Understanding Charlotte

A Little Belated...

2009-11-16T12:56:00.000-08:00

...alright, so maybe 3 weeks doesn't qualify as a "little belated", but you all will excuse my tardiness, won't you? We did have a great park day on the 27th of October (that one was more of a playground than a nature day), and several more since. But, that house of ours has kept me from posting the photos until now :) Hope to be back again this week with another post - this time on the importance of keeping the big picture of education in front of us. I need that post! For now, a few photos. Thanks for reading!

Park Day Tomorrow - Pics to Follow

2009-10-26T21:46:00.000-07:00

We're headed out for a long day outside tomorrow. Our housework is under control, lessons have been consistent, the forecast is glorious. Now, to get to bed so we can head out after breakfast!

Hopefully, I'll get some decent photos :)

A Daily Rest - The Logistics

2009-10-19T12:44:00.001-07:00

Thanks so much for the wonderful comments in my last post, ladies. I'm glad the article was a blessing to you.

I know it's all fine and good to agree with the author in theory, but several readers have wondered how exactly a daily rest pans out in real life. There are definitely days that I'm left scratching my head, too :)

I think this "daily rest" is likely to be constantly changing, adapting to the need of the moment and the phase of life. For instance, a family with a newborn in the house may have far lighter lessons for a time, enabling Mama to get those much-needed extra moments of sleep. For a family with 4 somewhat older children all doing a full schedule of Ambleside Online - Mama might check out for thirty minutes while the children all have some productive independent work to do. I've learned that what works for my family now probably will not work for my family in even six months. Schedules and routines have to constantly change and grow with us if they are to be our helps and not our masters.

Here's a peek into our day today as an illustration -

It's a Monday and we haven't been outside at ALL today, even though it's gorgeous outside. We have houseguests coming for Punkin's 5th birthday (!) this weekend and there are literal MOUNTAINS of laundry to do. Additionally, we did very light lessons last week as the house and its many projects took precedence for a bit (I'm sure our houseguests will appreciate a door on their room!!! - ha). So, we've done a lot of housework and a lot of school work. It's now 3:30, we just finished a history lesson, and I'm totally fried. Punkin and Little Dude are still napping, and probably will be for another 30 minutes or so. Shug is reading, SweetP is making beaded bracelets. I am blogging - shame on me! So now I'm going to log off and try to get some rest before I hear my little man calling out to tell me he's not interested in staying in bed anymore. Monday nights are Sam's late nights - he'll probably be home at 7pm or a little later. It's very important that I rest now to help me carry out the rest of the late afternoon and early evening. I'll get maybe 20-25 minutes. Less if I don't wrap this up pronto :)

As we add more and more into our school days, it becomes increasingly difficult for me to have time alone with the Lord in the afternoon. If I don't wake up before the children and have time to read the Word and pray then, it's likely it won't happen at all. In the afternoons, if I grab a break, I nap. In the evenings I read just a chapter or two of a book. Last night I read a chapter of A Tale of Two Cities. Tonight I think I'll read the second chapter of Adler's How to Read a Book. Maybe the secret to fitting in a little reading and a rest is to keep both short. You needn't read 100 pages of a book in one sitting to benefit from it :) In fact, less is likely to be more - especially if you can think on it a bit while you do dishes or fold laundry the next day.

I wouldn't cut down on time in the Word or prayer, though. That's one area where longer lessons are better :)

Anyway, glad you all enjoyed the article! Thanks again for the comments! Now, time to crash. Oh, and just in case I hear my boy moments after my head hits the pillow - I whole-heartedly agree with the readers who left this bit of wisdom for us all:

"However, I have to agree with what Nikki said about resting in the Lord. I tend to guard my quiet time so jealously that it can become an idol that I selfishly feel like I can't do without."

Amen, Heather & Nikki. I often say that Motherhood is Selfishness Boot Camp :)

Have a great one, ladies!!!

P.S. Oh, and I have to admit something - I had a rather substantial cup of strong black tea at 3:15 ;)

A Daily Rest

2009-10-07T12:54:00.000-07:00

Here's another Parents' Review article to get your minds working. This one is called Simple Things - A Daily Rest (again, about Mother Culture). I hope you enjoy it! I'll be back in a few days to share my thoughts on it, and hopefully hear yours as well :)

Our First Autumn '09 Park Day & Some Thoughts on Masterly Inactivity

2009-09-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

Ahhh... today was brisk. I love brisk days. It was windy, too, and one of those days that just seemed to announce the arrival of autumn. Everyone slept in very late this morning (we had storms last night - let's just say not many of us slept well). So, with morning lessons basically shot anyway, I decided to wake the children up by telling them we were going on a park day.

All of the normal hustle and bustle followed and, before too long, they were running out to the van. The cool breeze had them seriously giddy. They just kept spinning around in the driveway exclaiming about how much they loved fall. "Isn't fall your favorite season, Mama? Oh, it's mine! It's such a beautiful day. Don't you love it?". It was a twenty minute drive to the arboretum and they prattled the entire way there.

I took my camera along...

We just had a sweet time lying on a blanket in the sun, collecting acorns, enjoying the mild weather. The children played house with rocks, dirt, and sticks as their props. They jumped off of benches, climbed boulders, tried to catch grasshoppers. Lovely :)

I'm wondering if someone is going to comment on Little Dude being so near the water (he's two and a half). Charlotte Mason frequently mentions leaving children "be" when outdoors - letting them play, and pretend, and imagine on their own without constant prodding or directing from Mother. It can be difficult to keep quiet, as a mother, at first. Eventually, I think you start to find your own feet and figure out how much to "leave alone" and how much to step in. However, there do have to be some parameters. If for no other reason than just to keep the little guys out of harm's way. The children are largely allowed to play as they will on our outings, but they have already learned what the boundaries are beforehand. It's not a lawless, wild time where they get to rule the roost. Authority is always right there, lovingly watching through her sunglasses as she sits on the blanket. Ready to speak up if the need arises.

I let Punkin lie with me on the blanket for a while this morning, chit-chatting and snuggling. After a bit, though, I gently encouraged her to go enjoy the day and play with the others. We had our nice time together, but she engages in a different kind of learning without me right beside her. I wanted her to have some growing time without me, too. I'm never far away, of course :) She brings her little bouquets of flowers and interesting rocks and all that. But it's good for her to spend a while just filling acorn caps with mud and then scraping it all out again with a stick... on her own.

Miss Mason refers to this letting children alone as "Masterly Inactivity". When coupled with well-trained habits, it makes up a sort of educational double whammy. Each makes the other stronger and neither can be safely left out of the picture. This post is already too long to get into that more tonight, though, so I'll save further thoughts on Masterly Inactivity for later. To help you think through the subject some until then, I'll just leave you with this :)

By the way, in the video I'm calling Little Dude "Brother". I guess that's what you wind up being called when you're the only boy :)

Enjoy the last few days of September! My favorite month is right around the corner!!!

So, What Exactly Have We Been Up To?

2009-09-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

I took quite a long break from Understanding Charlotte. Although, it's good to be blogging again some, I'm still not able to post as frequently as before. Among other things, lessons are taking more time now with SweetP getting a little older and with Punkin asking all the time for more "school". Don't worry - she still does very, very little in the way of lessons :) But, one of the main reasons I've been so scarce in the past year has been that we've moved. And the new house isn't anything at all like our old one. It needs some love. That's okay. With all of the work, there have been ten times as many blessings. And, in its own way, the work itself has been a blessing, too. So, that's what we've been doing. Loving up a "new" house :) Would you like to see?

Have a great day!!!

Parents' Review Article: "Mother Culture"

2009-09-19T20:08:00.000-07:00

Note: The following is a narration of sorts - a kind of "telling back" to myself all of the principles I've just read. I'm not an expert on Mother Culture, I'm learning and narrating the thoughts of someone who knows far more than I do about the subject :) I in no way come close to this ideal - I struggle to find balance everyday. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts, too!

Volume 3, no. 2, 1892/93

Mother Culture (click to read the article)

The main goal of Mother Culture is that the mother continue growing as an individual. It is that she continue learning, gaining experiences, developing as a woman. What do you think of that notion? That message could sound just like a feminist reaction to "stifling" activities like cleaning bathrooms and other forms of senseless drudgery (aka home life). Is Mother Culture all about nursing discontentment at home by running away whenever possible? A cup of tea and a trip to the art gallery and now I'm a whole woman? It can sound as though we are encouraged to demand our rights. Certainly not. We are not our own, we were bought at a price. What, then, is to set our growth apart from this restless pursuit of "me time"?

"though she may do much for her children, she cannot do all she might,
if she, as they, were growing!" (emphasis mine)

There is a little prepositional phrase that clears things up for us. For her children. Our growth and continuing education as Christian mothers is to be for others. At its heart, Mother Culture must be others oriented. Although the author never says as much, I think it's critical to stress that wives and mothers who feel the need for a little time to themselves to think, to create, to grow must be able to say that it is for the glory of God that they do so. He is the Big Other - Christ Jesus first and foremost.

When I first began reading about Mother Culture, I just couldn't honestly say that taking time for myself on a regular basis would be glorifying to God. The Lord has given me this home, this wonderful man, these blessed children to care for and work for and spend myself for. Wouldn't time for myself be nothing but selfish escapism? How is that glorifying God?

"So many mothers say, 'I simply have no time for myself!' 'I never read a book!'
Or else, 'I don't think it is right to think of myself!' They not only starve
their minds, but they do it deliberately, and with a sense of self-sacrifice
which seems to supply ample justification...She must see which is the most
important--the time spent in luxuriously gloating over the charms of her
fascinating baby, or what she may do with that time to keep herself 'growing'
for the sake of that baby 'some day,' when it will want her even more than it
does now." (emphasis mine, again)

Ouch. That last part made me chuckle and wince all at one time. Our children are still quite young. We think the occasional tricky doctrinal question is tough stuff right now, but how well equipped am I for what lies ahead? Spiritually steering young men and women through the trials and pains of life? Am I growing enough to help them grow, too? At the very least, Mother Culture - and the intended personal growth - should include time studying and memorizing the Scriptures. It should include time to pray and meditate and worship and be still before the Lord. That's not so easy to do with little children, is it sisters? Yet, I don't think any of us would say that it isn't important. Surely, if we are to be godly women who would raise our children to the glory of God, we should have regular time really alone with Him. Seeking spiritual growth.

Such planned time isn't selfish - it's needful. Mothers have a need to continue to grow spiritually. The author of this PR article is basically taking a broader view and including all areas of a mother's individuality. We talk about educating the "whole child", and Mother Culture seeks growth in the "whole Mother" :) Mothers need to continue to grow, not in blatantly spiritual areas only, but in many different facets of their person. Mentally, physically, socially. The message of Mother Culture is really all very simple...

Mothers need to be continually bettering themselves so
that they can be better for others.

("Others" meaning better mothers and, I might add, better wives and more faithful stewards of our gifts, too. We don't want to focus too much on just the children as motivation!). With this perspective, it begins to make more sense. Is it glorifying to my Father when I work to become a better mother? When I work to become a better wife? When I take personal stewardship seriously and make use of the gifts He has given me? Wow. Yes. Yes.

Now, a word of caution. Time intended for the glory of God and the blessing of others will all too easily morph into full-blown selfishness. God is not honored when, in the name of Mother Culture, we happily type away on some blog while our 2 year old cries and throws his lunch. Wisdom is needed, ladies, and we must pray for both the wisdom to know what we should do with our time and the grace to do it.

The author recommends half an hour each day, set aside for mother to have quiet moments to herself. To read, think, journal maybe? If you have been having a difficult time consistently meeting with the Lord in private, this is the perfect area in which to begin setting aside time away from the children and demands of daily life. Purposed time. Alone.

If you already have regular time to read, pray, worship, and memorize God's Word, maybe a few minutes in the afternoon for reading would be useful for your growth. Blogs are fine, some are very good. Ask yourself if you are really growing from reading them. Ditch the ones that aren't profitable (even if it's my own!). The internet is okay, too. But, this might be a better time for something a little more highminded. Maybe you have never really learned to appreciate poetry or art. Read through a few pages of children's poems or thumb through a Van Gogh coffee table book. Maybe you've never read Shakespeare or one of the classic books on next year's AO free reading list. Pick one up. Maybe you've been wanting to read a book about gardening or part of Miss Mason's original volumes. Well, here's your chance. You could paint in watercolors or knit something, for that matter. Pray through World magazine. You get the idea :)

I liked this last quote. I might put it up in my kitchen.

"What we need is a habit of taking our minds out of what one is
tempted to call 'the domestic rag-bag' of perplexities, and giving it a good
airing in something which keeps it 'growing.' "

You know, the rag bag looks a lot less raggedy if you've stepped away from it for a little while. If nothing else, time to be quiet and think tends to give some much needed perspective. It helps me to think of Mother Culture as growing for God and growing for others. For God in the sense that I am seeking to glorify Him in the exercise of my gifts, talents, and abilities. For Him, also, in any way that I might be made better for service to His kingdom - both within and beyond my home and family. For others in the sense that my growing makes me a better lover and help to my husband. For others, also, as my growing is a blessing and source of encouragement, wisdom, strength, and instruction for my children and - hopefully - those around me. It is, like all good things, completely by the grace of God. It is His Hand that has given us minds, enlightened thoughts, talents, gifts. There is no room for boasting and no room for seeking selfish gain. There is room, though - needful room - for a mother's personal growth. Here's a catchy little phrase you can take with you in your thoughts today, if you'd like:

Mother Culture - daily growing in order to glorify God and be a blessing to others.

May the Lord help us all to use our time wisely and seek His face.

Mother Culture

2009-09-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

If you've been reading here and there about Charlotte Mason and her philosophy of education, you may have come across the phrase "mother culture". I admit that when I first began researching CM methods, I thought it sounded awfully odd and... well... self-absorbed. There is such a strong voice coming from the world these days, telling mothers that they need to "put themselves first" and claim their rights to "me time" and all that. I was leary. Mother Culture? Hmm... next page, please.

Fast forward several years (and a few extremely stressful seasons) and I've become more educated about Miss Mason's ideas of mother culture as well as more appreciative of her insights. I'm going to blog more on this topic and share my own thoughts with you, but first - some homework for those who might be interested :)

This is what I'm reading through tonight, narrating as I go (in the form of the next blog post!). Would you like to read it too so we can talk about it in a few days?

What Was the Parents' Review?

2009-09-13T20:19:00.000-07:00

Did you know that Charlotte Mason founded schools across Victorian England? If you thought she was solely related to home education, that fact might come as a surprise to you. After all, in recent years she's been crowned the "founder of the homeschool movement". It is true that many mothers taught their children at home using Miss Mason's methods, but, yes, she founded out-of-the-home schools as well. To give you the super quick run down, her schools were originally formed as Parents' Review Schools (PRS), while later the titles evolved into what became known as Parents' Union Schools (PUS). Got those acronyms down? Good, because there are a few more :)

Before the inception of the first Parents' Union School, however, Miss Mason formed a club of sorts with parents and likeminded educators. This club sprang out of a series of lectures Miss Mason presented, detailing her educational philosophy and calling for change in England's educational system. The club was called the Parents' Education Union - later, the Parents' National Education Union. That's right! The PNEU :) Sound familiar?

We all know how deeply Miss Mason believed in the absolute necessity of ongoing education and she fervently wished to equip parents and educators to teach thoughtfully "for the children's sake". Before long, a magazine (with articles written by PNEU members and edited by Miss Mason) was published regularly in effort to keep the PNEU unified and focused. Can you guess what it was called? That's right - The Parents' Review (PR).

Whew.

Can you narrate all of that back to yourself after a single reading? ;)

I mention all of this because I plan to take a close look over the next few weeks at several PR articles available through Ambleside Online. Before all that, I wanted to make certain everyone was clear on what the PR even was. AO's advisory has graciously permitted me to link directly to these pages. If you would like to do the same, I encourage you to ask their permission as well.

For those of you interested in a more in depth look at the Parents' Review, you might enjoy reading the synopsis AO offers or consider taking a look at the reproduced issues Karen Andreola has available for purchase. Or, for a more general overview of Miss Mason's work, the Wikipedia article is actually pretty thorough. Shhh... don't tell, but I used it to double check my chronology :)

More to come.

Have a wonderful day!

Still here and realizing...

2009-09-10T19:49:00.000-07:00

... that I don't take nearly enough pictures of my children when I'm not blogging :)

We began lessons on Monday! Regular posting is in the near future.

Still Here Y'all...

2009-07-25T23:34:00.001-07:00

... and we're gearing up for our new school year. More soon!

Word Building: Lesson 1 (Part Three)

2009-02-05T11:53:00.000-08:00

For both types of our reading lessons, "word-building" and "reading at sight", Miss Mason's description of the first lesson has really taken full three lessons to complete. Our first reading at sight lesson took three separate days, and now our first word-building lesson has taken just as long. I think this is good for others to know ahead of time :) If I had tried to cram all of the material into one initial lesson, that lesson would have easily been 45 minutes long - which would have been miserable. Instead, we broke the lesson up over several days. This post covers the final portion of the first word-building lesson. (As before, Miss Mason's words will be represented in italic).

"Accustom him from the first to shut his eyes and spell the word he has made. This is important. Reading is not spelling, nor is it necessary to spell in order to read well; but the good speller is the child whose eye is quick enough to take in the letters which compose it, in the act of reading off a word; and this is a habit to be acquired from the first: accustom him to see the letters in the word, and he will do so without effort." Home Education pg. 203

Punkin completed the first two parts of our first word-building lesson last week. This week, we started out with the third and final part. Just as we had done before, I placed the card with the syllable "at" in the center of the table. Then, I asked Punkin to choose a letter card to add to "at" to make a given word. Like this:

"Okay, baby, here's the first card. What does it say?"

"At".

"Very good! Now, can you find a letter that will make the word, 'bat'?"

Punkin scans over the choices I have placed out before her. She takes the 'b' card and slides in front of "at".

"Great! Now, what does that new word say?"

"It says, 'bat'."

"Good! Now, today we're going to do something a little differently. I'm going to have you cover your eyes and tell me how to spell the word 'bat'."

"I don't know how to spell it, Mama."

"That's okay, today we're going to learn. So, you've made the word 'bat', very good. Now, I want you to really look at the word. That's right, now close your eyes... good. Can you tell me the first letter in 'bat'?"

"Yes, it starts with 'b'."

"Yes!!! That's great! Now, what comes after 'b'? Can you spell the word?"

"b....a....(some pausing)....b....a....(sounds it out)....b-a-t."

"Woo hoo!!! That's so good, sweetie! You spelled it! You spelled, 'bat'! Now, let's do another one. Put the 'b' away, and now choose a letter to make the word, 'fat'. "

And we repeated the steps until Punkin had spelled all of the words we had read in the previous lessons (at, hat, bat, fat, mat, rat, cat, sat). She has had repeated trouble with the "c" sound, thinking that c makes the sound "g". We had to review a little while spelling, "cat". Also, covering her eyes started to bother her, so we switched to covering up the word with my hands instead. I noticed something very interesting when I covered up the word and she spelled it out. She always looked into the air, slightly to her right. She was visualizing the word! This is exactly what we are after with CM spelling. I was honestly surprised, because of all of the children, I would consider Punkin to be the least visually oriented. She has not shown any signs of a learning disability - that's not at all what I'm saying - she just hasn't been as strikingly visual as her sisters (and even her little brother) have been. I was very encouraged to see her staring off into a definite point in space as she spelled!!!

One important thing to note from another passage (about sight reading) in Home Education:
"As spelling is simply the art of seeing, seeing the letters in a word as we see the features of a face - say to the child, 'Can you spell sky?' - or any of the shorter words. He is put on his mettle, and if he fail this time, be sure he will be able to spell the word when you ask him next; but do not let him learn to spell or even say the letters aloud with the word before him." pg. 206

When the child is looking at the word, he must not be allowed to say to himself, "bat...b...a...t" in an effort to memorize the order of the letters. The idea is to encourage him to see the word as a whole and to be able to see it still, even when the word has been covered up or when the child has closed his eyes.

So, we have now officially finished the first word-building lesson as outlined in Home Education! I've been reading Mary Poppins to the girls before Punkin's nap this week, and it's been fun to stop now and then, put my finger beneath a word, and wait for Punkin to read it. She's read "bat", "hat", "fat", "at", "little", "so", "what", and a few more words that way during the last few days. It's so rewarding for her to see the words that she knows, right there in Mary Poppins! :)

We'll be beginning our next word-building lesson with a new ending syllable, "et". Check back in!!

