Book Club on The Well- Trained Mind
The past few years, Allah has blessed me to meet some very motivated mothers who have, without them knowing it, pulled me out of my slumber and got me fired-up about homeschooling again. One of them booted the idea of a book club on Susan and Jessie Wise's The Well-Trained Mind and so last Saturday we had, masyaallah, the second session discussing the book.
We discussed the third chapter of the book on The Parrot Years which talked about providing the children with a buffet of knowledge and experiences so that he will have the content with which he will grow and express himself with in the future. This led to a discussion on mental pegs and schema.
There was some contention on whether children were capable of self-expression. It was not clear, at least to me, what the writer meant by self- expression. One sister thought it was about children expressing their thoughts and feelings. I thought it was about having an opinion about what they encounter and being able to communicate this to others in their own way.
Children were however not felt to be 'dry sponge(s)' but that they had a fitrah that inclined towards goodness and were capable of some creativity of their own. Somehow, we discussed the infamous teenager who got into trouble for his posts online. This reminds me of Alattas' discussion on ta'dib - the instilling and inculcation of adab in man .
The part about children liking lists was found to be amusing somewhat but it was shared how one child recounted happily a list his mother told him to remember. This reminds me of the time when Ihsan enjoyed reading the dictionary and the glossary of his dinosaur encyclopaedia when he was five. Yes, those were the times before soccer teams and scores took over his thoughts.
Oh, and yes, the 3Rs plus grammar are felt to be most important from grade 1 to 4. Nevermind if you can't complete the history and science syllabus, you are not going to learn much later if you still struggle with language and math basics.
May Allah bless these sisters, I am now reading into the logic and rhetoric stages for my older children as a result of re-reading this forgotten book on my bookcase. My baby girls will also benefit directly from our book club discussions that focus on the grammar years. Alhamdulillah.
We discussed the third chapter of the book on The Parrot Years which talked about providing the children with a buffet of knowledge and experiences so that he will have the content with which he will grow and express himself with in the future. This led to a discussion on mental pegs and schema.
There was some contention on whether children were capable of self-expression. It was not clear, at least to me, what the writer meant by self- expression. One sister thought it was about children expressing their thoughts and feelings. I thought it was about having an opinion about what they encounter and being able to communicate this to others in their own way.
Children were however not felt to be 'dry sponge(s)' but that they had a fitrah that inclined towards goodness and were capable of some creativity of their own. Somehow, we discussed the infamous teenager who got into trouble for his posts online. This reminds me of Alattas' discussion on ta'dib - the instilling and inculcation of adab in man .
The part about children liking lists was found to be amusing somewhat but it was shared how one child recounted happily a list his mother told him to remember. This reminds me of the time when Ihsan enjoyed reading the dictionary and the glossary of his dinosaur encyclopaedia when he was five. Yes, those were the times before soccer teams and scores took over his thoughts.
Oh, and yes, the 3Rs plus grammar are felt to be most important from grade 1 to 4. Nevermind if you can't complete the history and science syllabus, you are not going to learn much later if you still struggle with language and math basics.
May Allah bless these sisters, I am now reading into the logic and rhetoric stages for my older children as a result of re-reading this forgotten book on my bookcase. My baby girls will also benefit directly from our book club discussions that focus on the grammar years. Alhamdulillah.
Comments