980 | at their young learner and thinking,
00:21:03.540 | "What do I do with you?"
00:21:06.140 | You're clumsy, you're slow,
00:21:10.660 | you don't understand many of the concepts of the world.
00:21:14.300 | And I want to teach you these things,
00:21:17.280 | but how do I get there?
00:21:19.440 | And so you open up your scribblers,
00:21:22.340 | the recipes from lifelong learners,
00:21:24.700 | you can find a recipe, see what the yield is,
00:21:28.220 | which is really, that's what I look at.
00:21:31.580 | One of the first things I look at,
00:21:33.160 | 'cause I want to see what am I running towards
00:21:36.200 | when we do this activity, right?
00:21:38.240 | What am I trying to accomplish?
00:21:39.800 | Or what's the point?
00:21:41.000 | I have a lot of friends that are like,
00:21:42.780 | "What's the point of this activity?
00:21:45.060 | "This feels like it's just a time waster."
00:21:47.940 | So I love that you incorporated the yield
00:21:50.880 | for each of these recipes so that I can get my heart set
00:21:54.440 | and understand what we're running towards
00:21:56.880 | and then start playing with your kids and be comforted.
00:22:02.160 | And the fact that play is still learning
00:22:06.520 | because you're still educating your children,
00:22:10.440 | even though they're not taking a test or a pop quiz,
00:22:14.780 | maybe they're not even doing book work,
00:22:17.540 | but they're still learning something.
00:22:19.520 | And it's something that can both be academic in nature
00:22:23.200 | because they're gonna use that information moving forward,
00:22:26.560 | but it's also heart learning,
00:22:29.520 | thinking about right from wrong,
00:22:31.360 | thinking about who did something
00:22:35.560 | that could have been done better.
00:22:37.600 | And that's education as well.
00:22:39.560 | - Yeah, I have always said that play
00:22:42.280 | is the work of childhood.
00:22:43.880 | And I think that so many of us,
00:22:47.760 | when we begin schooling our children at home,
00:22:52.600 | it's natural, kids like to play
00:22:55.360 | and we like to play with them, it's fun.
00:22:57.920 | But so many moms and dads,
00:22:59.600 | especially when they start out feel guilty,
00:23:02.760 | if they get to the end of the day and they look back
00:23:05.880 | and they think, wow, what we mostly did was play.
00:23:09.400 | I am a terrible homeschooler.
00:23:11.400 | And what I, scribblers was, because that's,
00:23:16.320 | I remember having those thoughts, Katie Beth,
00:23:18.240 | you said, where was this when our kids were little?
00:23:21.060 | We were living it, we were living the angst of that moment.
00:23:24.520 | You look back and what do I have to show for the day?
00:23:27.840 | A bunch of play, what a failure am I?
00:23:31.120 | And I knew that parents were feeling that.
00:23:33.680 | And what we want to say to them through scribblers is look,
00:23:38.020 | your play has a purpose.
00:23:41.800 | And if you, every activity in scribblers is fun.
00:23:46.660 | It looks from a child's side of the activity,
00:23:50.180 | it's gonna look like play.
00:23:51.400 | I mean, there are relay races in here.
00:23:54.000 | You get to beat on pieces of furniture
00:23:57.240 | or on your lap, you get to march in place,
00:24:00.600 | you get to run around, you get to make a mess.
00:24:03.520 | It absolutely looks like and is play.
00:24:08.120 | But what scribblers does is show you how the play
00:24:11.520 | you're doing with your children is intentionally building
00:24:16.520 | into them and you the skills that they need
00:24:21.760 | to grow and expand their understanding of the world
00:24:25.760 | and what they can do with the skills they're gaining.
00:24:30.560 | So they think that they're just,
00:24:33.800 | they are just learning to clap out.
00:24:40.360 | There's a phonics, there's a phonics.
00:24:43.000 | I don't even remember what the name
00:24:43.840 | of the activity is over the recipe.
00:24:46.300 | There's a phonics where you clap out your names,
00:24:49.500 | Katie Beth, okay?