Thanks for reading :)

Do you have a child that really struggles with visual learning? Click here :)

Reading at Sight: Lesson 1 (Part Three)

2009-02-02T19:07:00.001-08:00

Yes, three parts to the first lesson. I would have just called them lessons 1, 2, and 3, except that Punkin and I had still not successfully completed Miss Mason's instructions for the first lesson. So, I'm posting our first three lessons as our "first lesson" :)

I posted about our actual first "reading at sight" lesson last week. There were some issues ;) We made some in roads, though, after figuring out that Punkin wasn't sure what a word was... good grief. How did I miss that?! I've probably lost all credibility with you dear readers :)Anyway, we had a little troubleshooting session and talked all about words and spaces, greatly helping Punkin's success with sight-reading. Yay! Today, then, we continued on with what Miss Mason outlines as the first lesson - the first two lines of "Twinkle, twinkle".

The initial, smaller font

The larger font (in a sideways pic - what happened?!)

I had mentioned the other day that Punkin seemed to do better with her word-building lessons when the font was larger. I decided to test this out with the reading-at-sight lessons, too. I printed out a second copy of the poem, this time with considerably larger font. Miss Mason never mentions the size of the font, but I'd say it's fairly safe to assume that she used the size of regular "book" font, since she gives examples of other reading lessons (word box lessons) that make use of words literally cut from books. But, I wanted to see if the larger font would help Punkin, and I believe it did. Here's today's lesson, a far cry from our true first lesson (Miss Mason's words are in italic):

"Lessons in word-making help him to take intelligent interest in words; but his progress in the art of reading depends chiefly on the 'reading at sight' lessons... The teacher must be content to proceed very slowly, securing the ground under her feet as she goes. Say - 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are," is the first lesson; just those two lines." Home Education, page 204

I was reeeaaallly hoping to get through the first two lines today, and finally finish the material for the "first" lesson :)

"Read the passage for the child, very slowly, sweetly, with just expression, so that it is pleasant to him to listen. Point to each word as you read."

I read the first two lines of the poem. As I read, I pointed beneath each word. However, instead of just pointing beneath the middle of the word, I moved my finger under each word from left to right as I read, picking my finger up at the spaces between the words. This is not mentioned by Miss Mason; I did it to make certain Punkin was clear on the beginnings and endings of the words.

"Then point to 'twinkle', 'wonder', 'star', 'what', - and expect the child to pronounce each word in the verse taken promiscuously..."

"Promiscuously" just means in no particular order. So, I pointed to 'star', 'twinkle', 'little', 'Twinkle' - she knew them from a previous lesson. Now, the test - I pointed to 'How'... she knew it! I pointed to 'are'... she knew it! I pointed to 'wonder'... she didn't. 'What'? Nope. 'I' - yes, she knew that one, and we talked about how it is just the name of the letter, but it is also used in sentences ("I am going home", etc.). She did not know 'you', either. So, I pointed to each of the words that she did not remember and read them again. We focused on just those three words for a few minutes until I felt that she knew them. Then we tried again. I pointed to all ten words promiscously and she did better. We focused in on trouble words again for just a short bit. I pointed to all ten words promiscously yet again, and Punkin read them all several times!

"But we have not yet finished the reading lesson on 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star". The child should hunt through two or three pages of good, clear type for 'little', 'star', 'you', 'are', each of the words he has learned, until the word he knows looks out upon him like the face of a friend in a crowd of strangers, and he is able to pounce upon it anywhere. Lest he grow weary of the search, let the teacher guide him unawares (without him knowing it) to the line or paragraph where the word he wants occurs."

Searching for words (Ack! Still sideways!)

Then I brought out a newly printed page of text (with larger font) and had Punkin search for words as I said them. I had to give her a little help with the general area - "Look somewhere over here", for instance. She found the words, though, all ten of them. We had been working at the lesson for fifteen minutes now, and it was time to stop. But, after such hard work and success, we had to end on the sweetest note...

"...then, when he shows that he knows each word by itself, and not before, let him read the two lines with clear enunciation and expression..."

I slid my finger under each word as Punkin read:

"Twinkle, twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are,"

And the expression on her face captured in one look all the reasons I love teaching my children at home.

SHE READ IT!!! :)

Reading at Sight: Lesson 1 (Part Two - Troubleshooting)

2009-02-02T17:59:00.001-08:00

Last week, I shared how big of a complete flop our first "reading at sight" lesson turned out to be. I mean - really. Clearly, I wasn't expecting her to read perfectly from the get go, but it was obvious that something just was not clicking with Punkin, and I had to figure out what that was.

When we settled down two days later for our second sight reading lesson, I still wasn't sure I had much of an idea. I had plans to introduce fewer words in one lesson, instead of the entire first two lines. Other than that, I was still sort of flying by the seat of my pants. I wondered, though, if perhaps seeing the word all by itself, without neighboring words crowding around it in a sentence, would help Punkin focus in and "see" the word. So, before I took out the "Twinkle, twinkle" paper, I wrote the word "twinkle", slowly, in print as Punkin watched. When I was finished writing, I told her that the word was "twinkle".

She jumped back in her seat, clearly shocked (rather dramatic, I know). But, she was evidently surprised, which surprised me since this word was one that she had sort of gotten in the previous lesson.

"That whole thing?! That whole long word says 'twinkle'?!" she asked (still shocked).

"Well, yes, honey. Don't you remember this word from our first lesson? Here, we begin at the t and read over to the e and that's all one word - twinkle. See?"

Punkin pointed to the very center of twinkle, just as I had done in our lessons, and said, "I thought just this part was twinkle!"

"The i-n-k part?"

"Yes!"

Ahhhh, now all of the confusion from the other day was beginning to make sense. I admit, I was startled myself by our little discovery. Punkin needed some preparatory work that I had taken for granted! We took a few moments to talk about words and the spaces between words. We counted the number of words in the first two lines. Just to be certain we were clear on where a word began and where a word ended, I wrote out some of the words on a piece of paper as she watched me.

I felt like a complete dunce for overlooking something so completely fundamental. The good news is, though, that Punkin made great strides after we cleared the issue up! We only had a few minutes left after our troubleshooting session, but we followed the steps in the first lesson over again and were able to get through the first line. This time, at the end of the lesson, Punkin read the words back to me, left to right - "Twinkle...twinkle...little...star". Then, grinning a very big grin, she looked up at me.

What a sweet moment.

(Praise God we figured that out early on in the game!)

Today we finished Punkin's third sight reading lesson, and I clued in on what I think was the other major issue impeding our first sight reading lesson. But, more of that in my next post :)

Word Building: Lesson 1 (Part Two)

2009-01-31T17:31:00.000-08:00

Reading at Sight: Lesson 1 (Part One)

2009-01-30T18:07:00.000-08:00

This post is intended to give an example, step-by-step, of an actual lesson with an actual child (mine!) using the Charlotte Mason method for teaching a child to read as detailed in Home Education. I hope to post a more concise version in Word format soon for others who may wish to try these CM reading lessons with their own children.

"Lessons in word-making help him to take intelligent interest in words; but his progress in the art of reading depends chiefly on the 'reading at sight' lessons... The teacher must be content to proceed very slowly, securing the ground under her feet as she goes. Say - 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are," is the first lesson; just those two lines." Home Education, page 204

In an effort to adhere as closely as possible to Miss Mason's reading methods, I chose "Twinkle, twinkle" to be our first reading lesson, just as the passage above illustrates. Punkin had had fairly good success with the first word-building lesson, but I really wasn't sure about what to expect with this first Reading at Sight lesson. I taught my older girls sight words, but not this early on in the reading process and not with this methodology. I was interested to see how the lesson would go. I had read the passage on pages 204-206 of Home Education at least a dozen times within the few days before the lesson and I reviewed the pages again before we began. My hope was to follow Mason's instructions line by line. We did this lesson on Wednesday. Here's how it went (again Miss Mason's words are in italic)...

"Read the passage for the child, very slowly, sweetly, with just expression, so that it is pleasant to him to listen. Point to each word as you read."

I had typed and printed a good, clear copy of the poem in font that I thought was pleasing and easy to read. Before I began reading, I explained to my little girl that it was important for her to pay careful attention to each word as I read, because I was going to ask her to remember what each word was later on. She nodded. Then, I pointed to each word as I read slowly (and sweetly), trying to engage Punkin in the lesson. She was smiling. So far, so good.

"Then point to 'twinkle', 'wonder', 'star', 'what', - and expect the child to pronounce each word in the verse taken promiscuously..."

By the word "promiscuously", I take Miss Mason to mean what we would say today as "randomly". In other words, expect the child to tell you any of the words as you point to them at random. So, I did just that. Immediately after I read the two lines slowly (and sweetly), I told Punkin that now I wanted her to tell me what each word was. I pointed to 'twinkle'. Blank stare. I encouraged her to try to remember and I pointed again. Blank stare. She looked up at me for a clue. "You can do it, sweetie", I said. Then she guessed - "star?".

Uh oh.

Now what? Miss Mason doesn't give us a two page explanation of what to do if your child doesn't magically memorize all ten words after a single slow and sweet reading. Should I read it again? Should I just tell her that I'm sorry she wasn't paying more attention and simply put the lesson away for the day? Honestly, that was never an actual thought of mine, but I could hear a few CM devotees suggesting that option. I thought, "Okay... context. This child is four. This is her very first reading at sight lesson. She might need to practice this a little." So, we started at the beginning and did the whole thing again. Blank stare. Oh, boy.

When I taught SweetP and Shug to read early, it was completely through sound blending exercises until we were well into short vowel words, and even then sight words were introduced maybe two or three a day. Never, ever ten in one sitting. Definitely not ten in one reading. I'd be lying to you if I said that I had very strong doubts about this particular lesson. "Maybe I should've just gone straight into the Letter Box lessons?" or "Maybe we should've done word-building for a little while before the first Reading at Sight lesson". You name it, I probably thought it in those few brief seconds as I pondered what to do now that Punkin clearly was not getting it.

I thought maybe it would help if we tried a slightly different approach. I decided to fast forward to Miss Mason's next step for this lesson:

"But we have not yet finished the reading lesson on 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star". The child should hunt through two or three pages of good, clear type for 'little', 'star', 'you', 'are', each of the words he has learned, until the word he knows looks out upon him like the face of a friend in a crowd of strangers, and he is able to pounce upon it anywhere. Lest he grow weary of the search, let the teacher guide him unawares (without him knowing it) to the line or paragraph where the word he wants occurs."

Again, I had a page typed, printed, and ready. At this point, I decided to forget the second line and just hope for some progress with the first line. I read the first line of the poem again and pointed to each word as I went. I then pointed to individual words in the line, asking Punkin to remember them. She did better than she had done when I read all ten words before asking. So, we moved on to the search for those words. I told her that we were going to search for the words that she just learned. I showed her how to point her finger and scan the page, looking for 'little'. On the first go around, one of the words she had done well at learning was 'wonder'. For some weird reason, as she scanned the page looking for 'little', she kept stopping at 'wonder'. But she would say, 'little'!! Did I say "oh, boy" once before?

Because - oh, boy.

I really wanted to end this lesson on a good note. I wanted her to be encouraged. I wanted to be encouraged! But, I had been timing it, and we were already past ten minutes. I decided to narrow the lesson even more. I pointed to several places on the page where 'little' was printed. Each time I pointed to a new 'little', I said "little". Then, I told Punkin to stop me when my finger came to 'little'. Slowly, slowly, I ran my finger under the words. I passed several 'little's before she stopped me, but she did stop me under the word 'little'.

I got really excited for her and gave her a huge hug. She's not easily fooled, though, and I knew that she knew that she hadn't learned all of the words in the lesson. I told her that learning to read can take a lot of practice, and that I was really proud of how hard she tried and how she listened so well. She didn't seem too broken up over it, so I hugged her again and told her that I was looking forward to our next "Twinkle, twinkle" lesson :)

It was a complete bust. Really. I've never had such a flop of a reading lesson. BUT, I'm not giving up, yet. This was our first go at it! I'm going to read the Home Education passage again, pray, and think about what makes my daughter's little mind tick. Something just wasn't clicking with that lesson... I just have to figure out what the problem was.

We had a little troubleshooting session before our next sight reading lesson, and made a very helpful discovery :) You can read about it here.

Punkin's "Recitation"

2009-01-29T20:54:00.000-08:00

On most weekday mornings, SweetP and Shug recite their memory work for me. I like to have them stand and speak as they would before an audience, emphasizing a clear, crisp voice and pleasant stance. Punkin apparently thinks this looks like a lot of fun.

She came to me this morning with her "poetry" book - a hardback copy of When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne (her sisters also read from their poetry books every morning). She handed the book to me with its pages open to some point in the introduction. "This is my recitation", she announced. "Oh, okay", I smiled, and sat down on the chair in the entryway. She walked about six feet away from me, turned to face me, folded her hands, stood up straight, chin high, and began:

"Dear Symmetry by Robert Frost... What immortal hand... for the robins singing in their nests... the bears all go to sleep... hibernating... until the warm spring comes... and the wind blows... and a lying tongue is but for a moment."

The End.

Satisfied, she ran off and played for the rest of the morning :)

Word Building: Lesson 1 (Part One)

2009-01-27T19:00:00.000-08:00

This post is intended to give an example, step-by-step, of an actual lesson with an actual child (mine!) using the Charlotte Mason method for teaching a child to read as detailed in Home Education. I hope to post a more concise version in Word format soon for others who may wish to try these CM reading lessons with their own children.

After spending last week reviewing letter sounds, Punkin began today with her first lesson in "word building"! I'm going to extensively quote page 202 from Home Education as I give examples of how we applied Miss Mason's text in our lesson. I'll type Miss Mason's words in italic. Before I get started, though, I should mention that I printed typed letters onto cardstock and cut them out in preparation for today's lesson. Unfortunately, I'm not particularly thrilled with the result. I plan on redo-ing them for a more uniform shape and size after cutting. They worked for today, though. Just FYI, we did the lesson on my bed, using a sizeable hardback book as a table.

Here's the play by play...

The first exercises in the making of words will be just as pleasant to the child. Exercises treated as a game, which yet teach the powers of the letters, will be better to begin with than actual sentences. Take up two of his letters and make the syllable 'at': tell him it is the word we use when we say 'at home,' 'at school.'

I spelled out "at" with two of my lowercase letter cards, then I told Punkin that the word was "at" as in "at home". She piped up and came up with a few other options like, "at church", "at the store", etc. When she got to "at the pillow" and "at the table", I smiled a little, but then told her we needed to get back to the lesson - no silliness.

You can see that I lined up a column of appropriate consonants on the left side of the mock table. Here's why -

Then put b to 'at'–– bat; c to 'at'––cat; fat, hat, mat, sat, rat, and so on. First, let the child say what the word becomes with each initial consonant... Let the syllables all be actual words which he knows.

At this point, I moved the consonant from the left column to the front of "at". We began with 'b'. I waited for Punkin to read it. Judging from Miss Mason's little quote above, one would expect a child to have an epiphany and realize the new word like it was a piece of cake. Now, I do not wish to shock you, but it did not just click in Punkin's little brain that the word was now "bat". Instead, after I placed the 'b' in front of 'at', she looked at me with a confused expression that seemed to say, "Why did you do that?" It was clear that I needed to fill in between Miss Mason's lines a bit. So, I pointed to the 'b' and asked her to tell me its sound. She did. Then I pointed to "at" and asked her what it said. She didn't remember. Instead, she sounded it out. Technically, Miss Mason wants the children to learn the last two letters of the words by sight as a whole, grouped together, not sounded out. Punkin has been sounding out little words here and there on her own, though, for a while, and she naturally shifted to this mode. I encouraged her to look at "at" again, and just say "at". She did. We started over. I pointed to 'b' again, she gave the sound. I pointed to "at", she said "at". I put the 'b' back in front of "at", pointed to 'b', she said it, pointed to "at", she said it. Then, (all on her own!) she said, "bat!". Hooray! :)

We continued on with the other consonants. I had to repeatedly tell Punkin that "at" said "at", and discourage her from sounding it out each time. It took some practice, but she eventually started to get it.

After we had practice with Punkin telling me what the newly built word said, we shifted gears a little.

"...then let him add the right consonant to 'at', in order to make hat, pat, cat".

So, then we lined up all of the consonants again in their column on the left side of the table with "at" in the center. This time, I told Punkin to choose the consonant (I did not say 'consonant', though, I just said 'letter'), that would make the word "bat". She moved the 'b' to the 'at', and I asked her to tell me what the word said. She told me it said, "bat". Oh, happy day :) I encouraged her with a hug and said something like, "Look, honey! You're building words!". We went through the rest of the words the same way. I said a word, Punkin chose the letter that was needed to make the word, and then she told me what the new word was.

"Set the words in a row, and let him read them off".

I goofed a little here and put the words in a column instead of a row, but Punkin read them all. The lesson was beginning to get a little long - longer than I had planned - and she was beginning to make weird mistakes. You know what Miss Mason so tactfully says... when the children begin to "get stupid", it's time to put the lesson away ;) So, we promptly stopped. Even though Punkin wanted to keep going.

We should have also had time for a little oral spelling of the words, but that will have to wait for the next word-building lesson. I did not time the lesson today, but I'll try to remember to keep better track of how long tomorrow's lesson takes. I'm aiming for no more than 10 minutes.

We're encouraged :) Thanks for reading!

Update: I made new letter cards and they are available on our Understanding Charlotte yahoo group in the files section. Joining is quick and easy :) Just click here!

And, the post about our second word-building lesson is right here :)

Why are you teaching a 4 year old to read???

2009-01-27T18:49:00.000-08:00

In case you missed my previous posts on Charlotte Mason methods for reading instruction and my hope to teach Punkin to read using those methods, let me bring you quickly up to speed. My older two daughters learned to read fairly early (4.5 and around 5 years old) and they now read exceptionally well. So, when Punkin began asking to learn several months back, I noted her interest. However, she was not even four yet, so I also did my best to distract her and basically stall. That worked for a little while. But, the time has come :) Punkin is ready to learn and I am eager to try out Miss Mason's reading methods for the first time.

If you are familiar with Miss Mason, you might immediately question the legitimacy of beginning so early on with reading instruction. CM lessons cannot begin until the child reaches age six, right? That's right. Well, sort of ;) I'll quote the following passage from Home Education:

Time of Teaching to Read, an Open Question.––Reading presents itself first amongst the lessons to be used as instruments of education, although it is open to discussion whether the child should acquire the art unconsciously, from his infancy upwards, or whether the effort should be deferred until he is, say, six or seven, and then made with vigour.

I at least see a window here. On the same page, Mason holds up Susanna Wesley as a pattern we might consider following, and she began reading instruction on each child's fifth birthday. Just something to consider :)

If you're interested, here's a play-by-play of our first lesson.

A January Park Day!!!

2009-01-22T20:25:00.000-08:00

We finally got outside!
It took some work, but it was worth it :)

Only Two More Months...

2009-01-21T18:19:00.000-08:00

...until the first day of Spring :)

Gearing Up to Teach Reading... Charlotte Mason Style

2009-01-18T08:36:00.000-08:00

This post is the first in a series detailing the Charlotte Mason method for teaching reading to children.

As I mentioned yesterday, Punkin has been asking for some time now to begin reading lessons. I almost hate to call them reading lessons - it goes against that "not before 6!" rule ;) But having been largely unsuccessful at stalling and completely unsuccessful at appeasing her with indirect, bits-and-pieces learning (she's had enough fun and games - she wants to read already), I suppose we're starting down the road of reading instruction a little earlier than originally planned. Part of my stalling strategy had been to give her a relatively far off date. I think it was last summer that I told her we would begin learning to read after Christmas. Well, you and I both know full well that it is now officially after Christmas. Guess what... Punkin knows it, too ;)

Last week, SweetP and Shug began their third term of the school year. Punkin was chompin' at the bit. One final stall - I told her that we would begin next Monday. I said that last Monday, though, so this Monday is the day.

SweetP and Shug already know how to read fluently. SweetP learned before I knew much about Charlotte Mason at all, and Shug learned with a combination of Phonics Pathways and some CM-flavored sight reading instruction. I just couldn't take the plunge and really follow the methods that Miss Mason outlines in Home Education. Not, yet. Now, having taught the two older girls and having a better (we hope) understanding of CM reading methods, I'm ready to try it out. Punkin is ready to learn to read, I am ready to learn to teach, so... purist Charlotte Mason it is!

