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Joining Soulemama today for a Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from today. Quiet. Simple. A moment to pause and remember.  Map drill: A day to remember in South African history. (We just happen to be studying South Africa this term.)
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"To push ourselves to work daily at education, to live, act, think and speak in front of children so that they'll be better every hour because of our example, is a lot harder than making a single enormous sacrifice." --Charlotte Mason  It's November, and we're settling into a gentle rhythm for fitting school into our days here at home. It takes a little bit to get supplies organized and the posted routine turned into an actuality. It also takes some thought and preparation to take a child who at age four has free exploratory play taking up the majority of his day, to then, by age six, be able to sit down for a structured period of time and apply his mind to learning as well as telling back what he knows. I have found a slow, gentle introduction to one new subject at a time to be the most attainable in our home setting and much preferable to a throw-them-in-at-the-deep-end approach.  The lessons  In progress School is pretty high on the ‘fun’ list around here, for teacher and student. I mean that too! Really, who wouldn’t appreciate a guilt-free opportunity to ignore housework and laundry and go read a few really good books for a while each day. I hope and pray that the day I begin to find it turning to drudgery for either party, I would pause for a long hard look and make the necessary changes. How well can learning happen when the mind is overwhelmed or in a state of resistance?  From broken basement discard, to refurbished school-cupboard. A dream come true! In an ideal world, where obedience reigns, nothing falls apart and fairies do the dirty dishes, this is what the school portion of our daily rhythm looks like. I've heard it called gathering time and morning meeting and other lovely names; we begin our time after breakfast with the same concept. We've found which subjects work well while the little one is dashing between our feet and save the others for nap time. I'm still crossing lots of fingers praying he doesn't grow out of nap time for a long while. It's been an adjustment for me to give up my mid-afternoon time to get some work done around the house. I'm not a fan of change in general, but in this case, the rewards far outweigh any negatives.  During a morning we try to do the following subjects: Bible Reading/Prayer Recite our memory Verse Calendar-Weather check Listen to our composer Spanish lesson Sing our Hymn/Folksong Read our daily poem Chores and outdoor play fit into our morning, as well. Other times we run errands or have play-dates with mom friends and their little ones before lunch. I might remember to grab the cds and then we listen/sing/recite any of the above subjects in the car. We also love books on cd in the car!  Espanol Using Ambleside Online Year 1 as our guide, our total time spent in focused learning during a given day is about an one and a half to two hours. I take my planning time (usually about 15 minutes) on Friday when school's over. Then my thoughts from the week we've just completed and where we're headed are still fresh in my mind. I find that it takes me much longer and is harder to get back into the mindset if I wait until Sunday night.  As soon as baby's down for the afternoon and the table is cleared, big brother and I pop onto the couch and begin with a book and narration, which one depends on the day and our reading schedule.  Viking Tales drawing narration Short and varied lessons are the keys to keeping attention and interest. We do 5-20 minute lessons depending on the subject. When he asks, I let him choose which order the afternoon falls into, but, as I can sense that a certain predictability is a comfort to him, we generally follow his favorite order of things. Number comes next,   Making 8 with pennies and beans. "Which ones look alike?" then copywork.  "Can I please write a letter to Auntie for copywork?" Next he does his letters (aka learning to read),  Melt-mom's-heart-first-reading-lessons!  "...She gives me cream with all HER might, to eat with apple-tart." and then another reading and narration.  Where did Shaka Zulu live?  "Mom, this is how Shaka did it." Handcrafting, nature notebooks- a.k.a. science, drawing, outdoor geography, timeline, common placing, citizenship etc. fit in here depending on the day. We attempt to do each at least once a week.  Garter snakes have no ears, we discovered.  our time line And Shakespeare comes last. Often baby wakes up and does Shakespeare with us. And that's it for school! We used to head out and pick eggs after this. I 'm already looking forward to resuming that part of our daily rhythm with new birds next year and listening to contented chicken noises and giggling at their antics once again.  Playing at The Globe Theatre. "I want to be Banquo."  Numbers in real life The majority of the time the teacher role falls to me. Dad likes to be involved in school, more than just, "We did this or that today," but among his many bread-winner responsibilities he doesn't have much chance to dive too far in. It makes sense for me to help offer opportunities for him to connect to what we're doing.  