00:24:51.820 | And every child can do that.
00:24:54.000 | They don't know the word syllabication
00:24:56.840 | and lots of us frankly do not know the word syllabication.
00:25:00.480 | But all of us can clap out suspense, jello, chocolate pudding
00:25:05.480 | you can clap it out.
00:25:09.720 | Kids think that they just get to beat on things
00:25:12.600 | or clap rhythms of words.
00:25:15.040 | But what they're learning is that words have syllables
00:25:18.880 | and that is eventually gonna help them spell words.
00:25:23.360 | English words and foreign language words.
00:25:27.060 | And so what looks like play is becoming a skill
00:25:31.940 | that will help them grow and learn as they go on.
00:25:36.160 | And so that's one of the things that I love
00:25:39.040 | about Scribblers is that it helps us feel good
00:25:43.000 | about playing with our kids.
00:25:45.180 | - Absolutely, I'm actually looking at that recipe.
00:25:48.280 | It's called the rhythm of words
00:25:49.960 | and the syllabication chart is wonderful.
00:25:53.580 | I don't think I ever learned the formal rules
00:25:58.560 | of the breakdown for syllables.
00:26:01.280 | But this chart tells me that, right?
00:26:03.840 | So when I was teaching my own children
00:26:07.480 | that at the very beginning of their learning,
00:26:09.920 | they're trying to make these sounds
00:26:12.200 | that they're looking at on a page connect with the letters
00:26:16.440 | and they don't know where the syllables fall or lie.
00:26:20.940 | And, you know, definition's my favorite
00:26:24.800 | of the five common topics.
00:26:26.320 | I know we're not supposed to have favorite children,
00:26:28.360 | but definition's my favorite.
00:26:30.300 | And I love that a lot of these charts
00:26:32.160 | are just full of definitions or explanations.
00:26:35.480 | And it's a helpful chart for me as the mom
00:26:39.980 | to remind myself how to guide my learner, my student.
00:26:44.820 | Okay, when you see that there's two consonants side by side,
00:26:49.320 | we're going to split our syllables right there.
00:26:52.080 | So now let's try this word again, bubbles.
00:26:54.640 | Where do you hear the syllables?
00:26:56.860 | And walk them through it so that they have their own memory
00:27:00.560 | as they're learning their words.
00:27:03.020 | But then, yeah, what kid doesn't love making loud noises?
00:27:06.900 | - Oh yes, permission to make a loud sound during school.
00:27:11.500 | - Absolutely, so whacking a board or a pot or your hands
00:27:16.000 | or the back of the car seat as you're driving down the road
00:27:19.240 | and getting your bodies in play
00:27:21.820 | does not make it any less educational for them.
00:27:25.480 | In fact, I would argue that because it invokes
00:27:28.720 | more of their senses, it solidifies it better.
00:27:32.680 | And it's fun.
00:27:34.060 | - And it's fun, absolutely.
00:27:36.580 | It is absolutely fun.
00:27:37.960 | I love what you've said.
00:27:39.940 | It's a really good way to look at the chart.
00:27:41.760 | The chart helps parents guide the children.
00:27:46.300 | The chart, parents, will give you words.
00:27:49.840 | It will give you words to explain the concepts
00:27:53.680 | that you're trying to put into your children.
00:27:56.520 | And sometimes it gives us words to explain concepts
00:28:00.380 | that we're a little fuzzy on.
00:28:02.440 | Or we know, but like there are lots of things
00:28:05.600 | that my kids would ask me and I would say,
00:28:08.480 | well, I can explain it to you,
00:28:09.940 | but I have to use a lot of words because I'm kind of go,
00:28:12.460 | I'm wandering around in my mind,
00:28:14.820 | gathering up all of the pieces that belong to this
00:28:18.100 | and organizing as I go.
00:28:19.940 | And sometimes all that does is confuse our kids.
00:28:22.640 | So the chart actually gives you words,
00:28:26.820 | succinct ways of explaining things.
00:28:30.440 | And that can be a real blessing.