In reading through the portion of Home Education dealing with reading instruction, though, I quickly realized that there are at least three different options for the first lesson. There is the first example, given on page 202 where Miss Mason writes:

"The first exercises in the making of words will be just as pleasant to the
child. Exercises treated as a game, which yet teach the power of the letters,
will be better to begin with than actual sentences."

She goes on to explain how to teach the child what we modern readers know as word families and also how to introduce nursery rhymes as sight word reading lessons. Then, several pages later (in Section V.) she gives us another example of a first lesson, but this one is different from the one given previously. This example is from a Parent's Review article and it recommends going "plump into words of three or four syllables" and gives an illustration of using a box of cut out words to learn the poem "History of Cock Robin". Still later (in SectionVI.), there is another example of a first lesson in which a little boy named Tommy learns to read in much the same way only using a poem about a kitty instead of Cock Robin and also utilizing slightly different methodology.

So, practically speaking, there are three different starting points. Where should we begin? Here, I think, Punkin's very young age helps me out. The latter two examples strike me as being a bit more demanding of the little people. They seem like they take more mental discipline and ability than the first. The initial example is the most game-like and, because of that quality, most likely to suit the age of my little girl :)

We have decided, then, to begin on Monday morning with some review of letter sounds and then continue on, using the outline Miss Mason provides in pages 199-207 of Home Education. (That's Section IV). We will eventually get to the next two sections and the word boxes, but for now we will start with the simplest option. My hope is to begin with Word Building lessons and then alternate with Reading at Sight lessons. Translated, that would be alternate days of phonetic word families and sight reading :)

For the sight reading lessons, Miss Mason recommends using nursery rhymes. Specifically, she illustrates the use of "Twinkle, Twinkle" for a first sight lesson. She also mentions that well-written prose is desirable for early lessons in reading by sight, and she recommends Parables From Nature by Gatty. Have you ever taken a look at Parables From Nature? It would not have jumped into my mind as a natural choice for reading lessons. It's a tricky little book for the younger crowd. I do not envision Punkin doing well with the Gatty book (perhaps with an older child it would be fine). I do want to stay quite true to Miss Mason's methods, though, and take her warnings seriously: "Even for their earliest reading lessons, it is unnecessary to put twaddle into the hands of the children".

Don't you love her?

I need, then, to find a non-twaddly book for sight reading instruction. I had thought that I was going to use the Free & Treadwell Primer available from Yesterday's Classics. It is better than the BOB books and similar resources I used with Shug and SweetP, but it is certainly a far cry from the recommended Parables From Nature. I looked for something that seemed to be a happy medium, and eventually decided on using a book we already had on the shelf - For the Children's Hour, also from Yesterday's Classics. There are several simple (but, well-written!) fairy tales and folk stories that should work well with this method. Those won't be needed, though, until Punkin first learns "Twinkle, Twinkle" and, possibly, one or two more nursery rhymes.

Honestly, even after all my stalling, I'm looking forward to this now :) It's such great fun to see the enthusiasm and joy on your child's face when those first words join together to make sense! And, I admit, I'm looking forward to testing out Miss Mason's reading methods and giving them a fair chance. All of the "sight reading" business scared me off last time, but now I'm not as wary. I could see Punkin really taking off quickly this way.

It should be fun to watch her :)

Update: You can read all about our first lesson here

CM, Preschoolers, and Toddlers

2009-01-16T11:16:00.000-08:00

The Google search engine has spoken.

My blog gets hits everyday for searches related to "Charlotte Mason preschool" and "Charlotte Mason toddler". As I browse through my past posts and look at the promise of "CM for children 6 and younger" in my header, though, I feel a little sheepish for how little I've actually posted about what to do with the youngest guys.

Punkin just turned four this past October. Literally everday she asks me when she's going to learn how to read. With two older sisters doing lessons, she also frequently asks me to "do preschool" with her. I've tried to bide my time, pointing out when real life could technically count as preschool. She made biscuits with me last night, for instance, and as we counted out the cups of flour and teaspoons of baking powder, I smiled a wide smile and encouraged her with, "See? We're counting! This is preschool, honey!"

She looked at me as if to say, "Yeah, right, Mom. Nice try."

If I were really going 100% whole hog CM with Punkin, we wouldn't plan anything out for her to learn before age 6. She would still be learning, mind you, but it wouldn't be planned out or scheduled at all. That's my first choice. But, everyday... "Mama, when will I start learning how to read?" and "Mama, can I write my letters on the dry erase board?". I know, every mother should have such horrible problems, right? ;) I mean, gracious! How dare she actually ask to read and write! :)

And then there's Little Man. He'll be 2 years old in the middle of February and he's great fun. Just from reading a few books a day he's beginning to pick up on colors and his vocabulary is sky rocketing. His main curriculum right now, though, is in the school of Obey Mama. Habits, habits, habits. With this recent move, he's been getting away with a whole lot. It's been Baby Boot Camp for him all week.

These are things I could definitely blog more about. Little Man learning obedience and colors, Punkin learning to read (maybe), books we're enjoying with both of them. In short, what we do with our littlest children when we're not outside. So, hopefully, you can look for more of that sort of thing around here. And the Google searchers will all be happier, too :)

Bible Reading Plans For Children

2009-01-13T18:52:00.000-08:00

(based on the passages in Catherine Vos' Bible storybook)

***printable Word document format available in our Understanding Charlotte Yahoo group***

Or, if you are not interested in accessing the other Charlotte Mason resources available through our group, you can go directly to each of the following Reading Plan sheets through Google Docs by clicking on the "printer friendly version" link.

Old Testament Reading Plans:

Creation (printer friendly version)

Wandering (printer friendly version)

Laws (printer friendly version)

Settlement (printer friendly version)

Prophets: Part One (printer friendly version)

Prophets: Part Two (printer friendly version)

Kings (printer friendly version)

Exile (printer friendly version)

New Testament Reading Plans:

The Savior: Part One (printer friendly version)

The Savior: Part Two (printer friendly version)

The Early Church (printer friendly version)

The original blog post accompanying these lists can be found here if you'd like additional information pertaining to the reading plans.

Also, if you have a Yahoo account and would like to have access to printer-friendly versions of these plans, you may wish to join the Understanding Charlotte Yahoo group. The printouts are available in Word format under the "files" section.

May the Lord bless you and your little ones.

Tiger, Tiger...

2009-01-12T19:16:00.000-08:00

We're beginning a new term today, and Shug is expectantly awaiting the arrival of a certain package from Amazon. (In other words, I didn't order some of our books soon enough - we don't have them, yet.) It's okay, though, because we have the ones we really need for this week and, although her poetry book for the term is in the upcoming shipment, we have plenty of others on the shelf that she can thumb through for the next few days :)

SweetP is also patiently waiting. Same shipment - different book ;)

In the meantime, they can both get started on their poem for this term's memory work. Usually, they each have their own individual little poem. This term, though, they both wanted the same one... (I think they like that it's just slightly scary)...

The Tiger
by William Blake

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And, when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water`d heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Does that seem like a long poem for Year One? I would have thought so, too, when SweetP began last year. The girls have continually surprised me with their memory work, though, and I've come to realize that they really can memorize longer Bible passages and poems. The keys to memory work are frequency and consistency. On average, we get memory work in about four days a week. The girls are really looking forward to this term's selection :) Honestly, so am I. I may have to join them and memorize it, too.

I have included Word documents of the poems we have used for Year One memory work in my yahoo group files. Click here if you are interested in printing them for your own use :)

Choosing Our Literature Selections For Year One

2009-01-11T12:42:00.000-08:00

This post pertains to the third term of Shug's Year One

I'm settling in to plan out the last twelve weeks of our school year (we began in June 2008). We've been on an unforeseen "break" since just after Thanksgiving, owing to our rather sudden (but exciting!) move, and it's really time to get back in gear. The move is not completely finished, though. There are still plenty of things to unpack and organize and clean. So, we're starting this term just like I've started pretty much every other school term up to this point: gradually.

Some of you have expressed interest in how I go about planning out our work for the term. Now seems like the perfect time to answer that question, since I'm actually doing it. So, I'm going to have two little windows open on my computer this afternoon - one to plan and one to post about planning :) Won't this be fun?

Now, this little series of posts is just for our booklists. Math, copywork, composer study, and similar subjects will have to wait :) This particular post is just about our literature choices. Also, please, PLEASE remember that you do not have to make up your own booklists to teach your children using CM methods!!! Ambleside Online is there for a very good reason! :) I'm just a big nutcase who insists on nurturing this love/hate relationship with planning my own curriculum.

First things first - I need to remind myself of what an average term looked like in Miss Mason's PNEU schools for this age group (Form I - ages 6 to about 8). So, I visit the PNEU programmes pages at Ambleside Online and find a representative schedule, like Programme 43 for Form I. For clarity's sake, I should point out that Form IB is for the youngest students (6 years old, like Shug) and Form IA is for the older children in the same group (7 & 8 year olds, like SweetP). This link is for a programme for 6 year olds.

Okay, Programme 43, what do you have to offer? Let's see...

The programme refers to literature as "tales", and it includes only two books. Just two! Pilgrim's Progress and Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne. We've been reading Pilgrim's Progress since June, using AO's Year 2 schedule for it, so we will just continue on with that. Tanglewood Tales will be a new book for us this term. Interestingly, though, there are only 39 pages of Tanglewood Tales scheduled in Programme 43. Just 39 pages for an entire term! This, I think, is very important. If I may pick on my dear Ambleside Online just a little bit, I'd do so only to say that they tend to schedule too many pages in Years 1-3. In Miss Mason's schools, two books totaling about 75 pages were all that was needed for literature in a single term of Year One.

To personalize this for our family: we are currently combining SweetP and Shug for literature (and a few other subjects). We will continue reading Pilgrim's Progress according to the AO Year 2 schedule, and we will begin reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tanglewood Tales as our other literature selection. Here's where it gets difficult, though - only 39 pages of Hawthorne? The book is 147 pages long. What do I do? Well, I have to choose what we will read for lessons and what we will leave out. How nice for me that Tanglewood Tales is a compilation of six separate stories! "The Golden Fleece" is 26 pages long and fits in with our history readings (more on that later), so I'll definitely choose that. "The Minotaur" is 22 pages, so I'll take that, too, for a total of 48 pages. Close enough. Of course the other chapters are excellent :) I could choose any and they would do just as nicely. But, I can't pick all of the chapters if I'm trying to stick closely to Miss Mason's programmes. Too many pages. We may read the others as free reading, without narrations. One nice thing about developing the habit of liking quality books is that the girls will think it's a real treat to finish Hawthorne during break! :)

So, now I have my total page numbers for Hawthorne decided and I have my chapters picked out to match up (roughly) with the PNEU recommendations. Now, all that's left to do is divide the chapters up among the 12 weeks in the term. I like to have the 6th week light (Lindafay calls her mid-term "Grace Week") and I also like to leave the 12th week light in case we need to do some make-up readings for general life busyness. So, I divided "The Golden Fleece" up among 5 weeks and I divided "The Minotaur" up among 5 weeks. During Weeks 1-5 of the term, we will read The Golden Fleece, Week 6 we will have a little break, Weeks 7-11 of the term we will read The Minotaur and Week 12 will be free for a make-up week. This way we have about 4-5 pages of Hawthorne to read each week.

Lovely :)

If the girls narrate well from Tanglewood Tales without much trouble, I'll do all of the week's pages in one sitting (with several narrations). If the book is difficult for them, we may do 2-2.5 pages in one sitting and read the book twice a week. We always do our Pilgrim's Progress readings in one day, so this term we will be reading from our literature books 2-3 days per week, and each reading will take about 20 minutes.

One more thing :) You may have noticed that I included The Red Fairy Book in my sidebar for Shug's Year One. We've tossed in a RFB story here and there throughout the year as we have had time. SweetP and I read The Blue Fairy Book stories for her Year One last year, and I just didn't want Shug to miss out on early exposure to Lang. Some of the stories are a bit intense, though, so I didn't want to give them to her as independent free reading. Since SweetP will likely be listening in when I read the fairy stories to Shug, we're going with Red instead of Blue. The Red Fairy Book stories are new to both girls :)We may or may not narrate these Lang readings. It depends :) Pilgrim's Progress and Tanglewood Tales are our "official" literature books, though, and will always require narrations.

The Pilgrim's Regress and Sophomore Philosophy

2009-01-09T20:15:00.000-08:00

I'm half way through The Pilgrim's Regress and, at the very least, I'm wishing I had kept my notes from my college Philosophy course. Wikipedia will have to help me out, I suppose ;) I did, however, find this very helpful link. It's helpful because my copy of The Pilgrim's Regress has no footnotes and I don't happen to speak Latin, Greek, or French. Apparently, Lewis knew all three.

I may have to break all kinds of CM rules and read this thing twice.

Mama, It Melts Right Away!

2009-01-08T19:00:00.000-08:00

The first snow of the winter...

and everyone was beyond excited!

Well, almost everyone :)

Short-Lived Victory

2009-01-06T15:18:00.000-08:00

Don't say I didn't warn you. I gave this qualifier when I pledged to walk every day this week. The temp may have been up to 30 degrees again today, but it rained all day long. I'm no mathematician, but I'm pretty sure I have this equation right:

COLD + FREEZING RAIN + CHILDREN - VICTORIAN NURSEMAID - LAUNDRY MAID = STAY INSIDE

We did handicrafts, instead :)

But, tomorrow is another day!!!

Nice, Strong Tea with C.S. Lewis

2009-01-06T07:57:00.000-08:00

When I was a college girl, I had tea nearly every day with Elisabeth Elliot. That's funny, really, because I've never actually met her. But, in a kind of reverse adoption, I took Mrs. Gren (her real name) as my personal mentor in Christ. I read her books, her essays, her autobiographies for years. I came to feel that I knew her, and (I hope), my heart and life were influenced by her gracious example.

My brother-in-law, Brian, has had a similar experience with C.S. Lewis. He adores Lewis and can quote many of his books just from the sheer love of reading him over and over again. Lewis has, for him, done what Elisabeth Elliot has done for me - he has helped Brian see Christ more clearly and encouraged him to love Christ more. Isn't that why believers write books for other believers, anyway? They are using their gifts for the glory of God and for the good of His church - really one in the same thing.

I haven't adopted an author-mentor in quite a while. I think it's time :) Having been so intrigued by Brian's love for Lewis, and having just begun to read through the Chronicles of Narnia (for the first time!!) with my children, I've decided C.S. Lewis is the natural choice. I have no idea how many of his books I'll be able to read in 2009, but I've posted a chronological reference list below to keep me moving along. I hope to start with Pilgrim's Regress soon (I borrowed it from Brian today).

If you've never adopted an author-mentor, maybe this year would be a good time to begin. Who can tell how the Lord may use that one man or that one woman to deeply impact your life and spur you on in your love for the Lord and His people this year?

May you be blessed as you draw nearer to our Lord God.

C.S. Lewis Chronological Reference List (compiled from Wikipedia)

The Pilgrim's Regress (1933)

The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition (1936)

Out of the Silent Planet (1938)

Rehabilitations and other essays (1939) — with two essays not included in Essay Collection (2000)

Collected Letters, Vol. I: Family Letters 1905 – 1931 (2000)

The Personal Heresy: A Controversy (with E. M. W. Tillyard, 1939)

The Problem of Pain (1940)

A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942)

The Screwtape Letters (1942)

The Abolition of Man (1943)

Perelandra (aka Voyage to Venus) (1943)

Beyond Personality (1944)

The Great Divorce (1945)

That Hideous Strength (1946)

Collected Letters, Vol. II: Books, Broadcasts and War 1931 – 1949 (2004)

Miracles: A Preliminary Study (1947, revised 1960)

George MacDonald: An Anthology (editor, 1947)

Essays Presented to Charles Williams (editor, 1947)

Arthurian Torso (1948; on Charles Williams's poetry)

Collected Letters, Vol. III: Narnia, Cambridge and Joy 1950 – 1963 (2007)

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)

Prince Caspian (1951)

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)

Mere Christianity (1952; based on radio talks of 1941 – 1944)

The Silver Chair (1953)

The Horse and His Boy (1954)

English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama (1954); 1975 reprint ISBN 0198812981;

Major British Writers, Vol I (1954), Contribution on Edmund Spenser

Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life (1955; autobiography)

The Magician's Nephew (1955)

The Last Battle (1956)

Till We Have Faces (1956)

Reflections on the Psalms (1958)

The Four Loves (1960)

Studies in Words (1960)

An Experiment in Criticism (1961)

Screwtape Proposes a Toast (1961) (an addition to The Screwtape Letters)

A Grief Observed (1961; first published under the pseudonym «N. W. Clerk»)

They Asked for a Paper: Papers and Addresses(1962)

Selections from Layamon's Brut (ed. G L Brook, 1963 Oxford University Press) introduction

Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (1964)

The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1964)
Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1966) — not included in Essay Collection (2000)

Spenser's Images of Life (ed. Alastair Fowler, 1967)

Letters to an American Lady (1967)

Christian Reflections (1967; essays and papers)

Selected Literary Essays (1969) — not included in Essay Collection (2000)

God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (1970), = Undeceptions (1971) — all included in Essay Collection (2000)

The Dark Tower (1977)

Of Other Worlds (1982; essays) — with one essay not included in Essay Collection
Present Concerns (1986; essays)

All My Road Before Me: The Diary of C. S. Lewis 1922 – 27 (1993)

Additional References:

Essay Collection: Literature, Philosophy and Short Stories (2000)

Essay Collection: Faith, Christianity and the Church (2000)

The Business Of Heaven:Daily Readings From C. S. Lewis ed. Walter Hooper, 1984, Harvest Book, Harcourt, Inc.

Boxen: The Imaginary World of the Young C. S. Lewis (ed. Walter Hooper, 1985)

Spirits in Bondage (1919; published under pseudonym Clive Hamilton)

Dymer (1926; published under pseudonym Clive Hamilton)

Narrative Poems (ed. Walter Hooper, 1969; includes Dymer)

The Collected Poems of C. S. Lewis (ed. Walter Hooper, 1994; includes Spirits in Bondage)

Well, What Do Ya Know?

2009-01-05T16:05:00.000-08:00

Some of you may be checking in to see if we got out of these four walls for our pledged 45 minutes today. I am happy to say that, indeed, we did! Actually, we took a walk for over an hour with my sister and her baby! Woo hoo :) (Nothing like a little internet accountability to get your buns moving, eh?). That's what I always say.

And what do you know, we had a great time! It was 30 degrees with a little wind, making it feel more like the mid-20s, but we were bundled up and walking at a decent pace much of the time, so we kept fairly toasty. My kiddos ran hard and got all kinds of energy out. Yay for that! As a bonus, we were able to collect a small assortment of evergreen cones along the way and score some quality nature study time. Big yay for that! It all started with one very large cone that I think is a fir cone of some sort. A little collection followed and we started to pay attention to the needles on the same trees, hoping to get an I.D. on a few. We had a hard time remembering once we got back home to the field guides, though. SweetP had an excellent plan of going back out tomorrow with the sole intent of I.D.-ing the trees we collected the cones from today. Splendid idea, SweetP! I think we will :)

During Little Dude's nap the girls started drawing some of the cones. Then we got out a little paint and tried rolling the cones in it to see how they'd print on paper. Not very well. But, they make great alternative brushes and we had some nice scratch effects going on by scraping the paint with the cones in a sort of combing fashion. Plus it's just always great fun to get paint all over you when you're a kid :)

So, we logged an hour and fifteen minutes on our winter nature walk. Considering the mid-20s temp and the fact that we are smack in the middle of moving, I feel pretty good about that. I'm still keeping 45 minutes as my official pledge, but we'll try for more if we can.

I'll let you know how our pine/spruce/fir cone identifications progress :) For now, here are some pics from the day... Thanks for checking up on us!!!