Reading Peter Pan and dressing the parts One evening I set out an 'assignment' for suppertime, a Picture Study narration that had already been assigned to us for our TBG community. It was very fun to sit back and listen to it happen. They looked quietly at a beautiful print from Vermeer. Afterwards, these are a few of the comments I heard. "There was a box on the table." "It was brown." "No, Dad, it was blackish brown." "She had a letter in her hand." "Ya, it might have been a letter from her husband." "There was some cloth." "No, that's the table. It was blue." "Like her dress!" "Let's look at it again. Oh, I see what you were talking about that was a hook on her face. It's her hair, a curl." "It's hard to see." Another recommendation I've heard for dads is to keep a read aloud book going at all times, one they can pick up and read to the kids whenever it works. We're using the free reads on our list for some of our 'dad books.' It's an opportunity not to be missed!  And baby gets his share of stories too... "...let us consider where and what the little being is who is entrusted to the care of human parents. A tablet to be written upon? a twig to be bent? Wax to be moulded? Very likely, but he is much more-- a being belonging to an altogether higher estate than ours; as it were, a prince committed to the fostering care of peasants."    Our favorite Poor Richard's Almanac quote: "Men and melons are hard to know." After we read this D'aulaire on Ben Franklin, DH and I watched the HBO miniseries John Adams bringing the famous revolutionary to life for me!!  "...mothers owe a thinking love to their children... how shall this heart, this head, these hands, be employed? to whose service shall they be dedicated?"  Oh, the stories we get to read!!!  Wishing we could step into this nature collection Seven years ago when I stood on the soil of Granada, Spain, or more specifically in the halls of the Alhambra castle, I had no idea it was the very place Columbus had long ago asked King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to fund his voyage in which he discovered the New World.  I look forward to Columbus Day in a fresh way after having read some wonderful living books about the life of this impressive hero who earned the title Admiral of the Ocean Sea.  Chistopher Columbus at the Royal Court of Spain, by Václav Brožik c.1884
 In true tour guide fashion, here we are in The Hall of the Ambassadors (Gran Salón de Embajadores,) the room where it is claimed that Columbus was received by the King and Queen. A visitor here would have stepped from the glaring Court of Myrtles into this dim, cool, incense-filled world, to meet the silhouetted sultan. Imagine the alcoves functioning busily as work stations, and the light at sunrise or sunset, rich and warm, filling the room. Note the finely carved Arabic script. Muslims avoided making images of living creatures — that was God's work. But they could carve decorative religious messages. One phrase — "only Allah is victorious" — is repeated 9,000 times throughout the palace. Find the character for "Allah" — it looks like a cursive W with a nose on its left side. The swoopy toboggan blades underneath are a kind of artistic punctuation setting off one phrase. In 1492, two historic events likely took place in this room. Culminating a 700-year-long battle, the Reconquista was completed here as the last Moorish king, Boabdil, signed the terms of his surrender before eventually leaving for Africa. And it was here that Columbus made his pitch to Isabel and Ferdinand to finance a sea voyage to the Orient. Imagine the scene: The king, the queen, and the greatest minds from the University of Salamanca gathered here while Columbus produced maps and pie charts to make his case that he could sail west to reach the East. Ferdinand and the professors laughed and called Columbus mad — not because they thought the world was flat (most educated people knew otherwise), but because they thought Columbus had underestimated the size of the globe, and thus the length and cost of the journey. But Isabel said "Sí, señor." Columbus fell to his knees (promising to pack light, wear a money belt, and use the most current guidebook available). quote here.  In that relational way, those newly learned facts and ideas hung themselves on the pegs of previous experiences in my brain.  My imagination is weaving all sorts of interlocking webs as I learn more from here and there.  All these tidbits are fitting in to create that sweeping panorama of history in my mind.  I remember this stunning castle and the way it filled my senses, the tinkling fountains the smell of orange blossoms and jasmine, the cool halls and intricate carved archways. I bought the book Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving in the bookshop at the end of our 5 hour tour. He wrote these little tales of Spanish history during his stay at this beautiful palace when it was no longer the main housing for royalty but used by a lower-ranking military official. Reading it is like taking a little stroll with him through the Spanish countryside.  Not too long ago I picked up a kids' pop-up book with words from Columbus' own journal which my son has enjoyed. I also found this sweet storybook of Spanish folktales gorgeously illustrated by Emma Brock. Spain, and Columbus... it all weaves together in a fascinating way, doesn't it?