00:28:32.780 | That can be a real blessing.
00:28:34.180 | I wanna just, before we run out of time,
00:28:36.480 | I want to talk about the beginning.
00:28:39.020 | I've had lots of people say, I love scribblers,
00:28:42.520 | but yeah, I didn't read the introduction.
00:28:44.240 | And it makes me so sad because the introduction
00:28:49.080 | really helps you get a handle on why am I doing this?
00:28:54.080 | Why am I homeschooling?
00:28:56.920 | And if you begin with the end in mind,
00:29:01.040 | you have a much calmer journey.
00:29:04.360 | There's suggestions in there of just ask questions
00:29:08.840 | of yourself and your spouse as you get ready to homeschool.
00:29:13.840 | What is your family's purpose?
00:29:16.440 | What are your family's priorities?
00:29:19.600 | How does education fit into your purpose and priorities?
00:29:24.520 | Lots of us begin homeschooling
00:29:26.640 | and it's years before we think,
00:29:28.920 | wow, does this kind of education really fit
00:29:32.260 | what we believe God's made us to do and be in our community?
00:29:37.260 | You actually kind of need to know that first
00:29:41.300 | in order to design the education
00:29:43.660 | that's gonna fit his purpose for your life.
00:29:47.800 | You can ask questions like, what do your little ones need?
00:29:52.540 | What do your middle children need?
00:29:54.180 | What do your older kids need?
00:29:56.440 | What will prepare your children for lifelong learning?
00:30:00.360 | Now, I know that when we start out,
00:30:02.360 | I remember thinking I've got to teach them to read
00:30:05.900 | and they need to know enough math not to be embarrassing
00:30:09.200 | and to be able to organize their own lives
00:30:12.140 | and I want them to know history and all that stuff.
00:30:14.740 | I did not think at the outset,
00:30:19.580 | what will make my children lifelong learners?
00:30:22.460 | What will help them love?
00:30:24.060 | Now, as we went, I did think I need to keep them curious
00:30:29.420 | because I had discovered that that was
00:30:33.900 | what kept me and my husband learning.
00:30:37.560 | We kept being curious about things
00:30:40.140 | and so I knew that that was one of the ways
00:30:42.960 | I could keep them learning, if I could keep them curious.
00:30:47.800 | But Scribblers is full of good questions.
00:30:50.740 | How do you promote wonder and excitement
00:30:53.680 | and constant curiosity?
00:30:55.780 | Think about that ahead of time
00:30:57.380 | and you will have a better chance of doing that thing.
00:31:01.360 | - Yeah, I really like that within your introduction,
00:31:07.060 | you challenged the reader to create their own family
00:31:11.160 | mission statement, right?
00:31:13.860 | When we first started homeschooling,
00:31:16.260 | I was not running away from the public school.
00:31:21.260 | I was running toward a conviction
00:31:25.220 | that was placed on my heart
00:31:27.100 | and I think putting that to words and saying,
00:31:30.660 | why is this a conviction of my heart?
00:31:33.420 | What is the purpose of what I'm gonna do?
00:31:36.380 | 'Cause I'm gonna be honest with you, Lisa,
00:31:38.620 | 18 years is a long time to see any kind of results.
00:31:43.620 | That is a long time to wait, yes.
00:31:47.380 | And so I'm a box checker,
00:31:50.900 | but I'm also a person that likes to celebrate
00:31:54.260 | when something has finished.
00:31:56.540 | And so I love vacuuming the floors
00:31:58.580 | 'cause I can see results when I'm done vacuuming my floors.
00:32:02.900 | But when I'm wrestling with phonics or Latin verbs
00:32:07.140 | or even formal lab reports for chemistry,
00:32:12.140 | it's not very easy to see the results right away
00:32:16.060 | and you're trying to figure out what is going on.
00:32:19.780 | So turning back to our family mission statement
00:32:23.540 | and reminding ourselves what is the point
00:32:26.780 | of me homeschooling my children?
00:32:28.780 | Why was this important enough for me to prioritize my time,
00:32:33.780 | my energy, my money into pouring into my children's education
00:32:38.980 | rather than whatever the alternative might look like.