CM Reading and the Non-Visual Child

2009-01-05T13:04:00.000-08:00

With all of this talk about taking mental pictures of words and visualizing words in order to learn spelling, I realize some readers may be wondering what to do if they have an auditory child? A kinesthetic child? Basically, a not visual child? ;)

If you truly think that your child may perhaps have visual processing delays or a learning issue of some sort, please understand that these reading examples on Understanding Charlotte do not pertain to such a child. It is not that CM reading lessons cannot benefit a child with processing challenges, but only that these examples with Punkin would be like night and day compared to a child with a learning disability or notable difficulty with visual learning. Phonics Pathways has an appendix that offers some wonderful ideas for tracking and visual processing exercises. Also, the cmason yahoo group or the Ambleramble yahoo group both have lovely, lovely mothers who have dealt with these issues with their own children, and can offer advice where I cannot. If CM reading lessons seem overwhelming to you, I can whole-heartedly recommend Phonics Pathways as a fantastic non-CM option (I used it with my older two girls).

backdated: posted originally on 2/5/09

Winter Nature Walks (a.k.a. a mother self-talks through the PNEU motto to combat her SAD and get her grumpy self outside)

2009-01-03T15:09:00.000-08:00

It seems like such a long time ago that I first read Charlotte Mason's recommendation to spend hour upon hour outdoors with my children. It seemed like complete hogwash at the time. Eventually, though, I was won over to the idea and long park days became normal for us. Those "four to six hours" didn't seem nearly as crazed as before.

Now, the bone-chilling days of an Ohio January have arrived and (if I'm very, very honest) I'm reading a few of Miss Mason's passages with that same old incredulity that met with her out-of-doors-life-type advise years ago. That's right.

It is winter. And I don't want to go outside for long hours in winter.

Nope.

Don't wanna.

We're in the middle of a move, by the way. We've been moving for over a month and all semblance of school lessons or schedules of any sort have just gone ker-phlooey. Usually, I try to make the most of a warmish day here and there in December, but this year we've been packing, and unpacking, and painting, and trying to find someplace for everything. I'm tired and... well, a little grumpy. I can tell that my children are getting stir crazy; their little bodies want to run and jump and climb. These boxes and piles are closing in on them... and me. They don't care that the windchill is below 20 degrees. They don't mind that the sun has been blanketed by endless clouds for days. (No, weeks). They want to be outside.

I know that winter walks can be very pretty. Really, I do. I know that everything stands out more against the winter landscape. The sky is more intense. The shapes of the trees are more noticeable. A little squirrel alone can be a fascinating study. I know it would be good for all of us to get out every day. I just need to do it.

Sigh.

So, I took a look at this week's forecast. Guess what...I'm still feeling incredulous. It's going to be cold. Shock. The little "10 day at a glance thingy" looked like this: "Monday - cold, Tuesday - cold, Wednesday - still cold, Thursday - hello, this is Ohio, Friday - in January, Saturday - still cold, etc." I might as well accept it. It's going to be cold from now through the end of March - at least. I need to buck it up. I need to find a will. Find a way. Find my big wool scarf. What as that helpful motto again?

I am... a child of God. I am also a mama who needs sunshine and needs to get her kiddos outdoors.

I can... obey Him with the power of His Spirit. And I can open the door and go out for a walk because, good grief, how hard is it really?

I ought... because most of my objections are nothing but unreasonable melodrama and because I apparently have a teensy bit of Seasonal Affective Disorder already. We'd all benefit from a decent walk each day, even though (as I've already mentioned) it's cold.

I will... by God's grace ;)

Now comes my big declaration. This week we are going to make an experiment. For this week only (baby steps, right?) we - as in my little self and my four young children - are going to try to take a walk outdoors for 45 minutes every day, Monday through Friday. Since today is Saturday, that's a nice and tidy resolution. Boxes or no boxes, painting or no painting, impending deadline to put our house on the market or no - we're walking!

Okay, unless it's cold and raining - then, maybe not.

Check in on me! All of you dear readers coming through the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival, check and see if I posted on Monday at all. Did we do it? Did we go for our winter walk? Did we go for at least 45 minutes? Did I post pictures of lovely winter things? Did my serotonin levels improve from the time in the sun? Will my next post be far more positive and uplifting?

Let's hope so ;)

Word Building Reading Lessons

2009-01-02T18:52:00.000-08:00

Gearing Up to Teach Reading... Charlotte Mason Style

Word Building: Lesson 1 (Part One)

Word Building: Lesson 1 (Part Two)

Word Building: Lesson 1 (Part Three)

Reading at Sight Lessons

2009-01-02T18:45:00.000-08:00

Gearing Up to Teach Reading... Charlotte Mason Style -

Reading at Sight: Lesson 1 (Part One)

Reading at Sight: Lesson 1 (Part Two - Troubleshooting)

Reading at Sight: Lesson 1 (Part Three)

Charlotte Mason Copywork Series

2008-12-18T12:24:00.001-08:00

About a year ago, I posted a nine part series on copywork in the Charlotte Mason method. I know, nine parts? But, the more I wrote it seemed the more there was to write. Copywork can be deceptive in its simplicity. It truly is simple once you fully understand it. If you don't take the time to really learn how to implement the principles behind CM copywork, however, you could actually wind up missing quite a lot. In an effort to make the copywork posts a little easier to navigate, I've listed them below. I hope they are useful to you!

Part I - Perfect Accomplishment in Handwriting

Part II - Encouraging Excellence Without Making Little Perfectionists

Part III - Injured Eyeballs and Cheering for Our Children

Part IV - Let the Writing Lesson be Short

Part V - Steps in Teaching Handwriting

Part VI - Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Part VII - One Tiny, but Powerful Detail

Part VIII - Writing Worth Copying

Part IX - Moving Toward Independence in Copywork

Climate Controlled Nature Study (for when the weather is icky)

2008-08-06T11:46:00.001-07:00

August is quite possibly my least favorite month. For those heat-lovers out there, I know that sounds crazy, but the heat and humidity really bug me. My second least favorite month is actually a combo of two months - it's the four week stretch that encompasses late February and early March (unless, of course, early March is unseasonably pretty).

So, we aren't outside as much as usual these days. When we are out on really icky days, we're at the pool or it's after dinnertime. You might think nature study had gone out with the rising temps, but we have a few tricks to get our nature study in an air-conditioned, climate controlled environment :) From this location, we are able to watch goldfinches gather nesting materials and seeds, songbirds bathe and drink, hummingbirds feed from our nectar sources and feeder, and butterflies flit to and fro... right in our comfy, cool house!

Our Nature Window!!!

This window looks out at our backyard from our family room. We've arranged the furniture so the window is accessible - even for our littlest guy. Yikes - very dark photo - sorry!

In subsequent posts, I hope to follow up on how exactly we have used this space outside our Nature Window. For now, I'll just include one more picture to get your mind thinking on how you might be able to use a similar space in your own yard. You can click on it to make it a little bigger :)

Now, off to the pool! :)

What If My Kindergartener Has Already Heard All Of The Year 0 Books?

2008-06-26T17:39:00.000-07:00

When we came across Ambleside Online, my oldest daughter was five and in kindergarten. Looking through the booklist for Year 0, though, I realized that we had already read the vast majority of those books. In fact, I had already read most of those books many times over to my then four-year-old daughter as well. In effect, we had repeated the Year 0 list (with a few exceptions) in the years before age five. There were plenty of good picture book selections from the "Advisory Favorites", but I wanted to use our kindergarten year to begin to move away from lots of illustrations and toward more literary text, as Miss Mason advises. More picture books didn't seem like the answer for us.

Since I've been online, I've heard from several other mothers that have come across the same problem. It's the year before school really begins, the children aren't technically "doing school", but the Ambleside Year 0 booklist has been read, and read, and read again. They need something more for their kindergarten reading. (I should stop a moment and say that A.A. Milne and Beatrix Potter truly can never be worn out, and I continued to read them regularly, and the children have heard them from toddlerhood. I will very likely be continually reading either a Pooh or Potter book aloud more than fifteen years running by the time my youngest outgrows them, lol).

If it seems like this need for more Year 0 books might describe your family situation, too, I'd like to firstly encourage you to go back to the AO Year 0 list and really give it a very, very close read. I admit, whenever I got to the part about "a good collection including classic stories and folk tales including...", I sort of skimmed it and thought,"Yeah, yeah, we have plenty of classic little folk stories". But, within the last two years, I have come to realize the significance of the ebook links that accompany that line! The Joseph Jacobs stories are truly excellent versions! If you have "done Year 0", but you haven't read any of the Joseph Jacobs selections yet, please add those to your kindergarten list! :) Even if the stories are repeats, Jacobs undoubtedly will be more challenging and better written than those you have already read (unless they're by Amy Steedman or Andrew Lang). It is not at all a stretch to say that Jacob's folk tales plus a handful of other quality books are enough to make a strong Year 0 on their own. Also, nursery rhymes can be very lame in some versions. Editors have reworded them and sanitized them and modernized them, in short - butchered them - until they are often nothing like the classic versions. If you are unsure, I highly recommend taking the Advisory's recommendations for nursery rhyme books very seriously.

So, to make a long post short, lol, here is what we have done for Year 0 :)

Having not read truly well-written folk tales in preschool (many are intense and my preschoolers can't handle them), we chose to use Joseph Jacobs and Amy Steedman's fairy tales. Now, this part I hate to tell you, but I already owned an out of print collection that had lots of stories from both of these authors. Yeah, that helps a ton, doesn't it? ;) But, there are links on the Year 0 page for both authors! And there are still publications available for purchase!

My first choice for Jacobs is here. Personally, I would stay clear of the Everyman's Library books - the covers wear very poorly. The gold paint rubs off very easily and, after a short time, you can't read the title of the book on the spine.

As for Amy Steedman's Nursery Tales Told to the Children, you may try a used book search like www.alibris.com or even Ebay. As I type this post, there is a hardcover of the Steedman book available at Alibris for $15 (shipped from the UK).

We also used For The Children's Hour, another book recommended toward the bottom of the AO Year 0 list that I had glanced over time and time again. I finally paid attention to it, ordered it, and loved it :) The stories are very short and perfect for a little read before rest/nap time. They are not as challenging or literary as the folk tales mentioned above, I'd say, but they are certainly more so than most modern children's books.

Yesterday's Classics sells a lovely collection of children's poems in three books. If you have already read the other AO recommendations for poetry and are looking for something new or, possibly, something an early reader can read independently, these books are good choices. They are entitled, A Child's Own Book of Verse, and there are three separate books. Here's a link to Book One :)

In addition to the poetry, folk tales, and For the Children's Hour, we always had a read aloud chapter book going. There are so many wonderful choices, but some of my favorites for kindergarten are...

Justin Morgan Had A Horse - Henry
The Story of Doctor Doolittle - Lofting
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - Lewis
The Magician's Nephew - Lewis
The Trumpet of the Swan - White
Little House on the Prairie - Wilder (some talk of massacre)
The Long Winter - Wilder
and Hitty: Her First Hundred Years - I forget the author!
Oh, and all of the D'Aulaire books are wonderful, too, if your child has an interest in history! But you may want to wait and save the ones used in Year One until then.

I've got to run to the grocery store now, but I hope this has helped a little bit. There really isn't a great deal of reading necessary at this age, it just needs to be challenging and full of high-minded ideas :) A half hour of a great book is worth hours of reading so-so ones!

May you have a wonderful kindergarten year :)

P.S.

I want to mention, too, that we did not include the B'rer Rabbit stories in our reading. I read the book and considered it from several different points of view, but, ultimately, decided that it tended to glorify deception, mischief, and mean-spiritedness. In my little ole opinion, most five-year-old children lack the discernment to handle Briar Rabbit and his antics in a morally sound way without lots of guidance. I don't mind giving guidance, but we decided the book was unnecessary.

P.S.S.

Update: A few weeks after I posted this, an "unofficial" AO Year 0.5 Booklist was uploaded to the files section of the AO/HEO Booklists Yahoo Group. This list was compiled by moms on the AOYear0 Yahoo Group, not by the AO Advisory. It's a helpful list, though :) Click HERE for a link to the group! Enjoy!

Reading Chapter Books to the Little Guys

2008-06-11T10:14:00.000-07:00

For the record, this post is not intended to convey Charlotte Mason's views on reading to young children - these are my views ;) If the child has plenty of time to play (especially outdoors), though, I see no reason why this post would conflict with Miss Mason's ideas for children six years old and younger. So, that said...

Have you started reading chapter books aloud to your young children? By "chapter book", I mean a real, honest-to-goodness work of fictional literature. Not a reader. Not a picture book. A chapter book :) I have no way of knowing how influential reading difficult books aloud has been with my children, but I can at least say that reading great books aloud to them early on certainly hasn't hurt ;)

We begin reading chapter books aloud to the children somewhere between age three and three and a half. At first, the readings are very short (especially when the book has no illustrations to speak of). Gradually, we build up until we're able to finish a chapter of average length in one sitting. Books with longer chapters may be spread out even more. Sometimes we stop and talk about what I'm reading. Sometimes I ask chatty questions to help them follow along. Sometimes we just read. There's no schedule to our readings and no laid out plan. We just read the book here and there until we finish it. Right now, for instance, I'm reading Mr. Popper's Penguins to Punkin. We've been reading it for about 6 weeks now, only about twice a week. At this rate, it will be a while before we finish it, but that's okay :) Even at only 3 and 1/2 and even with days between chapters, she is able to remember where we left off and will offer guesses about what might happen next. Her mind is working on this book :)

I have no proof, but I imagine that reading chapter books like this does quite a lot to prepare a child for the sort of books used in formal Charlotte Mason lessons. More than that, though, it helps the child develop a real interest in reading challenging books... one of our primary goals for their education. In case you're wondering, the difficult vocabulary doesn't seem to put the children off - it intrigues them. Complicated story lines thrill them. I'm continually amazed at how my really young children become enthralled with books most children don't meet until they are much older. I say "meet" because the children really develop a relationship with a book read like this over a long period of time. The Little House in the Big Woods becomes one of the most exciting parts of the day and is remembered with fondness months after the last page is read :) I have wonderful memories of snuggling all together reading The Long Winter on a February afternoon while snow fell softly outside. Quality chapter books add a whole new dimension to the world of reading with your children... even your young children! I highly recommend giving it a shot :)

Below are a few good choices for beginning chapter books with preschool children. None of them are required reading for Ambleside Online, although a few do show up on the free reading lists. I hope they are a blessing to your family! Enjoy reading with your little guys :)

Mr. Popper's Penguins - Atwater
Little House in the Big Woods - Wilder
Farmer Boy - Wilder
Capyboppy - Peet (rather short and silly, but fun)
Stuart Little - White
Ginger Pye - Estes (I love this author!)
Pinky Pye - Estes
Misty of Chincoteague - Henry (read this when my oldest two were 3 and 4 and 1/2)
The Cricket in Times Square - Selden
The Boxcar Children - Warner (we've only read the first one)

I'm sure there are many others!

Psssst. Lindafay at Higher Up and Further In (great blog!!) has a terrific post about reading aloud to children. It's called "How Is Your Read Aloud Voice?" and you can check it out here. Enjoy! :)

Encouraging Your Child With Narrations - Keeping Things Light

2008-06-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

Before SweetP and I began narrations in the early months of 2007, she seemed a little tense about the idea. Not really stressed, and I wouldn't call it "anxious" - just a bit tense. After her first two or three narrations, though, I started to get concerned. It seemed like she felt pressured to remember every tiny detail or to perform for me. Something didn't feel right. I have since come across other mothers who have had the same experiences when beginning narrations with their children. Some older mothers gave advice (which I gladly took!) and, low and behold, everything worked out fine in the end ;) If you're about to begin narrations with your own little one or if the idea of narrations is a little stressful right now, it's my hope that this post can help you head off any feelings of pressure that can creep in :)

1) To help SweetP relax a little, I narrated once or twice for her first! It helped her so much to see that she did not need to remember every single word. My dear little firstborn, detail oriented child had thought I was expecting her to memorize the passage and repeat it back to me. Oh, dear. Once she understood that this was not the case (and saw that I didn't remember everything either) she relaxed :)

2) I also explained that narrations were not meant to "test" her. I thought it was strange that I needed to explain this. Having never been schooled in a PS setting and never really even exposed to the idea of testing, I thought she'd be free from this anxiety. Looking back, it's possible that I was regarding the narrations as a test of how well I was getting the idea of narrations, and my own performance mindset came through somehow. At any rate, I explained that narration was actually one of our tools for learning, not a test. I told her that when she tells the story back to me it helps her mind gather the story in and keep it. She liked that idea :)

3) Lastly, I relaxed. With SweetP being my oldest, narration was new to us both! An older CM mom pointed out that an overly "official" mood to beginning lessons could really hamper a child. I'm sorry to say, I think this might have been me. It wasn't that I was terribly stressed or that SweetP was crying or anything that dramatic. It was all very subtle and it took a little digging to get at the heart of why something felt wrong. I very much wanted narrations to go well, and SweetP picked up on the fact that I was trying to get something "right". When I relaxed, approached the story more like any book we read aloud together, and then asked her in a chatty way to tell me about it, the mood lifted significantly. Now, our reading was really about enjoying the story and learning - not about narrations :)

Even with some slight tension in the very beginning, SweetP quickly took off with narrating and has not had issues with it since. Her younger sister, Shug, is now just beginning and I am able to side step the subtle pitfalls that were there the last time I began with a little one. They are good principles for us all to remember, really. Relax, trust, encourage, and step back enough to let the children learn.

"Practice" Narration with The History of Tom Thumb

2008-06-07T23:22:00.000-07:00

We are now in the process of getting ready for the new school year. SweetP will be using Ambleside Online's Year 2 and Shug will be getting started in Year 1. Last year, it worked well to give SweetP a little "practice" with narration before diving in to the AO booklist. This week, I'm doing the same thing with Shug. We have had great success with Joseph Jacob's "The History of Tom Thumb" for this narration practice, and, since it's completely available to the public, I thought I'd offer it here for anyone interested in doing the same :) I've indicated the places where I have generally stopped for a narration and I have also included some ideas for narration prompts. Of course, you can word things differently if you'd like :) The purpose was just to give an example of how a request for a narration might be worded. I took the prompts from Miss Mason's exams as my examples.

I have this post typed in a Word document. If you are interested in receiving a copy of that printable file, please email me at pamperspinecones@yahoo.com with "Tom Thumb" in the subject line. Thanks!

Also, you might like to have the link to an etext of this entire Jacobs book, English Fairy Tales. Here's the link :) Enjoy!

The History of Tom Thumb
by Joseph Jacobs
( narration prompts provided by www.understandingcharlotte.blogspot.com)

[Reading 1] "In the days of the great Prince Arthur, there lived a mighty magician, called Merlin, the most learned and skilful enchanter the world has ever seen.
This famous magician, who could take any form he pleased, was travelling about as a poor beggar, and being very tired, he stopped at the cottage of a ploughman to rest himself, and asked for some food.
The countryman bade him welcome, and his wife, who was a very good- hearted woman, soon brought him some milk in a wooden bowl, and some coarse brown bread on a platter.
Merlin was much pleased with the kindness of the ploughman and his wife; but he could not help noticing that though everything was neat and comfortable in the cottage, they seemed both to be very unhappy. He therefore asked them why they were so melancholy, and learned that they were miserable because they had no children. [stop]

Tell the story of Merlin and the poor couple.

[Reading 2] The poor woman said, with tears in her eyes: “I should be the happiest creature in the world if I had a son; although he was no bigger than my husband’s thumb, I would be satisfied.”

Merlin was so much amused with the idea of a boy no bigger than a man’s thumb, that he determined to grant the poor woman’s wish. Accordingly, in a short time after, the ploughman’s wife had a son, who, wonderful to relate! was not a bit bigger than his father’s thumb.

The queen of the fairies, wishing to see the little fellow, came in at the window while the mother was sitting up in the bed admiring him. The queen kissed the child, and, giving it the name of Tom Thumb, sent for some of the fairies, who dressed her little godson according to her orders:

“An oak-leaf hat he had for his crown;
His shirt of web by spiders spun;
With jacket wove of thistle’s down;
His trowsers were of feathers done.
His stockings, of apple-rind, they tie
With eyelash from his mother’s eye
His shoes were made of mouse’s skin,
Tann’d with the downy hair within.” [stop]

Tell about how Tom Thumb looked.

