Environment #2 - Colloquium

I'm going to post on colloquium from a "You not them" standpoint.

My scholar's personality is such that she really doesn't like colloquium - she endures it. Although she has asked me to read the same scriptures with her in order to have colloquium with her over the readings because her seminary home study manual states she has to write what she's getting out of it. She says other than writing down the scriptures, she has no idea what to say. This from a girl who has already gone through two years of LEMI Commonwealth with teachers excited about her papers. So she sees a NEED for it, even if it's not her favorite thing.

I LOVE colloquium - I miss it when I don't get to go. I hope Tracy gets on here and talks about hosting one - I go to hers. Colloquium, in an environment that allows you to speak freely (Tracy does this well) is an excellent source. You get varying opinions to open your mind - to see how other people think, as well has having new perspectives that you would never get just reading it by yourself.

Just because a book resounds with you doesn't mean it will with another. For instance, we recently read Man of the Family. I didn't get to go to that colloquium, but I talked to Tracy and another member about it recently. They all thought it was a fabulous book - I hated it. It is not a classic for me and will never be on my shelf! If I had been at the group, I still would have voiced my thoughts because Tracy allows everyone to have their own experience. I can see where if it is not a safe environment voices would be stifled, and learning would not progress.

I think that's important to remember as we offer colloquium for our children.

I've also recently made an interesting observation. Cultural differences! I'm LDS, living in an LDS environment, but because my family are recent converts and we come from Texas, the way Russ and I express ourselves is completely different than the way most of the people in our group do. Russ told them recently that he hated the book 1984 so much he went outside and chopped it into pieces. Shocked me a little, since it was my book! The difference was I thought it was funny - Texans are passionate people! The people in our group thought he was nuts. It bothered me a little until I thought about the cultural difference. They have been brought up in a much more reserved atmosphere, where we were brought up to embrace passions and act upon them. I don't think either are wrong - they're just different. That is something to consider when you're in a group - not everyone has been brought up the same.

I look forward to reading what everyone else has to say. :)

What we're reading this week:

Dad - I have no idea.

Me - Mansfield Park - I've never read a Jane Austen book!

My scholar - this has been interesting. Last week she was reading a Clive Cussler book and she started telling me how she was disenchanted with his writing style. I told her maybe she needs to take a break, and her dad told her how she needed to realize that writers are people who use the power of the pen to get across their own ideas to the people. They talked about how Clive Cussler had written a book where he wrote the whole story in metric because he felt the US should go to metric since the rest of the world had. They had a colloquia right then and there over the books she had read - it was interesting to watch! She is waiting for my Amazon order to come in today to start on one of the books from LEMI that starts this Friday.

My practice scholar - she's pouring over drawing books. She has started her own blog to showcase her work as she practices.

My love of learning girl - We're slowly getting through that Charles Dickens book, and the name of the book she reads for her liberty girls is Pheobe the Spy by Jean Fritz.

My Core boys - I decided to do nursery rhymes with them. I did this with my love of learner a yr or two ago and we had such fun - I thought the boys might like to do spider cakes and fluffy marshmallow lambs, so we're doing that. I like the checkerboard book - a lady at colloquium does not. Another example of YOURS, not MINE. :)

As a family: We're still getting through You Want Women To Vote, Lizzie Stanton?