00:32:44.300 | So when you have those seasons, which we get every year,
00:32:50.860 | my season starts around February when it's too cold
00:32:54.740 | to do anything outside.
00:32:56.040 | And here in North Carolina,
00:32:57.580 | it's too wet and cold to do anything outside.
00:33:01.340 | It doesn't have fun snow for us to play with.
00:33:04.060 | It's gross, wet, cold mud.
00:33:07.980 | And so we're stuck inside.
00:33:09.580 | There's not a lot going on as far as like family
00:33:12.940 | celebrations or vacations or even like holidays anymore.
00:33:18.380 | And it's just those dreary days of homeschooling
00:33:22.180 | where my kids have started to feel
00:33:24.620 | like they're hitting a wall.
00:33:26.500 | They don't feel like they're growing anymore.
00:33:28.680 | I don't feel like I'm actually reaching them anymore.
00:33:32.480 | I turn and look at our family's mission statement
00:33:35.760 | and our schoolhouse's mission statement.
00:33:38.860 | And I remind myself why we're doing this
00:33:42.340 | and what we're running towards so I can reset my heart
00:33:46.460 | and my children's understanding of the beauty
00:33:49.800 | of perseverance in those seasons.
00:33:52.540 | - Yeah, absolutely.
00:33:54.540 | That is so wise.
00:33:56.040 | And it is very important, like you said,
00:34:00.500 | when the doldrums come to have that statement written down
00:34:05.500 | somewhere that you can go back and reflect.
00:34:10.760 | No, this is why I'm doing it.
00:34:13.120 | And the introduction of Scribblers helps families
00:34:17.800 | wrestle through those ideas,
00:34:19.820 | what belongs in a mission statement.
00:34:22.060 | It helps you consider really practical things
00:34:25.400 | like what are some ways we can start the days together
00:34:29.880 | that will lead us toward our mission?
00:34:31.560 | What are some ways that we can end the day together
00:34:35.760 | so that our hearts are one and we can reflect with gladness
00:34:39.760 | on what God has brought us through?
00:34:43.080 | It helps us to consider things that are not academic
00:34:47.800 | but are part of our family rhythms,
00:34:52.120 | are part of the culture of learning
00:34:54.240 | that homeschoolers are trying to build.
00:34:56.800 | Things like what is living in a family
00:34:58.880 | gonna teach your child?
00:35:00.680 | I mean, it's not how to conjugate Latin.
00:35:03.520 | - No.
00:35:04.360 | - It's not how to map a line.
00:35:08.760 | It's not how to debate in the Lincoln-Douglas format.
00:35:13.760 | Living in a family should teach your children about mercy
00:35:19.560 | and grace and compassion and hard work
00:35:24.520 | and celebrating one another.
00:35:26.520 | And the introduction for Scribblers helps us as a family
00:35:30.340 | to work through all of that.
00:35:32.120 | But it's not just for beginners.
00:35:34.960 | It's not just for beginning homeschoolers.
00:35:37.180 | And I think you've done a beautiful job of showing us that.
00:35:41.520 | There is a quote in the book from an early,
00:35:45.760 | from one of the pilot users who said,
00:35:48.600 | who had kids of all levels.
00:35:51.360 | And she was mostly gonna use Scribblers
00:35:55.440 | with her Foundation's age kids.
00:35:58.260 | But she says, "My Foundation's kids
00:36:01.360 | "loved the science activity."
00:36:04.120 | And the one she was talking about
00:36:05.560 | was called Tiny Beauties in Your Backyard.
00:36:08.800 | My Foundation's kids loved the science activity,
00:36:12.080 | but so did my Challenge A student.
00:36:16.200 | And my husband even wanted in,
00:36:19.680 | "Maybe we will use Scribblers on Saturdays
00:36:23.880 | "so the whole family can enjoy it."
00:36:27.160 | And that was one of my favorite comments.