[Reading 3] Tom never grew any larger than his father’s thumb, which was only of ordinary size; but as he got older he became very cunning and full of tricks. When he was old enough to play with the boys, and had lost all his own cherry-stones, he used to creep into the bags of his playfellows, fill his pockets, and, getting out without their noticing him, would again join in the game.
One day, however, as he was coming out of a bag of cherry-stones, where he had been stealing as usual, the boy to whom it belonged chanced to see him. “Ah, ah! my little Tommy,” said the boy, “so I have caught you stealing my cherry-stones at last, and you shall be rewarded for your thievish tricks.” On saying this, he drew the string tight round his neck, and gave the bag such a hearty shake, that poor little Tom’s legs, thighs, and body were sadly bruised. He roared out with pain, and begged to be let out, promising never to steal again. [stop]

Tell the story of Tom Thumb and the cherry stones.

[Reading 4] A short time afterwards his mother was making a batter-pudding, and Tom, being very anxious to see how it was made, climbed up to the edge of the bowl; but his foot slipped, and he plumped over head and ears into the batter, without his mother noticing him, who stirred him into the pudding-bag, and put him in the pot to boil.

The batter filled Tom’s mouth, and prevented him from crying; but, on feeling the hot water, he kicked and struggled so much in the pot, that his mother thought that the pudding was bewitched, and, pulling it out of the pot, she threw it outside the door. A poor tinker, who was passing by, lifted up the pudding, and, putting it into his budget, he then walked off. As Tom had now got his mouth cleared of the batter, he then began to cry aloud, which so frightened the tinker that he flung down the pudding and ran away. The pudding being broke to pieces by the fall, Tom crept out covered all over with the batter, and walked home. His mother, who was very sorry to see her darling in such a woeful state, put him into a teacup, and soon washed off the batter; after which she kissed him, and laid him in bed. [stop]

Tell of Tom Thumb and the pudding.

[Reading 5] Soon after the adventure of the pudding, Tom’s mother went to milk her cow in the meadow, and she took him along with her. As the wind was very high, for fear of being blown away, she tied him to a thistle with a piece of fine thread. The cow soon observed Tom’s oak-leaf hat, and liking the appearance of it, took poor Tom and the thistle at one mouthful. While the cow was chewing the thistle Tom was afraid of her great teeth, which threatened to crush him in pieces, and he roared out as loud as he could: “Mother, mother!”
“Where are you, Tommy, my dear Tommy?” said his mother.
“Here, mother,” replied he, “in the red cow’s mouth.”

His mother began to cry and wring her hands; but the cow, surprised at the odd noise in her throat, opened her mouth and let Tom drop out. Fortunately his mother caught him in her apron as he was falling to the ground, or he would have been dreadfully hurt. She then put Tom in her bosom and ran home with him. [stop]

Tell about Tom and the cow.

[Reading 6] Tom’s father made him a whip of a barley straw to drive the cattle with, and having one day gone into the fields, he slipped a foot and rolled into the furrow. A raven, which was flying over, picked him up, and flew with him over the sea, and there dropped him.

A large fish swallowed Tom the moment he fell into the sea, which was soon after caught, and bought for the table of King Arthur. When they opened the fish in order to cook it, every one was astonished at finding such a little boy, and Tom was quite delighted at being free again. They carried him to the king, who made Tom his dwarf, and he soon grew a great favourite at court; for by his tricks and gambols he not only amused the king and queen, but also all the Knights of the Round Table. [stop]

Tell what happened when Tom went to drive the cattle.

[Reading 7] It is said that when the king rode out on horseback, he often took Tom along with him, and if a shower came on, he used to creep into his majesty’s waistcoat-pocket, where he slept till the rain was over.
King Arthur one day asked Tom about his parents, wishing to know if they were as small as he was, and whether they were well off. Tom told the king that his father and mother were as tall as anybody about the court, but in rather poor circumstances. On hearing this, the king carried Tom to his treasury, the place where he kept all his money, and told him to take as much money as he could carry home to his parents, which made the poor little fellow caper with joy. Tom went immediately to procure a purse, which was made of a water-bubble, and then returned to the treasury, where be received a silver threepenny- piece to put into it.
Our little hero had some difficulty in lifting the burden upon his back; but he at last succeeded in getting it placed to his mind, and set forward on his journey. However, without meeting with any accident, and after resting himself more than a hundred times by the way, in two days and two nights he reached his father’s house in safety.

Tom had travelled forty-eight hours with a huge silver-piece on his back, and was almost tired to death, when his mother ran out to meet him, and carried him into the house. But he soon returned to Court. [stop]

Tell the story of Tom and the silver-piece.

[Reading 8] As Tom’s clothes had suffered much in the batter-pudding, and the inside of the fish, his majesty ordered him a new suit of clothes, and to be mounted as a knight on a mouse.
Of Butterfly’s wings his shirt was made,
His boots of chicken’s hide;
And by a nimble fairy blade,
Well learned in the tailoring trade,
His clothing was supplied.
A needle dangled by his side;
A dapper mouse he used to ride,
Thus strutted Tom in stately pride!

It was certainly very diverting to see Tom in this dress and mounted on the mouse, as he rode out a-hunting with the king and nobility, who were all ready to expire with laughter at Tom and his fine prancing charger.
The king was so charmed with his address that he ordered a little chair to be made, in order that Tom might sit upon his table, and also a palace of gold, a span high, with a door an inch wide, to live in. He also gave him a coach, drawn by six small mice. [stop]

Tell of how the king dressed Tom Thumb.

[Reading 9] The queen was so enraged at the honours conferred on Sir Thomas that she resolved to ruin him, and told the king that the little knight had been saucy to her.

The king sent for Tom in great haste, but being fully aware of the danger of royal anger, he crept into an empty snail-shell, where he lay for a long time until he was almost starved with hunger; but at last he ventured to peep out, and seeing a fine large butterfly on the ground, near the place of his concealment, he got close to it and jumping astride on it, was carried up into the air. The butterfly flew with him from tree to tree and from field to field, and at last returned to the court, where the king and nobility all strove to catch him; but at last poor Tom fell from his seat into a watering-pot, in which he was almost drowned.

When the queen saw him she was in a rage, and said he should be beheaded; and he was again put into a mouse trap until the time of his execution.
However a cat, observing something alive in the trap, patted it about till the wires broke, and set Thomas at liberty. [stop]

Tell what happened when Tom fled from the king and queen.

[Reading 10] The king received Tom again into favour, which he did not live to enjoy, for a large spider one day attacked him; and although he drew his sword and fought well, yet the spider’s poisonous breath at last overcame him.
He fell dead on the ground where he stood, And the spider suck’d every drop of his blood.
King Arthur and his whole court were so sorry at the loss of their little favourite that they went into mourning and raised a fine white marble monument over his grave with the following epitaph:
Here lies Tom Thumb, King Arthur’s knight,
Who died by a spider’s cruel bite.
He was well known in Arthur’s court,
Where he afforded gallant sport;
He rode at tilt and tournament,
And on a mouse a-hunting went.
Alive he filled the court with mirth;
His death to sorrow soon gave birth.
Wipe, wipe your eyes, and shake your head
And cry,–Alas! Tom Thumb is dead!" [stop]

Tell about the end of Tom Thumb’s life.

P.S.

I thought it might be helpful to include this recent reply to a reader's email :)

"Actually, for these 'practice' narrations each reading is done on a separate day. So, it takes 10 days to get through the story and you're only spending about 5 minutes total each day. I know that sounds nutso, but the idea is to make it easier on the child by giving him just a very short passage to narrate and a very short lesson. AO Advisory member Wendi Capehart has recommended using Aesop's Fables for this purpose, too. Each of those stories are only a paragraph or so long - perfect for beginning narrations. There's nothing to stop you from doing two consecutive readings in one day, though. You could finish on a M-F time frame that way. *I wouldn't go more than two narrations in one sitting at first, though.* Remember, this is to introduce the idea of narrations and to give the child a little practice before lessons begin in earnest. My girls have done well with one per day and we've finished the story in two weeks.

When we get to the AO schedule, though, things are different. We wouldn't break a reading up into so many days or such short lessons. At that point, we would try to make any lesson about 20 minutes long. Depending on the book, that might mean we read the week's reading all in one sitting or (like the Blue Fairy Book, which has stories that are sometimes longer) we have to spread the reading out over two days in order to keep the lessons short. Some of this also depends on how verbose your little narrator tends to be ;) Lessons can get long when children enjoy narrating. We've learned to stop SweetP if she goes too long, lol.

These practice narrations are not exactly the way you would do them once lessons begin. They are meant to be a sort of mini version just to give a little experience :)"

I hope this is a blessing to someone! :)

Should A Child Read His Typed Narrations Before Exams?

2008-05-22T14:19:00.000-07:00

Recently, I had a very thought-provoking email exchange with some other CM mothers regarding the practice of typing narrations and letting the children read them as a means of keeping the stories fresh in their minds and aiding retention. The children were allowed to read these typed narrations at any point during the school term. In our own home we have not allowed the children to read any typed narrations until after the term's exam week has been completed. We also do not allow the children to flip through their school books and read bits and pieces of former readings. One of the mothers asked me to expound on our views in this area, so I did :) I've edited it somewhat, but here is my repsonse:

From the Introduction to Volume 6 (this is the passage that led me to believe that the stories must not be reviewed before exams):

"The quantity set for each lesson allows only of a single reading; but the reading is tested by narration, or by writing on a test passage. When the terminal examination is at hand so much ground has been covered that revision is out of the question (she means review); what the children have read they know, and write on any part of it with ease and fluency, in vigorous English; they usually spell well...

...Has an attempt been made before on a wide scale to secure that scholars should know their books, many pages in many books, at a single reading, in such a way that **months later** they can write freely and accurately on any part of the term's reading?"

It was the "months later" part that stood out to me. I can safely say that Miss Mason definitely discourages reading any passage twice to the children. I would also confidently say that she insists upon a single reading because she wants the children to develop the mental habit of careful attention. In the passage above it also seems very clear to me that Miss Mason intended for that attention to be so complete that it would result in a child's ability to vividly retell a story months after hearing it only one time. This ability was one of the primary habits she emphasized.

In our desire to develop these abilities of attention in our children, it seems wise to ask what may hinder the habit of attention and what may develop that same power to its fullest. Obviously, a child is going to think about a passage after he hears it. He might draw a picture of it in his free time or act it out in his playtime. We do want the child to consider the stories and the readings. We want him to assimilate the knowledge and bring it to bear on his imagination. But, it seems to me that the child should have **one chance to get it into his mind**. Once it's there he may mentally go over and over it and, as Charlotte described, "digest" it, but all of his dealings with knowledge must be stemming from that one, initial exposure to the reading.

If a child has been reading and re-reading a typed out page of his own narration - which is, essentially, a synopsis - of the story, what does that do to his power of attention? When his exams role around is there a chance that he has memorized his first narration to some degree by going over and over it? From page 17 of Volume 6 Miss Mason writes, "For this reason it is important that only one reading should be allowed; efforts to memorise weaken the power of attention, the proper activity of the mind." I know there is no intentional memorizing taking place, but could the child be memorizing unintentionally? Could he actually be narrating his narration at exam time and not the initial reading? Will he be digesting the story *in his mind* as much if he can go back and read a summary of it whenever he wants? Will he be relying solely on his memory and habit of attention when he chews on the material or will he be using a printed summary as a kind of mental "crutch" to keep ideas fresh? These are all hypothetical questions, of course, but they get us thinking about the "why" of the Single Reading Rule and the "how" of fostering a habit of attention in our children.

I'm pleased with the way the children are learning to attend so completely to the readings following this practice of "no review". It never ceases to amaze me. Miss Mason assures us that it's not just a certain kind of child that can do this; every child has it in him. But, if she's convinced me of anything, it's that my own careful attention to her methods and the children's habits is key. We not only have to be purposeful about what we are intentionally doing, but we must also be purposeful about what we are preventing.

I have no idea if these ramblings will be helpful to anyone, but I hope so. These thoughts were on my mind anyway, so I decided to share them :)

Blessings.

Using the Comstock Handbook of Nature Study

2008-05-09T06:01:00.000-07:00

I have a favorite quote from The Handbook of Nature Study. It's on page 177 and is a quote from L.H. Bailey, the woman to whom the handbook is dedicated. It reads as follows:

"In the early years we are not to teach nature as science, we are not to teach it primarily for method or for drill: we are to teach it for loving - and this is nature study. On these points I make no compromise."

Nature study, then, is for the purpose of bringing our children to a love of nature. In our family it is also to bring them face to face with the realities God has revealed through His creation. It is for loving :) How precious!

I highly recommend the first section in Ms. Comstock's book - The Teaching of Nature Study. It is on pages 1-23 and, toward the end, she details how the book is intended to be used. The handbook is really more for you than for the children. It is a tool to educate the teacher so that she can wisely lead the investigations and observations of her children. I think this may be the part that gets many mothers intimidated about nature study. "You mean I have to learn everything beforehand?! There's no way!!!" It's been so encouraging for me to remember back even just four years ago to how little I knew about the natural world around me. I have so much more to learn, but I have come along gradually. We can all learn little by little :)

I hope to encourage you with two little stories from our week that might help illustrate how we carry nature study out in our family. The first shows just how easy nature study can be. We were playing outside at a local park and, eventually, walked over to a large field of grass covered in violets. The children got so excited picking them! I was sitting in the grass with the baby and they were bringing handful upon handful to me (there were plenty left, believe me!). Finally, I had the idea of taking some home to press them. We brought some home and pressed about 15-20 of the nicest ones. They are still pressing between two paper towels with several heavy books on them. While we were in the field, I had the older children (7 and almost 6) take the time to really look at each violet. Where do you think the pollen is kept? How do you think the bees get it? What does the flower look like to you? Having read the Comstock section on violets to myself one evening prior (not planned - just providence!) I could remember just a few things. I pointed out how the lines on the flowers led the way for the bees to find the pollen and I showed the children the leaves and asked them to describe them for me (they are heart-shaped). Then, we thought of the little poem about roses being red and violets being blue. I never thought they looked blue; they always looked purple to me. So, I had the children describe the colors they saw in the violets.

That's all! :)

Even if we hadn't pressed the violets, it was still a very good time of observation and description. My oldest daughter could have drawn a violet for her nature notebook at home, but, since we were pressing them, we decided to just wait and arrange the pressed violets into pretty shapes for cards instead. If we are not going to draw something, I spend extra time having the children verbally describe it and closely observe it. We do not come anywhere close to drawing all of our nature finds. That would be impossible! If I had not known the name of the violets, we would have still done the same observation and description "lesson", but then we would have spent some time at home with field guides, trying to identify the flowers. We basically did this with an unknown weed we found last week. It turned out to be Wintercress. We had a simple study with a cutting of it in our kitchen, and we've been seeing it everywhere since! Now the children "know" violets and wintercress :) Nine times out of ten our nature study is simplistic and unplanned. More than anything, plenty of time outside is the number one requirement. Once you get outside more with your children, the number of interesting things to observe far exceed the time you have to study them! From dandelions to clouds, you're never at a loss for something to study.

Now, for a more "serious" example. This has been one of our very coolest nature study endeavors :) We were out in the backyard on Monday when my five year old yelled out that she found a toad... a big toad. (Two years ago when we had toads I could barely bring myself to touch them, but practice makes perfect, lol). I carried it inside to the basement and brought up an empty 10 gallon tank. The only thing I knew about toads was that they like to burrow in the dirt, so I instructed the children to fill the aquarium about 4" deep with garden soil while I quickly Googled "toad aquarium" online. I read some useful instructions and we finished making our little toad home. We watched the toad, held the toad, and took a really, really good look at the toad. What do you notice about the toad's feet? What color are her eyes? Can you describe them? Basically, we were taking mental pictures of the toad and narrating her appearance and behavior. We washed our hands when we were done ;)

During the children's rest time, I read the Comstock section on toads to myself. I really knew nothing about them! Armed with new toady knowledge later that afternoon, I could lead the children through a few more observations, telling them a little here and there while encouraging them to make guesses all along. We plan on letting our toady go this afternoon (Wednesday), but first we'll draw her into our nature notebooks while the littlest ones nap. I draw along with the children; they seem far more interested this way. We'll take a few pictures and then let her go. They will, no doubt, remember some things about toads from this study. I suspect, though, the most educational aspects have been their deepened interest in toads and a desire to take care of them as stewards of God's creation. I knew nothing about toads three days ago!!! Thanks to observing and caring for Cleopatra (our toad) this week, now I know a ton! Well, comparatively anyway ;) The most it took from me was a 10 gallon aquarium, the guts to catch the toad in the first place, and one afternoon with The Handbook of Nature Study.

Again, I really recommend reading the front section of the Comstock book. It helps show how nature "study" should and can be very natural. We just need to get outside more! Little by little, truly, it's not overwhelming :)

"Why Can't I Leave A Comment?"

2008-05-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

I know.

It's very weird to have a blog with no comment options, isn't it?

After thinking it through off and on for several weeks and praying for the Lord to rightly order our time and priorities, though, My Sam and I have decided that the comments need to go. Partly, it's an issue of time spent replying to comments, but also there's the issue of that inexplicable urge to see if any new comments have been posted. I wind up coming to the computer too often and at the wrong times just to see if someone has said something new. If I'm going to continue posting, it seems like this change will really help me control my time online. We're going to continue evaluating, though.

Honestly, too, the battle with pride is always there. When the comments all praise me and my thoughts or my methods, it can really be a megavitamin to that sin. My pride hardly needs the boost.

I want those of you who have been regular readers and commenters (and bloggy pals!)to know that I have very, very much enjoyed hearing from you and tossing ideas back and forth with you on this blog. Thank you for faithfully talking CM with me! :) I'd love to get an email from you now and then to keep in touch. I hope you all can graciously understand our choices :)

email: pamperspinecones@yahoo.com

Moving Toward Independence in Copywork (Copywork: Part Nine)

2008-04-18T07:58:00.000-07:00

Recently, I posted that Charlotte Mason urged mothers to allow their children to choose their own passages for copywork. In Home Education, Miss Mason writes:

"A certain sense of possession and delight may be added to this exercise if children are allowed to choose for transcription their favorite verse in one poem and another."

How, practically speaking, can we make this work on a regular basis? I am sure there are all kinds of interesting and creative ways to organize a child's copywork selections. In fact, if you have a post related to this topic, I'd love to know of the link! :) In the hopes that this may help someone encourage their children toward ownership and a degree of independence in copywork lessons, I'd like to share something that worked very well for us this school year.

Ambleside Online has a copywork project available through Yahoo Groups. We have used the Year One suggestions (although, we did have to carefully review for typos). I set aside one evening at the beginning of the school year to copy these selections into a Word document, proofread them, and add a few selections from other books (from our free reading list). Then, I printed the pages out, hole punched them, and put them into a folder for my daughter. Oila! A folder for the whole year! The folder was divided into sections like Literature, Poetry, Shakespeare, History, etc. Then, I wrote out each of these section titles on a little slip of paper and put the slips of paper in a small plastic container on SweetP's copywork desk. Each morning, when copywork lessons rolled around, I would tell her that it was time for copywork and she would go to her desk and draw out a slip of paper. If it said, "Nature Study", for instance, she would then turn to that section of her copywork folder and find pages of copywork options that I had printed out. After copying the passage of her choice, she then brought it down to me.

I suppose for a younger child or a child not yet ready to write neatly alone, Mama could still let him choose his slip of paper and then choose his passage. She would then stay beside him and help him with the mechanics of writing. The passage would be of his own choosing, though, which is a pleasant thing for most children :)This is basically what I have done on our cursive days. SweetP is not independent in cursive, yet.

For the very beginning child who has just learned to write his alphabet and is new to copywork, it seems like a good idea for the mother to write out the passage in the child's view before the child copies it. For instance, when Shug begins copywork in June, she'll have just turned six years old. She writes well, but still needs guidance and help at times. I will reuse the same Year One folder for her, but she will choose smaller selections than her sister wrote (who was older when beginning Year One). I may say something like, "Choose a phrase with five or so words". Then, I would write the phrase down while she watched, and finally she would do the copywork with me there beside her. As she grows in ease and ability, hopefully she will eventually be independent with the folder like SweetP was.

Depending on the child, this independence may be reached by the end of Year One or much later. There is no set goal of when the child should be able to write his copywork neatly on his own. Isn't it a blessing to be able, as homeschooling parents, to plan for our children's unique strengths and personalities? Please know that I offer these examples as a way to help those who want to think through applying their own copywork ideas to their own families. There are so many wonderful ways to personalize this method for our children :)

A Peek Into A CM Preschool (Thanks, Wendy!)

