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KONOS' desire is to build relationships between siblings as well as keep homeschooling mothers sane! That is why KONOS believes in multi-level teaching. Instead of one child studying frogs, one studying sound, and one studying airplanes, the whole family focuses together on the same unit at the same time. After teaching each child his individual language and math in the morning, KONOS moms can quit juggling kids and subjects and teach everyone together the chosen KONOS unit in the afternoon.
Mother reads to everyone about Helen Keller. Older children read about the ear and create an ear model under the dining room table, through which younger siblings crawl. Then, older children research causes of deafness, while younger children draw the parts of the ear. All practice sign language and punch up Braille messages.
Environment can foster learning or stifle it. Therefore, the learning environment we choose for our children should provide for optimal education. Recent research has indicated that school, i.e. formal group instruction, is best suited for later elementary years. For primary age children, the home is the best context for effective learning.
The home provides a microcosm of the real world where a child must recognize and respond to the various needs of different people of different ages. He learns patience while listening to a grandparent and learns responsibility in caring for a younger sibling. His whole personality is being developed as he shifts from leader, to follower, to one of the gang. He is not in what Charlotte Mason calls the isolated "child environment" which is totally child-centered.
Multi-level learning within the home context allows children to learn in ways that will prepare them to be well-equipped, life-long learners, becoming productive, giving members of society. |
