Great article about educating our kids at (http://ladyofvirtue.blogspot.com/2010/11/our-old-fashioned-education.html).
Here are a couple of snippets from the article:
“When our space program was thinking about sending astronauts to other planets, they were concerned about the problem of having enough food for the trip. They thought they could just feed the astronauts vitamins, thus saving all the weight and space that would otherwise be needed. They experimented with feeding some test subjects only vitamins and water--the results were dismal! They found that there are elements in food that nourish our bodies in ways we don't understand, so it would be impossible to fit all these into a tiny tablet. The test subjects languished and the experiment was abandoned.
What does this have to do with homeschooling? I expect that what my children learn on their own all day long is their actual education, what we do together is only to help them in their own studies--and they are studying and learning in all sorts of other areas; character, handicrafts, history, etc. Our "table time", as Marilyn Howshall puts it, takes only a small portion of their total study time. I am of the opinion that any program of learning which takes hours and hours away from a child being able to work hard and study on his own is not advantageous to the child, but harmful. Attempting to fit all that a child will need to know in a few books is like trying to feed him the marvelous information and wisdom of the entire world into a minuscule pill and expecting that he should be satisfied. Education done in this way is distasteful and ineffective.”***
“Prepare first for Heaven, then for life, then for vocation and pleasure. We have been falsely led to believe that the opposite should be applied; prepare for vocation and pleasure, then for life, then for Heaven. A child could end up in Heaven at any time--he should always be prepared. If he does not know how to live, including how to get along with others, maintain himself and his belongings, pay his bills, etc. then his life will be a mess from the beginning. With this foundation laid, he then trains himself for a vocation or avocation, he will be successful on all sides. Our whole society is in decline because we have put the cart before the horse.”
