Blog Archives

Unity & Retreat

7/28/2013

There's a preciousness about it.
Other than the eager faces waiting back home,
you don't completely want it to be over.
You drive away, stop at the gas station and
you're back-
back to reality where the atmosphere is
not.

You just want to linger a moment longer amongst 'your people,'
the ones who you may not know well, but can have an instant conversation with
because we have this commonality of background
a focused purpose for being here.
Here where we are
all alive in the same room
Together at once.
Praise God for the unity!

Then again,
here we are in the same world
together every day.
Distance doesn't need to separate souls, kindred spirits
strving toward a common goal.
All things are sacred.

ALL

no secular.
not even this gas station.
The atmosphere comes with me,
really.

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berries and blossoms

7/23/2013

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Last Year

7/16/2013

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I'm preparing for our upcoming Living Education Retreat and getting very excited!! It's such a refreshing inspiring time.

I came across this photo while looking back at last year's retreat pix, which I might share more of later on.

This picture made me smile because I remember having the thought that it was tricky making signs and preparing 'talks' with an infant. Ha! A one and a half year old makes it lots more fun!

2 Comments

Tendrils of Attachment

7/9/2013

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"This is not a bewildering programme , because, in all these and more directions, children have affinities; and a human being does not fill his place in the universe without putting out tendrils of attachment in the direction proper to him."

"We must get rid of the notion that to learn the 'three R's' or the Latin grammar well,
a child should learn these and nothing else.
It is as true for children as for ourselves that, the wider the range of interests, the more intelligent is the apprehension of each." Mason

History is one of those areas of interest, and our summer book study touched on it recently. Summer is also a great time for vacations and day trips to places that might
bring history to life for a young child. I see these kinds of first experiences as
the hooks in my child's mind that the facts and information will hang on
as he reads and learns more later in his schooling.

Churning butter age 3

Buffalo hunting with an atlatl age 5

"Perhaps the gravest defect in school curricula is that they fail to give a comprehensive, intelligent and interesting introduction to history."

"It is a great thing to possess a pagent of history in the background of one's thoughts. We may not be able to recall this or that circumstance, but, the 'imagination is warmed;'"

"The present becomes enriched for us with the wealth of all that has gone before."
-quotes from C. Mason

In these early years of preschool and kindergarten we have not formally begun a history thread in our school time. We have done lots of gentle introduction of the ideas that will lead into Year 1 when we start more formal history. I took a peek through the books we will begin with. My 'peek' turned into me being sucked in and when I looked up most of an hour had passed. A well written tale of history really comes alive and I'm looking forward to reading them with my son.

So during kindergarten and preschool, what have we done for introducing history?

The first thing is our daily Bible reading which gives a child a sense of time from the beginning and lots of lovely stories of the men of old and the tests to their character.

Another big thing was the Century Chart introducing a child to the idea of his own place in the scheme of time and history. (Did I mention that I found some great $2 calendar frames at our local hobby/arts store that fit my 12x12 scrapbook paper perfectly!)

Also we have tried to give our son(s) hands-on, life experiences whenever possible. We cook meals over the campfire occasionally; he rode on horseback, looked through Grandpa's military photo album. We went to History fest reinactments and our town's Mennonite heritage celebration. He canoed on the lake with dad, and is currently caring for a flock of chickens. We hike historic trails and see names and dates carved in the rocks, we walk where indians have walked, visit antique stores, stargaze, float boats in the stream, collect wildflowers, read poetry and stories and watch rabbits and deer nibble in the backyard. All of these things can be related to the lives of people in the past in one way or another and enrich future reading/learning. I'm leaving the relating/tendril/attachment thing up to the Holy Spirit and not lecturing him on the botanical collection of Lewis and Clark or anything like that.

Canoe ride age 4

Just like Laura Ingalls in the wagon

Our summer reading offered us a few points to remember when teaching history:

- Our aim is honesty and knowledge of the truth
- Choose as accurate, well-written books as possible; read them to him and when old enough, have him retell the story
- Give the young child leisure to explore an age in detail
- Let him react himself
- Take children to the places where things happened whenever possible (though to be educated by living history, it is not solely dependent on such a visit to make the event
live and breathe)
-The curriculum should be planned as a consecutive whole, so that as the child moves along, he gains a sense of the broad sweep (of history)

We have begun reading The Childhood of Famous Americans series of history biographies. Grandma and Grandpa took a trip to The Alamo and so we read the one on Davy Crockett (a huge hit here!!) They also took a trip up the cable cars in the Swiss Alps and we looked at their photos, heard their stories and read The Magic Meadow and The Apple and the Arrow.

Another aspect of history that I am excited to begin when he is older, is the Book of Centuries, a timeline mixed with a personal narration of the 'pagent' as we go through it little by little. I hope to purchase this lovely book to hold ours.

I look forward to re-learning some of this alongside him. I can already see these ideas twining out and taking hold like those tendrils, and once we begin to sweep through our more planned and consecutive whole of history, I believe it will just get that much richer in that vivid imagination of his.

7 Comments

meandering

7/4/2013

2 Comments

We're not stick-to-the-path-type-people. Creeping through the tangled branches gets you to the best views.

The air was cool and refreshing down close to the water.

This is me peeking right up over the edge of a very high spot.

“Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are all, quite naturally, impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new, and yet it is the law of all progress that is made by passing through some stages of instability – and that it may take a very long time."

A quote from this blog post which has given me lovely thoughts
about natural rhythms, and unhurried days.

2 Comments

bird houses

7/3/2013

0 Comments

I will be doing a series of posts this spring/summer that are re-posts from an old blog a few years ago.
It's fun to go back and see what we did when we were younger and how we've grown since then!

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your
heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Matt. 6:26

Our co-op has been studying birds this winter. We observed nests in nature study. The kids have been encouraged to take part in The Great Backyard Birdcount. So, we've made bird houses for handicrafts.

This is the plan we used based on the birds in our area. This site has lots of free plans and information.

Here are a couple of other books that had good information in them about weatherproofing a bird house and the best locations for hanging one up in your yard!

We are looking forward to watching who comes to nest in our houses this spring.

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Welcome!

"I am recording this so that future generations will also praise the Lord for all He has done." -Psalm 102:18

I am a mama to 2 sweet brothers who aspires to a "thinking love" toward my children.

Take a peek into our journey towards a living education inspired by the writings of Charlotte Mason.

Be sure to leave me a comment if you're inspired!

I prefer to keep my text and images right here. Please don't copy without permission. Thanks!

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Previously...

Our Story

Our Year 1 Rhythm

Cloth Diapering

Century Chart

Learning to Read

Wool Felting

Nature with Little Ones

Playful Learning ABC

Living Math

Raising Tadpoles

Homemade Cleaning Recipes

From Caterpillar to Butterfly

Beginning a Foreign Language

Animal Tracking with Kids

Beginning Preschool

First History Lessons

Maple Sugaring with Kids

Children in the Garden

Sloyd handwork

I Participate

"In this field small efforts are honoured with great rewards, and we perceive that the education we are giving exceeds all that we intended or imagined.”
- Mason