2008-04-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

Wendy, CM mom of four over at One Day at a Time, has given me permission to link to one of her recent posts. She has done a wonderful job of illustrating Charlotte Mason's principles for educating before age six. I hope you enjoy reading what she has to say as much as I did. As you read, may you be encouraged in your efforts to guide the minds and hearts of your little ones :)

Writing Worth Copying (Copywork: Part Eight)

2008-04-08T07:55:00.000-07:00

"A certain sense of possession and delight may be added to this exercise if children are allowed to choose for transcription their favourite verse in one poem and another. This is better than to write a favourite poem, an exercise which stales on the little people before it is finished. But a book of their own, made up of their own chosen verses, should give them pleasure." - Home Education, pg. 238

After a child has learned to print his individual letters neatly, what should he write for copywork lessons? Several popular workbooks and educational approaches recommend writing the same sentence, verse, or short passage each day all week long, possibly using that same passage at the end of the week for a spelling or dictation lesson. It's easy to become confused about how CM copywork should look because our ideas of CM get all mixed up with these other "copywork-ish" approaches. What does Miss Mason have to say about what a child should copy?

By taking a close look at the quote above (and reading between the lines a little), we can begin to see why Miss Mason would not advocate the child writing the same sentences each day for his copywork lessons. In her view, the content of copywork should be kept fresh and interesting for the children, if for no other reason than to help alleviate some of the tedium that must so often accompany handwriting practice. Some children just really do not like to write, and variety in what they write can help them put forth a better effort as their interest is engaged. Miss Mason writes that the children should be allowed to choose their own passages; however, not lengthy ones. Less is, more often than not, more in copywork.

There are a few practical considerations to consider with this idea of letting the children choose their own copywork selections. For one thing, the book used should be a quality book - well written and engaging. It may be useful to narrow down the choices for the child. For instance, something like, "You may choose anything you would like to copy from Charlotte's Web... about six to ten words." Or maybe, "You may choose a Bible verse or one line of a de la Mare poem for your copywork this morning". Some children may need even narrower choices to keep the selection process from taking all morning long ;) An indecisive young one might benefit from something like, "Which book would you like? Good. Now then, you can choose one sentence from this page to copy this morning". I have looked for proof that Miss Mason required the copywork to be done from school books used during that term, but I have not found sufficient evidence. As far as I can tell, the book choices are fairly wide open. My girls have done copywork from free reading as well as from school books, and also from poems that were completely new to them.

I hope to write another post soon about how we have settled the "choosing" issue in our own home. There are, I'm sure, many creative ways to go about it. Ambleside Online offers copywork suggestions for each year of the curriculum, too, that may be printed out and quickly referenced. We've found a number of typos in the Year One copywork list, though, FYI. However each family goes about it, the point is that the material use for copywork be interesting, well written, and of the child's choosing.

As far as using the copywork for dictation, this was not Miss Mason's method. Spelling and dictation in the Charlotte Mason method depend upon the habit of giving full attention to a passage, a previously unstudied passage. There must be one time to study it only before the dictation exercise. This is similar to Miss Mason's insistence upon only one reading before a narration. Too many chances, too many reviews, in her opinion, developed inattentive children with lazy mental habits. Lindafay at Higher Up And Further In has a wonderful post about how dictation differs from copywork. Click here if you'd like to read it.

Well, I think I'm nearly finished this rather exhaustive look at CM copywork :) Can you believe I can get so many posts out of one little subject?! I sincerely hope you are all doing well and that this post is somehow a blessing to a few of you :)

Our Bible Reading Plans for Children

2008-01-27T20:47:00.000-08:00

***Readers searching for Bible Reading Plans for Children

will find the most helpful information here***

A little while ago a reader asked about the Bible reading plans I have listed here on my blog. Although we read the entire Bible as a family and discuss difficult portions in age appropriate ways during devotional times, we do have a somewhat "edited" approach to the children's personal Bible reading. This is not because we wish to leave sections of Scripture out as much as it is because we wish to focus the children's reading on portions of Scripture that we feel would be of particular benefit to them at their young ages. Entire books of the minor prophets, for instance, could be a baffling read for a seven year old; whereas, the narrative stories of Daniel would be well-chosen readings for this age group.

As you know, the Bible is a long book. When faced with the challenge of choosing Bible passages for our children to read independently, My Sam and I were at a loss as to where to begin. Eventually, we decided to use our favorite Bible storybook as a guide. Catherine M. Vos' The Child's Story Bible has scripture references at the beginning of each of the stories. Using these references, we developed a reading plan that would cover the passages of Scripture also covered in the story Bible. This is no wishy-washy list of readings! As you will see from our compilations, there is enough to keep a child reader busy for months :) As each of the children finishes a page (no more than one reading per day), My Sam chooses another sheet for them to begin. Some of the pages have quite a few readings and take well over a month to complete. For this reason, different children may be reading different pages at a time. In this way, My Sam can individualize the reading plans for each child.

It is our hope that, by including our reading plans here, some of your families may also be blessed. We pray for our children daily, that the light of Christ might shine in their hearts and illuminate the Word of God for their true heart understanding.

Blessings :)

P.S. You can find the complete list of Bible reading plans for children here. For future reference, you may wish to simply click on "Bible" in my tag cloud to access these same pages. You are welcome to copy these lists and paste them into your word processing program for more attractive results. Although I have not quoted any of Ms. Vos' text, I would recommend siting her book if you wish to give these printouts out to friends. Thanks :)

***Another note - some of these Bible stories are told in more than one book of the Bible. The Bible reading lists reflect a "harmony" approach to Bible reading in which one story is read from several different Bible passages. That is why the lists sometimes seem to "jump" back and forth between books. The children are reading about one story told in several books of the Bible.***

The Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival: Cabin Fever Edition

2008-01-23T08:12:00.000-08:00

Welcome to The Ninth Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival -
Cabin Fever Edition!

Is it happening to you, too? Cabin fever? Are you staring out your windows at a deceptively sunny day (deceptive because the windchill is in the single digits???). Have your kiddos been congested and feverish like mine, too? Completely unable to play outdoors? As a result, have you been stuck inside for almost three weeks straight? Aaaaaaah! Someone please skip ahead to April!

I guess sitting around moping isn't doing any of us any good, though. We have to find a way (or several ways) around this Cabin Fever! Some of our blogging pals have some great ideas to help us do just that :) As long as you're stuck indoors anyway, you might as well use the time well! From watercolors to handicrafts, there's always something of interest to be found in a Charlotte Mason education. I hope these posts add a little warmth and encouragement to your day!

*********************

Continuing nature study throughout the cold spells can help your four walls feel a little wider. With so much winter nature to explore, you may actually come to enjoy these frosty days! Barb presents The Heart of Harmony - Learning from Plants Year Round posted at The Heart of Harmony.

To help you out with approaching that study, Barb also presents Handbook of Nature Study: Friend or Foe? posted at Handbook of Nature Study.

When it's not quite so very cold, you may even be brave enough to face the elements on a regular basis. Did you know that Charlotte Mason encouraged mothers to take their children outdoors for nature walks even in the winter? Amanda offers us all a little encouragement with Nature Walks in Bad Weather & Charlotte Mason posted at Hearts and Trees.

Outdoor treks in January will necessitate some cozy clothing! Do you have a plan for keeping all of those sweet little fingers warm? Leila Cook presents Fleece mitten how-to posted at We Love Handicrafts!.

Sometimes, though, we are simply no match for the elements. On the coldest days, families with smaller children may just need to hunker down inside (see my sidebar for links to winter safety with little ones). But, we can always use any sub-zero days to snuggle up and read a little extra together. A cozy afternoon on the couch with a pile of blankies and a good book is always time well spent.

Swylv presents Bible as part of our Home Education posted at Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.

Christie presents A simple recipe for success posted at Such a Time, saying, "Just because something is simple in its form doesn't mean its without depth of meaning. My reading aloud is a simple activity, but I believe it does mean a great deal to my kids ... in relationship and in education. Oh ... and there is a recipe for Snow Ice Cream!"

If you are suddenly struck with a creativity bug, you might even want to use this time to brush up (ha!) on your watercolor skills. Angi at Peakmore Academy presents this incredible post - Completed Watercolor Paintings! Wow :)

And, of course, you could also just do lessons ;) I think I get the vote for the blandest entry! My entry, One Tiny, But Powerful Detail (Copywork Part Six), is posted here at The Educational Life.

With a few less entries this week, this is the optimal time to go back through past editions of the carnivals and read any posts you may have missed! Yet another way to combat Cabin Fever!!! You can find past editions at the bottom of my left sidebar.

Happy Carnival Reading! And, may you have a warm-ish day sometime soon and plenty of time to savor it!

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
the charlotte mason blog carnival
using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

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It's Spring In My Kitchen (Forcing Bulbs)

2008-01-16T08:07:00.000-08:00

Two years ago, my sister-in-law gave this shallow glass bowl filled with paperwhite bulbs to me as a Christmas gift. It was one of the best gifts I've ever received! :) Every gardener begins pining for something green and growing in the wintertime!

We have started our own bulbs in the same glass bowl and decorative pebbles each winter since, and have loved the little bit of early "spring". There is no soil - just rocks and water! The bulbs contain all they need to grow except for light, warmth, and water. We provide those :) Can you see the roots toward the bottom of the bowl? Isn't that fascinating? I tell the children that those are like little straws drawing water up into the thirsty plants.

This year, we had paperwhites that bloomed from just after Christmas until they faded a few days ago (the photo above is from when they were in bud). They were so lovely and cheerful, we decided to "plant" some other bulbs in their place. I have a little bag of Muscari (grape hyacinth) that I set aside last fall just for this purpose. I'm hoping to plant those with Punkin as a special one-on-one project tomorrow. Home improvement stores may still have their bulbs for sale, by the way. Hint, hint. It's worth giving them a call to find out :)

If you're interested in trying this with your children (it's really easy!), here's a great link with some more detailed instructions. It's nice to have a magnifying glass around, too, so the children can get a really good look :) What a fantastic indoor nature study lesson for those way-too-cold-outside days (or sick days). SweetP even drew the bulbs in her nature journal before we put them in the bowl, and she recorded their progress in a small journal as they grew. You can see how there could be several weeks of easy nature study in this simple project. And, as I mentioned before, they're so pretty :) Hope you get to try this!

One Tiny But Powerful Detail (Copywork: Part Seven)

2008-01-15T07:53:00.000-08:00

Well, I can't sleep. So, here's part 7 :)

This whole series of posts on copywork really began all because of two little sentences in Home Education. I had been re-reading the section on language arts, trying to make sure I was on target, when I came across something I had never taken note of before. On page 238 Miss Mason writes the following:

"Transcription should be an introduction to spelling. Children should be encouraged to look at the word, see a picture of it with their eyes shut, and then write from memory." (emphasis mine)

Transcription, as you probably already know, is just another name for copywork. Here, Charlotte Mason is giving us a tiny little detail that, I think, can make a world of difference for the student. As the children copy their work, they are to write each word as a whole. They are to look at the word they are to copy, take a mental picture of it, and then write that word on their paper solely from that mental image! To illustrate, let me explain how SweetP had been copying her work with incorrect methods. She would look at the word, spell out the first two or three letters aloud to herself, write those letters in her neatest print, look back at the word, spell the last few letters out aloud, and finally finish carefully writing the word with those letters. As a practice in handwriting, copywork done in this way was perfectly fine. However, as an introduction to spelling, it was inferior to what Miss Mason had in mind (no pun intended). I believe that her distinction is an important one. Visualizing the whole word, and writing that word from memory instead of sight is a much more powerful spelling exercise than the bits-and-pieces approach of letter by letter.

Isn't that interesting? All of that in just two little sentences. Sometimes I wonder how many times I'll need to read through Volume One before I finally drain it dry. I've read this particular passage nearly a dozen times, I'd guess. Yet, I had never, before last term, picked up on the importance of copying each word in its entirety. It makes sense, really. Especially considering Miss Mason's stress on mental pictures when dictation is introduced later on. The mental visualization that is so key in her dictation methods is the same discipline she refers to here. It only makes sense that copywork done word for word instead of letter for letter sets the stage for solid spelling. Understanding this more completely has been an "a-ha" moment for Mama :) I love it.

Have a great day!

Our Booklist for Second Term

2008-01-10T06:33:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to explain why we haven't used the Ambleside Online book choices for Year One. Since the topic came up in a comment this week, I figured now is as good a time as any. If you're hoping for some thought-provoking, philosophical reason behind my choices, well, sorry. Mostly, we've chosen different books because we had already read the AO Year One books or just because we wanted to ;) As I've said before, AO's booklist is topnotch and I owe the AO Advisory more than I could ever repay. Who knows? I may use other AO years just as they are written. By the way, I'm more aware now of *not* reading AO books before their scheduled year. (That's a tip for any moms who haven't actually started homeschooling yet.) *grin*

This could easily become a very, very long post. I would prefer to keep it from becoming so. In an effort to keep things short and sweet, I think it would be easiest to just go down the line of subjects. I'll type the AO books in bold face for quick reference. Here we go...

BIBLE
We read straight from the ESV or from Catherine Vos' story Bible. Hubby is still considering reading at least the Psalms in KJV.

HISTORY
We decided to skip Trial and Triumph. Okay, this one might be a deeper reason than those I mentioned above. I'd rather not get into it tonight, though. Some children may be completely fine with Blandina getting torn apart by lions; I'm not so sure about mine at this point. I don't want to shield the children from martyrdom by any means, but I also don't want to encourage fear by giving them more than I feel they can handle now. We chose to replace Church History with Missionary Biographies because it was still highly important to us to set Christian heroes before the children (beyond those in the Bible). We also wanted to bring missions to mind early and often.

We use Our Island Story. This may be the only history book we use for Year One in the future. In looking through CM's programmes (you can read them at AO), Year One often only listed Our Island Story for history. At times there was a hero-type book as well.

We used Fifty Famous Stories for the first term. Hubby is the history man :) He felt like the stories in 50 Famous were (perhaps) a little too truncated. The book does accomplish the purpose of educating in cultural literacy (as the Advisory intended), but we wondered if the little bits-and-pieces stories were too random. At any rate, we're fairly confident that the girls would love to read these independently when they are a little older. For this term, we'll go in depth with William Tell by reading The Apple and the Arrow, instead.

Not sure yet about Viking Tales. Again, I'm thinking that Our Island Story is enough for history based on Miss Mason's programmes. Might be good to keep in mind for free reading, though.

We will not count American History biographies (the D'Aulaire books) as school reading the next time we do Year One. SweetP and Shug both like to check biographies out of the library for free reading, so no worries there. The D'Aulaire books are wonderful, but I won't officially schedule them the next time.

GEOGRAPHY
I really like Paddle-to-the-Sea and the other Holling books. We fully intend to buy them for our home library. For school purposes, though, they don't cover the geography "ideas" that I'd hope to get across at this young age. Miss Mason wrote about the children reading little books about children from other lands and reading travel books. We like to check out large coffee table travel books from the library. As for the stories of children from other lands, I've had a hard time finding something well-written, engaging, and yet fairly short. Li Lun is the best I could do for this term after ditching Paddle to the free reading list (my girls read a lot, so even the free reading stuff gets read). I also printed out Miss Mason's Elementary Geography book to use for Years 1 and 2. The little book "What Makes Day and Night" is to supplement one of the EG lessons.

NATURAL HISTORY
We own many of the Burgess titles, and the girls have already read The Burgess Bird Book, so we chose one of the Clara Pierson books from Yesterday's Classics instead. We also love James Herriot, but we've read through those stories so many times that they really wouldn't be useful for us as school books. We use Comstock as a reference, but not as a text to go through cover to cover (you may want to read the intro to the book if this confuses you).

POETRY
Again, we have already read Stevenson and Milne many, many times over. I chose Favorite Poems Old and New for the first term just because I liked it so much :) For the second term, we skipped ahead to one of the AO Year 2 poets and chose Walter de la Mare. It's a beautiful book :) We'll likely stick to these two choices for the remainder of the year.

LITERATURE
I cut out several of the AO books after spending some time reading the PNEU programmes for Form 1b. Miss Mason seems to have consistently used Aesop's Fables and fairy tales as the only literature for Year One. AO has a lot of literature books listed.

Parables From Nature was used as a Sunday Reading book in CM's programmes. It is the same in our home.

Just So Stories was moved to free reading, and it does get read - just not aloud and not during school time ;) I had a hard time deciding about this one. It's one of the more challenging books for this year, and I considered keeping it because of it's strong vocabulary. Kipling's not a bad writer, you know ;) In the end, though, I chose to keep the school load as close to the PNEU programmes as possible, and Just So Stories was one book too many for our schedule. It's nice to have the children in the habit of reading challenging books for fun.

We use the Milo Winter version of Aesop for Children, but only 3 fables per term. That's what the PUS programmes scheduled. Again, I'm counting on the girls reading the rest on their own later.

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare is not my favorite choice - too sparse. I much prefer the Lamb version, but plan to save Lamb for a little later on. For a very first introduction to Shakepeare, I really like the Coville books (check out my sidebar). But, again, I can't find anywhere that Miss Mason included Shakespeare in Form 1b, so I feel perfectly fine with only doing one play this year. I chose The Winter's Tale. It's about 40 pages long and it will take about 10 weeks to finish.

And that brings me to The Blue Fairy Book. Here, I admit, I think I made a mistake by replacing this book. I wanted to try to use books we already had. I soooo love the illustrations in the Treasury of Children's Literature (TCL) and the stories are told well, but they really don't come close to Lang's versions. As preparation for Year Two's harder books (Pilgrim's Progress, Robin Hood), I really think Lang would be hard to beat. SweetP is reading Rumplestiltskin independently from TCL right now, but I think the next fairy tale will have to be Lang. She may not be able to read it independently, but I really want her to have the more challenging vocabulary. So, we're running back to AO for fairy tales.

FREE READING
So far this year, SweetP has read Charlotte's Web and The King of the Golden River (which she voluntarily narrated - often), Pocahontas, and The Velveteen Rabbit from the list. We have read St. George and the Dragon and The Little House in the Big Woods before this year. I'm hoping to get The Red Fairy Book for her birthday next month :) Also, I plan on reading Pinocchio and Peter Pan aloud to the children after we finish The Magician's Nephew and The Long Winter (maybe later this spring). So, I'm following the recommended free reading list quite closely ;)

Hope that clears some things up.

Why I Love Ambleside Online

2008-01-09T08:00:00.001-08:00

visit: amblesideonline.org

I knew that we had changed the original, official Ambleside Online Year One booklist quite a bit to suit our family this year. I had not realized until this week, though, how very much we have changed it. Really, I can't even say my children use the curriculum right now. However, I can most definitely say that I use the curriculum... a lot!

Have you ever taken the time to just read the AO website? I mean really dig in and read it? Just tonight, I re-read the section that comes up when you click "About AO" at the top of the returning users page. There is a link to Leslie Noelani's account of how Ambleside Online began and how it has become the incredible resource that it is today. If you haven't read the story behind Ambleside Online, really - stop reading this post and go read those pages. I have the utmost respect and admiration for the AO Advisory, and I really don't think I'll ever be able to fully understand how deeply their contributions have impacted my little family. These women have blessed me, a complete stranger, beyond measure with this labor of love called Ambleside Online.

If you're still reading this post, I'll assume you've already read those pages at AO ;) Reading them more than once doesn't hurt, either. You can always come back and read me blabbing away later on.

What do I mean when I say that I use Ambleside Online, even though my children currently do not? I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that I have literally studied Ambleside Online. I printed out every single one of the AO articles and put them in a 3-ring binder! I have studied their book choices, studied their comments, studied their explanations. As a result, Ambleside Online has an extremely personal feel for me. When I log on to that website, even though I have never met any one of the dear souls that put it together, I feel like I'm walking in to the most rockin' Charlotte Mason support group I could possibly find. One of the most incredible things about AO is that it was completely developed by CM moms- to use with their own children! How could a curriculum get any more personal than that?! As I have read Miss Mason's series (which I first read online at AO, by the way), read books about CM, emailed back and forth in CM email groups, and blogged, the women at Ambleside Online have held my hand all the way. When I have a question, I go to Ambleside Online. What does Wendi say about this? What does Karen say about that? It is my curriculum :)

I know, so you're wondering why I went and changed the books. Sometimes I wonder the same thing. Part of it (a big part) is personality, part of it is practicality. I may wind up using AO Year 2 exactly as it's written. I may look back on this year and wonder what in the world I was thinking using these books. I may kick myself for not sticking to AO as is. Who knows? One thing is for certain, though. I will definitely read the Ambleside Online pages again, and again, and again. And I'll take comfort in knowing that these moms put all of this together knowing that some of the "users" would change and rearrange it beyond all recognition. That does not mean that I don't value the work they have done. It does not mean that I do not make use of the work they have done. I just use it in a different way - to help me make my own educated decisions. Not everyone likes that kind of autonomy, but I do. For now, anyway :)

So, beyond Miss Mason herself, the women on the Ambleside Online Advisory stand as some of the most influential women in my homeschooling days. What a tremendous blessing they are to me. I can't say it enough. If, by any very slight chance, any of you ladies are reading this post, with tears in my eyes I thank you, thank you, thank you.