00:36:29.200 | When she was telling us this story,
00:36:32.040 | she explained that she was doing the activity
00:36:34.760 | in the family room with her younger kids
00:36:37.360 | and the Challenge A student wandered by from her bedroom.
00:36:41.420 | And she's like, "Oh man, oh man.
00:36:44.580 | "I wish I had done that.
00:36:45.740 | "I have to draw pictures.
00:36:47.220 | "I have to draw diagrams.
00:36:49.000 | "Man, that would be so, can I do this one with you, Mom?"
00:36:52.720 | And so she stayed and then the husband wandered,
00:36:55.480 | husband offered they wandered by and he was like,
00:36:58.420 | "That's what you're doing in homeschooling?
00:37:00.040 | "That kind of looks fun.
00:37:01.520 | "Could you do that at a time when I could participate?"
00:37:04.200 | And so we've had lots of families say,
00:37:07.580 | "We're gonna try to use this at a time
00:37:10.320 | "when our whole family can do it."
00:37:12.360 | I've even had people say, "This is gonna be perfect
00:37:15.600 | "because my parents are coming for a week
00:37:18.260 | "and they wanna be involved with our homeschooling,
00:37:21.640 | "but they don't know what we're doing.
00:37:23.020 | "I mean, they've not been writing papers and essentials,
00:37:25.760 | "so they don't know all that keyword outline stuff
00:37:27.780 | "and they don't know anything about those charts.
00:37:29.880 | "How can I, but Scribblers recipes,
00:37:33.820 | "they're one-offs.
00:37:35.460 | "You can open the book, pick a recipe.
00:37:38.440 | "Everything you need is simple and it lists what you need
00:37:42.040 | "and how long it's gonna take."
00:37:43.940 | That's a great way for an older sibling or a grandparent
00:37:48.460 | or even a babysitter to be involved with the homeschooling.
00:37:53.460 | And the cool thing about Scribblers
00:37:56.280 | is that it's not a daily curriculum.
00:37:59.460 | I mean, you do not have to do one activity
00:38:03.020 | from each strand every day.
00:38:04.740 | In fact, that would be way too much.
00:38:06.360 | You need to be reading and exploring and praying
00:38:10.080 | and playing every day with your children.
00:38:13.160 | So pick activities.
00:38:14.820 | They're not necessarily sequential within each strand.
00:38:19.820 | They sometimes, the activities will build in complexity
00:38:24.640 | and the charts kind of build in complexity,
00:38:27.920 | but you don't have to do it in any certain order.
00:38:30.480 | And there's nothing that says
00:38:31.740 | you can't do the same activity multiple times
00:38:35.380 | because there's scaling instructions in there
00:38:38.240 | or instructions for, or you could try it this way
00:38:41.080 | or you might like to try it that way.
00:38:43.640 | So really Scribblers is kind of cool for everybody
00:38:46.840 | because it gives you a lot to think about
00:38:49.560 | and a lot to play with.
00:38:51.120 | - It does.
00:38:53.280 | And I'm looking at, it's in the phonics section
00:38:57.400 | and it's called Meet Me at the Easel.
00:39:00.540 | And I love this exercise
00:39:02.840 | because sometimes you're looking at something
00:39:07.660 | and you just think what you're seeing is so very obvious
00:39:12.320 | to what everybody else is seeing.
00:39:14.200 | So we maybe just jump over taking the time to attend
00:39:19.200 | to certain details or to express the things that you see.
00:39:25.420 | And this simplifies that skill to be able to look
00:39:29.440 | at a picture and walk your students through being able
00:39:34.260 | to say what they see.
00:39:36.880 | And so again, that chart on the right,
00:39:38.720 | which is amazing for the parents,
00:39:41.300 | gives the some really great leading bits of information
00:39:45.760 | to say, okay, if your student is like, I see a dog.
00:39:50.000 | Well, now let's ask some good questions to say,
00:39:52.560 | well, when you're looking at this picture,
00:39:55.320 | is it a painting or a photograph?
00:39:57.900 | Is it needle point or is it a crayon drawing?
00:40:02.900 | Do you see the brush strokes?