       Photos in this post are from around the web as well as out of my own camera :)  "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.   It is my pleasure to host this edition of the CM Blog Carnival Welcome! Grab a cool drink, pull up a chair and enjoy some refreshment and inspiration. I wanted to share with you few quotations that I've been pondering after reading an intriguing Parent's Review article titled Adventures in Education by Sybil Marshall. It gave such a wonderful glimpse into a school of the past where Mason's ideas were being implemented. These are the ideas that stuck out to me from my reading.  My 5yo and I painted a sign for our bean teepee "...their minds were reaping the real benefit. fed with countless real experiences, the children's imaginations began to work as never before. The creative impulse that is born with every child atrophies unless his imaginative response to his environment keeps it actively in use. When in use it demands outlets in many different forms, but above all in words." Nancy over at Sage Parnassus shares with us some great insights for enhancing the reading experience in a simple and natural way- A New Way to Listen: Commonplacing for Little People  "...thoughts need the freedom of time to become seasoned, to become personal, to become knowledge." Leah at Homegrown Babies shares with us, and I'm a tad jealous, because I want to go!! A Charlotte Mason 'pilgrimage'  "The teacher's greatest asset is the children's desire to learn, but as this is a natural thing it must be used in a natural way." Lindafay shares with us some good beginner tips at Higher Up and Further In- The First Stage of Nature Journaling  "Fed on stories of all kinds, the children's horizons get wider and wider, calling for still more detailed observation of nature, of animals, of people... the need for factual knowledge leads them back again to books, and the spiral continues upward and onward." Amy shares some yucky bugs and good ideas at Fisher Academy- Nature Study Monday:Insect Pests Barb shares a wealth of things to try at your house for a simple study on trees at Handbook of Nature Study- For the Love of Trees: A Year-Long Tree Study I'm looking forward to giving some a these a try!  Lanaya at Delightful Education shares with us her thoughts on-
(Habit) Training in Truthfulness Oh, and one by Yours Truly :) on Thinking Practice Thanks so much for joining me here. I hope you have enjoyed reading all these as much as I have! And, a special thanks to Amy for heading up the carnival for us all. Upcoming carnival: @ Epikardia on 7/24 Topic for discussion (optional): Principles #9-10 For more info see: The 20 Principles. {an overview} Submit posts here: charlottemasonblogs (at) gmail (dot) com To find out more about upcoming & past CM blog carnival schedule, Click Here!  "True virtue cannot exist where pomp and parade are the governing passions;
it can only dwell with the people- the great laboring and producing classes that form the bone and sinew of our confederacy." -Andrew Jackson  "It is a much disputed matter how we shall begin to teach history." "children should begin with their own times and read history backwards. We want to give reality to history by showing that it is not something remote, to be found in books only; we want to show that the life of each child forms part of history; then we may lead him on to see that the whole world is different for each man that has lived, better for each noble life, and to feel quite early that God has sent him into the world with some work ready for him, and that his business is to do that work." "To a little child ... we must proceed from the known to the unknown..." "I venture to think that a child who begins history thus--not at the Creation, nor even at the Christian era, but at his own "nativity"---will get to understand it better than if he tried to survey the world from any other "pin-point" in time." Enter: The Century Chart- a record of a child's life history "The first square stands for the time before he is a year old...the second square for the time when he is one year old, and so we mark the squares accordingly. The first line gives the first decade of life, in the second line we have all the tens, in the third all the twenties... A child very quickly learns to read on a black chart the number corresponding to any square in the century of squares; " "Later, ...historical