God has blessed the work of your hands.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind (Copywork: Part Six)

2008-01-09T07:51:00.000-08:00

There are so many wonderful articles and blog posts about copywork in the Charlotte Mason method that I really had to wonder if there was much of a point in adding to the collection. There has been some good discussion on these copywork posts, though, and I've enjoyed the mini-study. I hope you all have as well :)

Just when you thought I couldn't possibly squeeze another post out of those few transcription pages in Home Education, here I am with Copywork Part V. I think, though, that it might possibly be helpful to someone if I share how we have successfully used the small, lined dry erase boards like the one in the photo above. Especially when first introducing letters (printed or cursive), we've used these little boards a lot! I bought my first one at Office Depot, but recently I bought another just like it at Wal-Mart for less than $3! They have been one of our most frequently used homeschooling items :)

So, how do we use them for CM? Charlotte Mason suggested using blackboards and chalk liberally when first introducing new letters for a child to copy. Her reasoning was that poorly formed letters must be quickly erased so the child could try and try again for that "perfect" letter. Like a misspelled word, a poorly formed letter is a visual insult to the child's eye. To prevent the image of the incorrect letter from making an impression upon the child's mind, faulty letters must be quickly "rubbed out". Now, erasing again and again with a normal pencil eraser is tiring to say the least and makes a complete mess of your paper. Even if the child does manage to finally arrive at that elusive perfect letter at the end of ten minutes, there might be holes in the paper from all of his previous efforts! ;) With the dry erase board, it just wipes away :)

When we are really first beginning to learn letters, we use the unlined side of the dry erase board. Without lines to worry about, the children are able to focus on the strokes. Once the strokes are learned fairly well, we switch to the lined side of the board. By the way, I have several colors of low odor dry-erase markers, and my girls love to choose which color they'll use for writing. Not sure if every child would get such a thrill from doing their handwriting in blue, purple, or red, but it works in our house! :)

There is only one drawback that I can think of to using the dry-erase board. You have nothing to keep! If one of my little students has been doing well and I'd like a copy to keep, we do a few beginning lessons on paper as well. It really hasn't taken us long to move to paper altogether, though, and then the "keepsakes" really start piling up :) With SweetP's cursive, we only use the dry erase board here and there as we introduce new letters or especially tricky ones. She has used paper far more than the dry erase board for cursive, but it has still been handy when introducing strokes.

There you have it :) It's worked well for us, and I hope helps someone else.

The Preposition Song

2008-01-06T08:26:00.000-08:00

* = rest

Preposition Song
(Sung to the tune of “Yankee Doodle”)

Aboard, about, above, across

Against, along, around

Amid, among,* after, at

Except, for, during, down

Behind, below, beneath, beside

Between, before, beyond

By, in, from, off, on, over, of

Until, unto, upon

Under, underneath,* since, up

Like, near, past, throughout, through

With, within,* without, instead

Toward, inside, into, to

song link credit

The Pronoun Song

2008-01-06T08:24:00.000-08:00

The Pronoun Song
(Sung to the “When the Saints Go Marching In”)

I, me, my, mine
You, your, and yours
She, he, it, him, her, his, its, hers
Are the singular personal pronouns,
Which take the place of regular nouns.

We, us, our, ours
You, your, and yours
They, them, their, and theirs are plural.
They are the plural personal pronouns,
Which take the place of regular nouns!

link credit here

Exam Questions: Year One Term One

2007-12-16T07:47:00.000-08:00

Monday A.M.

Tell how God was faithful to Joseph in the land of Egypt. (Bible)

Show how nine beans may be grouped into three sets. Then, show how these same beans may be grouped into three different sets.

Tell how God miraculously protected George Washington during the French and Indian War. (George Washington by D'Aulaire)

Hum Mozart's "A Little Night Music".

Name the colors in the color wheel in Spanish.

***This morning's exam narrations went well :) I waited until Little Dude was down for morning nap, then I gave Shug and Punkin something fun to do and went into another room with SweetP. We had our little tape recorder and microphones, beans, and color wheel. I also had the exam questions. The only issue was that, at times, SweetP would forget to hold the microphone up high enough to her mouth, so I'd have to gently nudge it up in the middle of her narration. That may have been a bit distracting. I meant to time the exam session (just for future planning), but I completely forgot about it when the time came. I hope to time this afternoon's questions, though. Thanks so much for all of the kind comments :) You all are so encouraging.***

Monday P.M.

Tell the story of one of Britain's ancient heroes. (Our Island Story)

Tell why David Livingstone was not content to stay at the mission station in Kuruman. (David Livingstone)

What have you noticed (yourself) about a white-tailed deer?

Tell one of Aesop's fables (The Aesop for Children)

***Well, we're done for the day! This afternoon's exams took a total of ten minutes. One tip - if you're trying to tape narrations with a ten month old baby in the room, it might be hard to hear through the squeals and babbles ;) Once Little Dude was occupied with some Legos, SweetP began to narrate much more fluently than she had in the morning (even offering a little extra anecdote on the last question). It may be that she just needed to warm up since she hadn't officially narrated since Thursday. I'm pleased with today's exam experience! Although, I'm not convinced that this tape recorder is the best way to go.***

Tuesday A.M.

Tell three ways in which Martha Washington was a comfort to the soldiers in the Continental Army. (Martha Washington)

Arrange the hands on the Judy Clock to point to 7 o' clock.

Tell the story of the boy Jesus in the temple. (Bible)

Explain how water travels from the Nipigon Country in Canada to the Atlantic Ocean. (Paddle-to-the-Sea)

Name your family relationships in Spanish (example: Nana is my abuela)

***SweetP was a little flaky this morning. I'm not sure if the questions were a bit harder or what. I knew the Paddle question would be tricky - she got the basic concept of the pathway, but she kept wanting to name the Great Lakes in order of Paddle's course. Eventually, I told her to end her narration, and we looked at the map later on. Who knows how long she would have thought aloud about whether Lake Huron came before of after Lake Erie if I hadn't moved her along ;) We used a normal tape recorder today instead of the toy one with the microphone. I'll wait until afternoon exams are over to comment on my preference.***

Tuesday P.M.

Tell about your favorite aria from The Magic Flute. (The Magic Flute)

Tell all you can about what makes an animal a mammal. What can you tell about nursing sows and their piglets?

Sing as much of any folk song as you can.

Choose two different tree-nuts/seeds that you have seen this fall and tell all you can about them.

Count from 1 to 10 in Spanish

***Considering that we didn't get to these exam narrations until 7:30pm, SweetP did great! I didn't tape record these answers, I just typed as fast as I could. Which wasn't fast enough. I had to interrupt her a lot to get all of the words typed out. Not at all optimal. It definitely helps to type later after the narrations have been recorded. I'm feeling so-so about exams so far. I think I'll like having so many narrations typed out for our year end State Assessments, but I'm not sure about how beneficial I think they are in general. We'll go on with tomorrow as planned, though.***

Wednesday A.M. (Not today! We went shopping all day instead!)
***Thursday A.M. instead***

Recite a poem that you have memorized this term.

Tell a tale about a Greek or Roman hero. (Fifty Famous Stories Retold)

Using an orange, explain one way in which we can tell the earth is a sphere. (Elementary Geography)

Explain why the American Revolution was fought. (Martha Washington)

Translate the following Spanish words into English: comer, globo, por favor, hola

***I felt better about exams today. I purposed to keep the feel of things light and relational instead of too "exam-y". We did not tape record, but I typed as fast as I could (which is pretty fast), all the while abbreviating a good bit and misspelling a lot in my efforts to keep up. I still had to ask her to wait for me to catch up, though. After SweetP finished each narration, I took a moment to go back through my typing and correct my typing errors. I liked this better than typing after recording, but SweetP (of course) really likes using the tape recorder. She did say (sweetly - her blog name fits her) that she doesn't like having to stop her narration to wait for me typing. That makes sense. I think for our final exam questions we will try Lindafay's method and tape record without transcription. I could always type a few narrations each term for written records.***

Wednesday P.M. (No exams today - we played hooky!)
Thursday P.M. instead

Tell all you know about the continent of Africa. (David Livingstone)

Count out 12 beans into one set. Tell how many beans will be left if you take four away? Show your work with the beans.

Tell a fairy tale or folk tale that we have read this term. (Treasury of Children's Literature)

Tell all you know about the nest-making habits of goldfinches. (Among the Forest People)

Sing "Frere Jacques"

***We're done!! This afternoon we used the tape recorder again. Aside from the one time SweetP got completely distracted by brushing dust off of the top of it right in the middle of her fairy tale narration, I would say this session went more smoothly than those I typed as she narrated. I would prefer to not transcribe today's narrations, but I remembered that I had told SweetP (a few weeks ago) I would type out her answers. She's a paper-loving child and the idea of a little book of her own narrations appealed to her greatly ;) So, I guess I'm going to type out some narrations tonight,*sigh*. Helpful tip - don't make silly commitments to transcribing exams unless you really like typing. This is an especially handy tip if your child is a rather prolific talker.***

Our Very First Exam Week - Ever!

2007-12-15T07:45:00.000-08:00

Week twelve is now officially completed and that means one thing. We are about to embark on our very first ever exam week. I'm a little nervous. I'm trying to remember all the kind and encouraging words I've read at Higher Up and Further In about making exam week pleasurable and a highlight of the term. I'm trying to remember that I had similar feelings when we first began narrations, and look how well everything turned out. I'm sure it will be fine. There's just this funny insecurity because I have never done this before nor have I seen it done. It's just me, Charlotte Mason, and a few good blog posts tonight as I try to figure out exactly what I'm supposed to do.

I know that last line, "exactly what I'm supposed to do", is a little out of fashion right now in homeschooling circles. We hear a lot about how "supposed to" is like a dirty word in homeschooling. Someday, I am sure I will have tailored CM style exams to fit our family just right, but at this point, I'm wanting a good deal of guidance. The flex part can come later when I have a better idea of what I'm doing.

In reading other blogs and specific entries on exams, I've been surprised at how many comments seemed to think examinations were incompatible with Miss Mason's methods. Without a doubt, Charlotte Mason's students underwent an examination at the end of each term. Even the youngest ones.

Did you know that Charlotte Mason gives a very detailed outline of how these exams were conducted for each of the grade levels (forms)? Her explanation of Parents' Review School (the homeschool version of a PNEU school) examinations can be found in the appendix to Volume 3, School Education. (By the way, "drill" simply means exercises or calisthenics.) She writes the following:

"The Parents' Review School, an output of The Parents' Union, was, in the first place, designed to bring homeschools, taught by governesses, up to the standard of other schools. A Training College for governesses, with Practising School, etc., was established later. Children may not enter the School under six; because we think the first six years of life are wanted for physical growth and the self-education which children carry on with little ordered aid. The Parents' Review school is conducted by means of programmes of work, in five classes, sent out, term by term, to each of the home schools (and to some other schools); and the same programmes are used in the Practising School. Examination papers are set at the end of each term.

The work is arranged on the principles which have been set forth in this volume; a wide curriculum, a considerable number of books for each child in the several classes, and, besides, a couple of hours' work daily, not with Books but with Things. Many of the pupils in the school have absorbed, in a way, the culture of their parents; but the children of uncultured parents take with equal readiness and comparable results to this sort of work, which is, I think, fitted, not only for the clever, but also for the average and even the dull child.

Class 1a. - The child of six goes into Class 1a.; he works for 2 and 1/2 hours a day, but half an hour of this time is spent in drill and games. Including drill, he has thirteen 'subjects' of study, for which about sixteen books are used. He recited hymns, poems, and Bible verses; works from Messrs Sonnenschein and Nesbitt's ABC Arithmetic; sings French and English songs; begins Mrs. Curwen's Child Pianist, learns to write and to print, learns to read, learns French orally, does brushdrawing and various handicrafts. All these things are done with joy, but cannot be illustrated here. Bible lessons, read from the Bible; tales, natural history, and geography are taught from appointed books, helped by the child's own observation.

Our plan in each of these subjects is to read to him the passage for the lesson (a good long passage), talk about it a little, avoiding much explanation, and then let him narrate what has been read. This he does very well and with pleasure, and is often happy with catching the style as well as the words of the author.

Certain pages, say 40 or 50, from each of the children's books are appointed for a term's reading. At the end of the term an examination paper is sent out containing one or two questions on each book. Here are a few of the answers. The children in the first two classes narrate their answers, which someone writes from their dictation."

Miss Mason then goes on to cite specific exam questions and answers from students in each of the grade levels. The narrations these children give are truly illuminating for the modern CM mother. Do you ever wonder what Charlotte Mason's standards were for children the same age as yours? Rest assured, sister, they were high. If you'd like to read the exam answers, Ambleside Online has them available here. I've typed enough tonight ;)

I will, however, list out the example questions that were sent out to the Parents' Review School homes. These questions are for Form 1a. (six or seven year old children).

* Tell the story of Naaman.

* Tell a fairy story. (If you don't read any other answers, read this one!)

* What have you noticed (yourself) about a spider?

* Gather three sorts of leaf-buds and two sorts of catkin, and tell all you can about them.

* Tell about The North-West Passage.

Of course, this is just a sampling. Miss Mason indicated that the examination paper included one to two questions for each of the books used within the course of the term. She reported that roughly sixteen books were used to cover thirteen 'subjects'. We have not, in our little homeschool, had a "full load" CM term. This was our first term of Year One (Form 1a.), and I felt the need to ease into things a bit. We have not included all of the subjects at this point; although, I plan to include all of them by the middle of the second term. For our first term, we had about 11 books, including our poetry and math books (we read well over fifty pages from each of them - something to improve next term - more later). I'll be working on questions from each of those books tomorrow night, and we'll be doing exam narrations on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week.

I'm still learning, ladies. Little by little :)

Beginning Narration

2007-12-12T20:08:00.000-08:00

After my first post on SweetP's beginning narrations, I read through some more of Charlotte Mason's first book, Home Education. It turns out that my daughter is not a prodigy after all! ;) Here's what Miss Mason has to say about the average child and narration:

"Narration is an art, like poetry-making or painting, because it is there, in every child's mind, waiting to be discovered and is not the result of any process of disciplinary education. A creative fiat calls it forth. 'Let him narrate'; and the child narrates, fluently, copiously, in ordered sequence, with fit and graphic details, with a just choice of words, without verbosity or tautology, as soon as he can speak with ease."

So, basically, if Miss Mason had read my first entry, she would have graciously smiled and said something to the effect of, "Yes, dear. That was a lovely first narration. What did you expect?" Telling is a natural ability of each child.

I would have wondered if perhaps Miss Mason wasn't exaggerating a bit when she said children were ready to narrate as soon as their language skills were developed if I hadn't heard Punkin (almost 3 years old) narrate of her own invention yesterday afternoon. Mind you, she had never heard SweetP narrate. Thinking back, I know the older two girls did the same at her age, and I think, younger. I had just read Katy No Pocket and I gave her the book to look at while I nursed the baby. I sat quietly as she "read" the book aloud to herself. Her narration went something like this:

"Then Katy went to the city. She saw the man with the apron. 'Pleeeaaase, may I have your apron?' she asked. The man gave her his man-sized apron and shook it reaaally hard. Then Katy had the most pockets in the world."

Charlotte was right. Again. My three year old just narrated and I was silly to worry that my six year old might have a hard time. It was Mama who needed a little practice with it, not her. The practice has been good, though. I'm gaining some confidence in how to correctly lead a child in narration.

Steps in Teaching Handwriting (Copywork: Part Five)

2007-12-09T07:41:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure about all of you, but I've been enjoying going through a rather detailed series on Miss Mason's instructions for copywork. Hope you don't mind a few more posts on the topic. I'll try to break them up a bit over the week. Now, where were we...

"One letter should be perfectly formed in a day, and the next day the same elemental forms repeated in another letter, until they become familiar. By-and-by copies, three or four of the letters they have learned grouped into a word––'man,' 'aunt'; the lesson to be the production of the written word once without a single fault in any letter." Home Education pg. 234

Here Miss Mason gives us some step-by-step instructions on how to give our handwriting lessons. We've been following this method very closely in our homeschool for a little over a year now and the results, I have to tell you, have been tremendous. I'm attributing a great deal to the details of which Miss Mason writes. I will concede, though, that I do think there is some form of handwriting "heredity" (and it seems closely linked to drawing ability). Maybe it comes through in the teaching when Mama has nice handwriting or maybe certain children are somehow pre-wired, but I think it's at least possible that there's a kind of genetic handwriting predisposition. BUT, remember our dear mentor's examples of classrooms full of children thriving under these methods. Not every single one of those children had good writin' genes ;) Every child can learn to write well.

SweetP began learning to form her printed letters when she showed a sustained interest at age four (bigtime breaking the CM rule of no school before age 6). I didn't push her; she really was interested in learning. So, we learned. Now, nearly three years later, she is transitioning into cursive. She's extremely excited about this, and I think it's been good to keep handwriting interesting by adding in the cursive twice a week. Actually, the PNEU schools taught cursive alongside manuscript for ages six and seven. I thought that was interesting.

The first bit of cursive that SweetP learned was her own name. This was just our own preference, not a CM recommendation. There is a lowercase "h" in her name, so her second lesson began with letters that share the same "elemental form", as the CM quote above suggests. One entire lesson was devoted to forming a perfect lowercase "l". This does not mean a page full of imperfect letter "l"s with one good "l" at the end. It means maybe four to six very good ones, finally stopping after a perfect one is formed. The next lesson was then focused on forming a perfect lowercase "b", and so on. Whenever she formed one of the letters poorly, we quickly erased it and she tried again. No emotionality about it (matter-of-factly, remember?), just a little word of encouragement from me and another earnest try. If a letter was very good with a tiny mistake, I praised her and let it stay on the line, but she still tried again to write a completely perfect one. When we are just beginning to introduce new letters, I like to do handwriting lessons when there is absolutely no rush or interruption. Dawdling is never an issue with this particular child (Shug is another story), so I let her feel like we had all the time in the day for that one letter. Once she had formed the letter perfectly, the lesson was done for the day. On occasion, she would form the day's letter perfectly on the first try. Knowing she would be disappointed to have her cursive lesson over so soon, I chose to add another letter in for the lesson. So, on those days, she actually practiced two letters to perfection before we stopped. If any of our lessons had gone past ten minutes without a perfect letter, we would have - on Miss Mason's recommendation - stopped for the day (on an encouraging note) and tried again with the next cursive day.

Now, several weeks later, SweetP has learned to form her own name as well as lowercase cursive h,l,f,b,k,o and e perfectly (still doing several days of printed copywork a week). On Thursday, we combined some of these letters (again, as the quote at the top of this post suggests) to form a word. First, we reviewed the letters she had already learned and she wrote her best four to six of each of them. Then, I wrote the word "bell" on the top line of the paper. SweetP gave her strongest attempt on the line beneath mine. She did better than I did on her first try! I had a small glitch in my "b", but she did not! She thought that was a hoot ;)As she learns more of her letters, there will be more and more of this sort of a lesson. She will be writing words comprised of the letters she has already learned. She was really tickled with writing "bells" in cursive today. She beamed and said, "It won't be long before I do all my copywork in cursive!"

