Part Eight--Colonial Escapade 1990-1991 Patterns

(Don't you just love my complicated blog post names? Karen's and my kids used to joke about our long school names which included colons and dashes and several sentences, and how we always shortened the names of our school years anyway--"the music year" "the knight year", etc. I wrote two school years with Katie, and our school year names were short. I think we still shortened the names of the years... Oh well!)

Near the end of our Colonial Escapade school year Jasmyn said:

"Mom, I don't remember anything we learned last year [during our first year of un-thematic homeschooling], but I remember everything we did this year and I won't ever forget it!"

Jasmyn, six, holds her needlepoint of the Virginia state flower, the Dogwood
(Doesn't she look like Hannah? Or maybe Hannah looks like Jasmyn!)

 

I wrote down her words because I felt the power of learning with a theme too, but hadn't realized that a child could sense it too.

A PATTERN-SEEKING DEVICE

"The brain is a pattern-seeking device." That was the definition of a brain from Susan Kovalik.

The brain loves patterns! It is designed to make order from chaos. It attempts to make sense out of the onslaught of information it is exposed to by searching for or creating a pattern to put all that information.

The second function of the brain is to make meaning of information.

In EPIC Adventures, the P stands for PATTERN. First the brain gathers information through EXPOSURE, then it sorts and files this information in a pattern--this is how it first starts of make meaning of the information.

Jasmyn could sense the power in learning with a theme. Now she had a pattern—our entire year theme—where all the things she learned fit together for greater understanding and retrieval--as she said, she “would never forget it.” 

A field trip to a fabric store--we learned about colonial fabrics and patterns.

GOING DEEPER

Your brain will make a pattern even where no pattern exists. Isn’t that fascinating?

What if you’re given a pattern at the outset of learning—a place to put all the facts at the beginning—wouldn’t your mind be able to go deeper into the information? That is what a year-long theme does for a child’s brain. It frees the mind to go deeper into a subject, as opposed to spending time cataloguing bits of information.

Karen wrote this:

Like the sister in Sidetracked Home Executives, who moved with 256 boxes marked ‘miscellaneous,’ your child too could go through the entire school year learning bits of miscellaneous information that seemingly have no connection.  He could study the same things in a year without a theme to pull it all together. He could have the same information without the kid-grabber theme title, kid-grabber components, theme song, costumes, visitors, field trips, etc. but he wouldn’t have the great brain-firing connections, deeper understanding, retrievable knowledge, and exciting memories that come from experiencing a great theme. 

Amber, Hal and Jasmyn sit on a settle in Abigail Adams' Home:

STORIES ARE PATTERNS

This Jewish Teaching Story tells how stories as patterns are a key to teaching truth:

Truth, naked and cold, had been turned away from every door in the village.
Her nakedness frightened the people.
When Parable found her, she was huddled in a corner
shivering and hungry.
Taking pity on her, Parable gathered her up and took her home.
There she dressed Truth in Story, warmed her up and sent her out again.
Clothed in Story, Truth knocked on the villagers’ doors
and was readily welcomed into their homes.
They invited her to eat at their table and warm herself by their fires. 

(The Story Factor, by Annette Simmons)

Jesus taught truth couched in parables.

Einstein wrote Theory of Relativity in story form.

Isn’t it interesting that schools and universities treat subjects separately and use textbooks filled with facts and abridged stories? If we're so advanced scientifically, then why isn't brain research used in the classroom? (That was a rhetorical question).

Maria Montessori said:

“Curriculum should not be planned in such a manner that each subject is treated as a separate entity, disconnected from everything else.”  

Jasmyn and Amber hold their town common with graham cracker colonial buildings.

RENAISSANCE MINDS

When children are raised seeing patterns and symbolism they can make connections between the seemingly unconnected, which is a sign of a Renaissance mind. In the book How to think like Leonardo da Vinci, a key to having a Renaissance mind is to recognize connections between the seemingly unconnected.

This is something that some people today have a difficult time doing—like reading depth in a poem, for example. My friend’s child recently took a college entrance exam in which one of the skills tested was the ability to see metaphor in writings. Through our yearly adventure my children’s minds were trained to see patterns and layers of meaning until it became second nature to them.

Bringing friends into our adventure...after school (the Minton girls)



A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR MEMORIES

The EPIC Adventure theme became the framework for the memories of our lives. Even today my children mark time in their lives by saying, “Remember during the pioneer year when we…?” (“the music year…” “the knight year…” “the art year”)  They remember their lives and the specific things that happened in those years because each year was not only a framework for their learning experiences but for the memories of their lives as well.

The other day I mentioned this and decided that I need to continue to have some sort of theme every year, otherwise I wouldn't be able to remember and organize the memories of my life. My brain loves patterns too!