00:40:06.280 | Do you see this?
00:40:07.440 | Describe this better using these details.
00:40:11.440 | And it allows the student to learn what kind
00:40:14.620 | of information is good to have,
00:40:17.920 | which will absolutely help them when they start in challenge
00:40:21.880 | with the art appreciation papers that they write.
00:40:25.040 | And they're studying different mediums
00:40:28.300 | and different styles of art.
00:40:30.120 | Now they have more language to say,
00:40:34.000 | oh, now I know how to describe this image
00:40:37.260 | and to compare it with another artist's work
00:40:42.260 | and things like that.
00:40:43.680 | It was just, sometimes I find myself in a situation
00:40:46.920 | where I just don't have the language
00:40:49.860 | because I think everybody else sees
00:40:52.140 | the exact same thing I see.
00:40:53.820 | - Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, that's really good.
00:40:56.000 | I'm glad that you picked that activity too,
00:40:58.320 | because it illustrates what I was saying.
00:41:01.400 | That is one of the last activities
00:41:06.400 | in that phonics section of the cookbook.
00:41:12.240 | And so it is, the chart is all about art appreciation
00:41:17.240 | that our challenge two students will do.
00:41:20.760 | And it gives you, like Katie Beth said,
00:41:23.080 | the vocabulary that you as a parent or your older child
00:41:27.720 | would need to critique a piece of art
00:41:31.220 | or evaluate it or talk about it.
00:41:34.480 | But the recipe, the activity for your kids
00:41:39.480 | is about looking at the artwork in a book that you choose
00:41:45.980 | and talking about the picture and what's it about
00:41:49.380 | and actually calling your child to attend
00:41:52.260 | are the colors bright or are they dull?
00:41:55.960 | Are they primary colors?
00:41:57.800 | Do you like or dislike the subject?
00:42:00.480 | Look at the other parts of the picture.
00:42:02.040 | So you're calling them to attend.
00:42:04.480 | And then what you're gonna do is trace the picture.
00:42:08.000 | Look for the shapes,
00:42:09.400 | which is a very beginning drawing thing to do.
00:42:13.660 | And then choose three main colors that the artists use
00:42:19.200 | and color with crayons the picture that you traced.
00:42:23.060 | And so it gives our children the opportunity
00:42:28.060 | to begin what they are going to work into as they grow.
00:42:33.260 | And that's what Scribblers does.
00:42:35.540 | It's just like a feast of learning for the whole family.
00:42:39.060 | And it's one of the reasons that I feel so strongly about it
00:42:43.620 | is that it helps us get started on the homeschool journey,
00:42:48.380 | but it makes the homeschool journey a feast
00:42:51.680 | for all the years that we're together.
00:42:55.120 | I love it, I love it.
00:42:56.580 | Thank you for helping me dive into Scribblers a little bit
00:43:01.180 | and talk a little bit more about homeschooling
00:43:04.740 | through the years.
00:43:05.740 | Katie Beth, this has been great
00:43:07.200 | and I really do appreciate it.
00:43:09.560 | - Oh, well, thank you for inviting me.
00:43:11.140 | I have so much fun talking with you, Lisa.
00:43:13.840 | - We have a great time together.
00:43:16.300 | - Listen, you guys, if you have never considered
00:43:20.600 | that Scribblers was for you,
00:43:22.800 | and now you've changed your mind,
00:43:25.260 | go on classicalconversationsbooks.com
00:43:29.540 | and you can find the Scribblers at Home recipes
00:43:34.540 | from lifelong learners there.
00:43:38.260 | It is a wonderful resource, a renewable resource,
00:43:42.140 | useful for all of your family for lots of years.
00:43:45.900 | And I think it'll be a blessing to your home.
00:43:48.920 | I've enjoyed talking to you and to you, Katie Beth,
00:43:52.320 | and you guys, I will see you next week.
00:43:56.000 | Bye-bye.
00:43:57.200 | (gentle music)
00:43:59.780 | you
00:44:01.840 | [BLANK_AUDIO]