events, are added"  The quotes above are from this article I read recently about introducing history to a child. It mentions this idea of a Century Chart; there are examples and also a beautiful little story at the very end. This is one for my oldest son. Each square has a photo of the big event in his life that happened that year. It was easiest for me to print tiny pictures of each event to put in the square. The first photo is the night he was born. (The photos are a little different from the article's examples where stamps/drawings were used.) This is made from 12x12 cardstock. Using a ruler, I drew a one inch grid first in pencil, then with a fine-tipped black marker. I cut off the excess paper on 2 sides. The grid sheet is attached to some nice scrapbook paper with gold corners. My son's name (covered up) and the year 2007-2107 (a century) are in the title line. I might move the graph off-center to make a space on one side for writing other dates of special events. For now, ours is in a scrapbook page protector, but I'm looking for a frame with a removable back so we can admire and add to it yearly. "How valuable some such tabulated knowledge is as a basis of historical teaching... ... it forms a framework, which from the first saves events from getting shaken into disorder in the memory..." (Oh, I can relate to that!) I'm looking forward to adding a new photo for the year that has passed at his next birthday. I want to say a little prayer for his upcoming year, when we do. I also hope it causes us to reflect on the passage of time that the chart represents and the changing and growing that have been done. 
"By the shores of Gitche Gumee, By the shining Big-Sea-Water, Stood the wigwam of Nokomis, Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis...." "...At the door on summer evenings, Sat the little Hiawatha, Heard the whispering of the pine-trees, Heard the lapping of the waters, Sounds of music, words of wonder; "Minne-wawa!" said the pine-trees, "Mudway-aushka!" said the water" 
"...Saw the rainbow in the heaven, In the eastern sky the rainbow, Whispered, "What is that, Nokomis?" And the good Nokomis answered: "'Tis the heaven of flowers you see there; All the wild-flowers of the forest, All the lilies of the prairie, When on earth they fade and perish, Blossom in that heaven above us." 
"Of all beasts he learned the language, Learned their names and all their secrets,... Talked with them whene'er he met them, Called them "Hiawatha's Brothers." We've been loving Hiawatha's Childhood by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 
"Her dark skin, dark brown hair, keen little grey eyes," "... -these formed the outward shape of a woman carrying something strange and cherished along her ways of life." "...The hope was burned deep in her that beyond the harsh clay paths, the everyday scrubbing, washing, patching, fixing, the babble and the gabble of today, there are pastures and purple valleys of song." "She had seen tall hills there in Kentucky. She had seen the stark backbone of Muldraugh's Hill become folded in thin evening blankets with a lavender mist sprayed by sunset lights, and for her there were the tongues of promises over it all." 
"She believed in God, in the Bible, in mankind, in the past and future, in babies, people, animals, flowers, fishes, in foundations and roofs, in time and the eternities outside of time; she was a believer, keeping in silence behind her gray eyes more beliefs than she spoke. She knew... so much of what she believed was yonder- always yonder. Every day came scrubbing, washing, patching, fixing. There was so little time to think or sing about the glory she believed in. It was always yonder..." 
"With the baby she called Abe in her arms, Nancy Hanks came to this Rock Spring more than once, sitting with her child and her thoughts, looking at running water and green moss. The secrets of the mingled drone and hush of the place gave her reminders of Bible language, 'Be ye comforted,' or 'Peace, be still.'"
- Abe Lincoln Grows Up by Carl Sandburg |
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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"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 
“It may be that the souls of all children are waiting for the call of knowledge to awaken them to delightful living.”
- Mason 
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