We should all have such simple joys in life :)

Let The Writing Lesson Be Short (Copywork: Part Four)

2007-12-09T07:33:00.000-08:00

"I can only offer a few hints on the teaching of writing, though much might be said. First, let the child accomplish something perfectly in every lesson––a stroke, a pothook, a letter. Let the writing lesson be short; it should not last more than five or ten minutes. Ease in writing comes by practice; but that must be secured later. In the meantime, the thing to be avoided is the habit of careless work––humpy 'm's, angular o's." Home Education pg. 234

For the first handwriting lessons, Miss Mason recommends only five to ten minutes. Have you ever timed your handwriting lessons? I hadn't until I first began reading about CM and her use of short lessons. I had my daughters (at age 4) writing for 20 minutes to finish their A Reason For Handwriting lessons! No wonder we were on edge by the end! By using short lessons (truly only 10 minutes or less, even 2 years later now) the children stay fresh and their concentrated efforts to form their "very best" letters do not give way to sloppy, half-hearted work. At the beginning, the important thing is to do it slowly and carefully - the very best the children can write for just a few minutes.

Fine Arts Friday: The Magic Flute (Mozart)

2007-12-07T07:39:00.000-08:00

We've been studying Mozart as our term's composer. In particular, we've been focusing on one of Mozart's operas, The Magic Flute, for the past several weeks. The girls have not had much exposure to opera, so I took this fun storyline as a good introduction. After listening to the basic plot summary on Classics for Kids, we then watched this short excerpt from the opera. If you're interested, here's the famous duet sung by Papageno and his beloved Papagena :)

Long Days Outdoors

2007-12-05T20:02:00.000-08:00

"I make a point, says a judicious mother, of sending my children out, weather permitting, for an hour in the winter, and two hours a day in the summer months. That is well; but it is not enough. In the first place, do not send them; if it is anyway possible, take them; for, although the children should be left much to themselves, there is a great deal to be done and a great deal to be prevented during these long hours in the open air. And long hours they should be; not two, but four, five, or six hours they should have on every tolerably fine day, from April till October. Impossible! Says an overwrought mother who sees her way to no more for her children than a daily hour or so on the pavements of the neighbouring London squares. Let me repeat, that I venture to suggest, not what is practicable in any household, but what seems to me absolutely best for the children; and that, in the faith that mothers work wonders once they are convinced that wonders are demanded of them. A journey of twenty minutes by rail or omnibus, and a luncheon basket, will make a day in the country possible to most town dwellers; and if one day, why not many, even every suitable day?" - Home Education pg. 44

I was that judicious mother of which Charlotte Mason writes :) I tried to get the children out for at least an hour everyday and felt like really hot stuff if I got them out for more than that. Every once in a while, we'd go to the local arboretum or walk the trails at a nature reserve, too. What a shock to me when I read this section of Home Education! I had no recollection of The Charlotte Mason Companion mentioning four to six hours outside! Had I written my reaction down it would've read something like the following: "What on earth is this nonsense all about?! Four to six hours indeed. How idle does this woman think I'm willing to be? She wants me to sit outside for five hours on a blanket!? Are there women that do this? Are there women that want to do this?"

I was not impressed.

But, then I kept reading. "It would be well if we all, persons in authority, parents and all who act for parents, could make up our minds that there is no sort of knowledge to be got in these early years so valuable to children as that which they get for themselves of the world they live in. Let them once get touch with Nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life. We were all meant to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things." I pondered her words as I sat and watched my two year old mesmerized for a full ten minutes by one lady bug. I wasn't concerned about the laundry at that moment. Somehow, all this time outdoors was beginning to seems less ridiculous than it had seemed at the first reading.

So, I read some more. "Consider, too, what an unequalled mental training the child-naturalist is getting for any study or calling under the sun––the powers of attention, of discrimination, of patient pursuit, growing with his growth, what will they not fit him for?" I decided it was time to give Miss Mason a run for her money. I was going to take up the challenge. I would give it a shot, and just see if this four to six hours a day was even possible. I was about seven months pregnant at the time and had three small children under six years old. If I could do this, then I'd admit that Charlotte Mason wasn't being completely insane.

We tried it. First, we went to the arboretum or a local park for two to three hours at a stretch. I would often take a packed lunch along. It was autumn when we first got really serious about this plan, so the weather was often gorgeous. Soon, two hours seemed like hardly any and three and four hours were more the norm. We were regularly spending long hours outside at least four days out of the week. It was getting easier. I found I had more energy and more patience. I found the children spent their time sweetly and that their interest in nature was rapidly growing. I also found that, when we spent long hours outdoors, they napped really well that afternoon once we got home ;)

One day, while reading Home Education, I had an epiphany of sorts. I realized that Charlotte Mason did not necessarily mean that all four to six hours had to be spent in a row. What a revelation! My husband built a picnic table for my 31st birthday gift, and lunches soon went outdoors. Sometimes breakfast and dinner,too! On busier days, these outdoor meals and a nature walk after lunch would add up to two hours on their own. Couldn't an hour be spent in the yard gardening and later a little game of ball played with Daddy in the backyard? I was beginning to see how this "out of doors life" could actually be lived - and enjoyed.

We were enjoying it! So much so that we kept it up through the arrival of my son and on through the next full year (although, the dead heat of summer was trickier). Even with a newborn, we were frequently going out for what we have come to call "Park Days". I think these days were especially nice with a newborn - what a blessing to just rest and let the children play happily. Sure, sometimes it's not so easy to get out the door, but over a little time, we've worked out a system that makes things a bit easier for us. Even with the school year now in full swing, we've been able to have five hour Park Days twice a week, often taking school books along for my oldest daughter. I think narrations have been best when she's been outside ;)

There have been so many wonderful surprises coming out of "trying" this seemingly impossible way of life. For instance, when we are galavanting out in some prairie or riverside, my house is staying clean! I never would've come up with that idea! :) But, it's true! We do chores in the mornings before we leave, and when we come home for nap - it's still clean! How wonderful. Although, the children aren't ;) We've also figured out to make the most of rainy days to keep up with the house. We usually do a little extra housework and spend a bit longer on lessons on those days. We have all learned so much about nature, too, and have improved in our habits of observation and attention. Not to mention the many restful days we have spent together, enjoying our Father's creation.

All of this has been an unexpected "fringe benefit" of researching the Charlotte Mason method. I didn't know my five year old would learn to identify a sycamore tree just by playing under one. I didn't know my toddler would learn to distinguish between a Monarch and a Painted lady (without a book). I didn't know how much I would treasure moments in the grass with my six year old and my baby both lying in my lap. I didn't know I would be able to slow down this much. I love it.

I laughed out loud when Miss Mason said mothers could work wonders once they were convinced that wonders were demanded of them.

I am so glad I was wrong :)

For more posts on Long Days Outdoors, please click on the "outdoors" tag below :)

Injured Eyeballs and Cheering for Our Children (Copywork: Part Three)

2007-12-05T07:30:00.000-08:00

Now, isn't that a catchy title? Gotcha here didn't it? ;)

Last Monday, I posted about "perfect accomplishment" in handwriting. Or, as many of us call it, copywork. I've been evaluating my methods for teaching handwriting throughout the last several weeks, so I thought I'd share a few of my thoughts and more than a few of Charlotte Mason's on the subject. Last week's post considered our standards for our children. Are we letting them get by with less than they can actually do? Having decided that most of us probably are not requiring enough of our children in this area, we had to wonder how to "get" that elusive perfect handwriting from our sweet, little students. (Well, mine are little, anyway.)

In her first volume, Home Education, Miss Mason gives us a few specific tips toward our goal. On page 160, she writes the following:

"A Child should Execute Perfectly. - No work should be given to a child that he cannot execute perfectly, and then perfection should be required of him as a matter of course. For instance, he is set to do a copy of strokes, and is allowed to show a slateful at all sorts of slopes and intervals; his moral sense is vitiated, his eye is injured. Set him six strokes to copy; let him, not bring a slateful, but six perfect strokes at regular distances and at regular slopes."

First off, let's make sure we even know what we've just read! What is all this talk about injured eyes and vitiated something or others? My interpretation is that Miss Mason is saying that we harm the child's sense of right and wrong when we let him get by with sloppy and half-hearted work. I would say that, at best, we lose an opportunity to train the child to value hard work carefully done. It's also just a waste of time, our time and the children's, if all we are doing is letting them learn to make their letters poorly. As far as the injured eye comment goes, Miss Mason is pointing out that the child is somewhat harmed when he is told, either directly or indirectly, that careless and sloppy work is the acceptable standard. His "eye" for beauty is undermined and he is the worse for his poorly done lesson because it was deemed acceptable.

Now that we have that out of the way, I think there is a very key point here in this passage that draws the line between a high standard and pushing a child too hard. The line is drawn with these words: "No work should be given to a child that he cannot execute perfectly". I need to know my children and their abilities as individuals. You need to know your children and their abilities as individuals. Regardless of whether a child tends to be a slow learner or is leaps and bounds beyond her peers, the standard is in relation to that particular child's own abilities. This does not mean that we keep things easy for our children so that they are guaranteed success. No, we are to challenge our child with the highest level of work that he can still do perfectly.

This takes discernment. It's a bit like the little boy who says his tummy aches, but you aren't sure if it really does hurt him or if he's just trying to avoid taking out the trash. Each one of us has to assess where our child's true limit is, not just where that child says it is. He might need gently pushed a bit to challenge his mind and abilities. If he's been accustomed to lazy work, he won't like the new standard at first. But, Miss Mason advises that we are doing our children a great disservice to allow them the habits of a careless work ethic and a careless attitude. Maybe I should write it on my lesson planner - "The little things matter".

So, when you establish the new standard and your child still comes to you that day with a page full of his half-hearted work, what are you to do? Miss Mason is so kind to have written this all out for us, isn't she? ;)

"If he produces a faulty pair, get him to point out the fault, and persevere until he has produced his task; if he does not do it to-day, let him go on to-morrow and the next day, and when the six perfect strokes appear, let it be an occasion of triumph!"

We are on their team, on the same side. We ought to be cheering for them! I know it can be so hard to keep from getting frustrated and tired and annoyed, but we must beg God for grace and discipline ourselves in the habit of being positive with our children. If the day's work is sloppy, Miss Mason says to simply have the child do it again. Actually, no! She says if the day's work is less than perfect have him do it again. Matter-of-factly, not with a sigh and a reproving look of disappointment, just matter-of-factly. "Oh, honey, this is better than last week. You are improving, but I have seen you write these letters more carefully and I know you can do it again today if you try." What if the letters are still not well done and the time for today's lesson is over? Whatever you do, please don't have the child write and write and write until his little arm goes numb. That would be completely defeating the purpose. Miss Mason's instructions here are to, in such a case, let the child try again tomorrow. If the letters are not perfect tomorrow, well then, try the next day! Finally, when the perfect letters do appear (and I love this part), celebrate with him! Not with stickers and a new Webkinz, but with genuine praise and pride in his accomplishment. If we would have our children truly value a job well done, we must show them how earnestly we value the same. See? Handwriting just crossed over into character training.

Isn't it a blessing to be on your child's side?

"So with the little tasks of painting, drawing, or construction he sets himself - let everything he does be done well."

Rainy Days Clean My Toilets

2007-12-04T20:13:00.000-08:00

Before I get going on this blog entry, let me say a few things. Firstly, I want to make it quite clear that I am definitely not in a shiny floor and dessert with dinner stage of life. All of my children are still pretty little, my house is big, and I have to be more careful than ever before to safeguard my finite energy. Secondly, everything I'm about to write is just as much to remind myself as it is to pass anything along to someone else. Lastly, I'm getting there, but I'm not there yet. My house is not perfect, but it's decent and - with God's grace and strength, I'm trying. It does me so much good to regularly remember this quote from Stepping Heavenward:

"If you could once make up your mind in the fear of God never to undertake more work of any sort than you can carry on calmly, quietly, without hurry or flurry, and the instant you feel yourself growing nervous and like one out of breath, would stop and take breath, you would find this simple common-sense rule doing for you what no prayers or tears could ever accomplish."

I've never had to pace myself like this before. I have to go slowly. I need those restful days of sitting beneath a tree every bit as much as my children need the open air and grass to run around in. I need naps. It's different for me now than it was even a couple of years ago. It's no secret, anyone with small children and no older children will tell you that although we are immeasurably blessed and would not trade any of it for all the world, this stage of motherhood is exhausting.

But, my toilets are still dirty.

My husband still needs clean underwear to wear tomorrow.

It would be good if we didn't order pizza for dinner - again.

I am just beginning to figure out a few things that help me get on top of my main responsibilities and stay there. Some of these ideas have come from precious, older moms whose advice I praise God for! :) But, honestly, I have lower standards right now than I have in the past. I'm not trying to win awards here, I'm just trying to do what the Lord has really given me for today. It does no good to stress about what I cannot get to. The Lord will give the strength and the time for His work.

Now, about the rain cleaning my toilets. Did you wonder about that one? Well, all I really mean is that I count on a few rainy days here and there to get some good cleaning in. Even more than that, I plan my week depending upon the weather and any exstenuating circumstances (doctor's appointments, service opportunity, dinner at in-laws, etc.). I do not plan out our school term all at once. For me, this is key. I do have a fairly good idea of what I want to cover in the course of the school year and, more specifically, each term. However, I do not sit and write down lesson plans or even a daily schedule or school "to do list" more than a week out. I've tried it before and I can never stick to it. Life is too variable. I do much better with short term planning and we have been able to be quite consistent with schooling this way. So, this is how planning all of my spinning plates looks on any given week:

1) I throw out any spinning plates that do not matter this week. The weeds are in check, not gardening this week, for instance.

2) I check the weather for the week.

3) I write the week's forecast in on my simple, little planner from Walmart.

4) I ask the Lord for wisdom in "ordering our days aright" and check in now and then with Hubby to see how he's feeling about my priorities.

5) Depending on the week's weather, I then write in high priority non-school, non-house commitments like my mom's birthday dinner or spending time with a friend whose husband is deployed or whatever. I work to keep these very limited - I get spent up too quickly if I do too much back to back. This week we're going to Sam's parents on Friday night because they're moving on Saturday. Sissy asked us over for dinner Saturday night, but I know Sunday is a bear for me as it is - so we picked the Friday night and turned down the Saturday night. Everyone has different limitations here. This is reality for me right now.

6) I block out the prettiest day or two for light to very light school days (depending on how much we've been able to be outside lately. A gorgeous day in January calls for *no school*, but a pretty day in June when pretty days are a dime a dozen may only be a little lighter than normal.) Sometimes, we go the Sonlight route and take school outside with us. I had the loveliest time reading lessons to SweetP at the arboretum the other day with Little Dude on my lap and Punkin and Shug romping in the leaves not too far away. Don't worry, SweetP romped both before and after the reading ;)

7) I block out at least one, better two, days a week for much less time outside and more time inside cleaning. Today and the next 3 days are forecasted for heavy rain. That's four days total of not much time outside! Yikes. But, I know ahead of time that I will have 4 solid days with a little extra cleaning. I can't go hog wild (still that exhaustion factor), but if I work solidly and purposefully, I can get a lot done.

8) I look at Ambleside Online and my own little booklist and I schedule in our schooling for the week. Somedays are very light, but no day is chock full. I just don't plan school days with so much in there that I'm going to be stressed to fit it all in. That's a recipe for one grumpy homeschool. If the work needs done, it has to be spread out. For this reason, I can't have more than one very light school day a week or two somewhat light school days a week. I don't want to be trying to jam everything in on Friday. Sometimes, if there's really no reason to sweat it, I just let us miss a lesson. Math, for instance, is on no set schedule. I don't miss often, but if I do it's not like we're behind. Reading, too, has more flex to it since both girls are reading fluidly and with comprehension.

9) I have to accept that things are probably going to have to be adjusted even after they're written down on Sunday night. Some weeks everything stays right where I first put it and I make my merry little check marks, knowing that I have thought through and planned for our time each day. That's so nice. But, sometimes the van needs new tires and I can't go to a park on the one dry day all week or sometimes I wake up with a whopper of a migraine (last week) and I actually have to ditch all school that day and call in reinforcements so I don't pass out on the baby. That's not so nice.

10) As far as the housework goes on the "extra" housework days, I keep in mind Elisabeth Elliot's reassuring motto: "Just do the next thing". It's not about scouring the house in one afternoon. I already admitted there's no way. I know about Flylady. I've checked out Flylady. I don't do Flylady. I think Flylady must have a very small house. I'm not mopping this kitchen floor in 15 minutes, honey. I remember asking an awesome older friend of mine (over 60) in Virginia for tips on scheduling housework. She looked at me like I had three heads. "Why do you need to schedule housework? You don't need a chart to tell you there are dishes in the sink?!" LOL, she's so sweetly blunt. I took it to heart, though. Anyway, I just have to do what needs done most and pray for the spirit to do it calmly and cheerfully - then choose to not stress about the rest. I try to get the dishes out of the sink and one load of laundry done (if I'm caught up) everyday. I'm training the girls to help out in certain things. We have a place for almost everything and try to get most things in their place each afternoon and evening. I swallow my pride and ask my husband to help me every so often. Dear sweet man. I do a little more on rainy days with a little bigger cup of coffee. No real golden nuggets of profound wisdom really, but I hope maybe a little reassuring to someone.

Charlotte Mason Distinctives: What Really Reeled Me In

2007-12-02T19:59:00.000-08:00

What are the distinctives of a Charlotte Mason education? What makes the CM method so unique and why are so many homeschoolers choosing this route for their children?

When I first began reading about Charlotte Mason and her educational philosophy, I was already implementing some of her methods unknowingly. For instance, I knew I had a strong preference for using living books instead of textbooks in the areas of history, science, and literature. I had never heard the term "living book", but I knew that there were some wonderfully well written books available for children, and textbooks seemed unnecessarily dull and dry to me. I was interested when I heard there was a whole approach to homeschooling that used nothing but books likes these.

I took my first steps toward CM, and barely even knew it ;)

So, what exactly is a living book? In Miss Mason's third volume, School Education, she illustrates how a child's enjoyment of a book may be one measure of whether or not the book is living: "The children must enjoy the book. The ideas it holds must each make that sudden, delightful impact upon their minds, must cause that intellectual stir, which mark the inception of an idea" (p. 178). Here, I think, we find what we are trying to get at with living books. Impact. Ideas. Intellectual stir. There is no yawning and glum turning of page after page. These books are interesting. The thoughts that they stir up both feed and exercise the young minds of their readers. They must also be challenging, well-written, and able to be narrated. This is what is meant by a "living book".

Before I began reading Charlotte Mason, I was already beginning to see the benefit of short lessons in our home. My older two girls were learning to read early and well by means of just ten minutes a day. They were, similarly, learning to write their letters in just as little time. When I read that Charlotte Mason advocated short lessons for all of the school subjects, I was immediately intrigued. After reading more, her method made so much sense to me! With short lessons, children remain fresh, attentive, and engaged. Time is not wasted on dawdling, wandering thoughts, and discipline issues that arise from fatigue. Lessons are crisp, focused, and - short. The result is plenty of free time for playing outdoors and pursuing other interests, as well as a positive attitude about school work in general. Who wouldn't want that?

Around the same time that I was looking more carefully at CM, I was also reading Teaching the Trivium, which actually references Charlotte Mason here and there. I was initially confused when I read Laurie Bluedorn refer to Charlotte Mason as the Habitual Method. Why would she call it that? I had just started reading Home Education for the first time, and it did not take me long to find out why the CM method could easily be just what Bluedorn suggested. Charlotte Mason focuses a great deal on the importance of training our children in positive habits. In the same vein, she writes about preventing the formation of negative habits. We are all creatures of habit, she writes, everyday tracing the paths of habit more and more deeply into our minds. Habits are critical in the proper raising of children and they are foundational to a proper education. Miss Mason's advise regarding habits has been every bit as valuable to me as the best child training books on the market today. I have been continually challenged and encouraged by her writings on this topic. Habits are the backbone of the CM method in our home. As I read more of Volume One, I was beginning to really get hooked.

Then, with my interest peaked by living books, habit training, and short lessons, I read Miss Mason's thoughts on the out of doors life for my children. I know it sounds dramatic, but every page I read left me so joyful, so thankful that I had found this woman so early on in our home education! Miss Mason writes in Volume One, "The chief function of the child- his business in the world during the first six or seven years of his life- is to find out all he can, about whatever comes under his notice, by means of his five senses; that he has an insatiable appetite for knowledge got in this way; and that, therefore, the endeavor of his parents should be to put him in the way of making acquaintance freely with Nature and natural objects" (p. 96). I cannot tell you how much these words resonated with me. In my heart of hearts I knew that true education in the early years could not be divorced from the natural world, and here was Charlotte Mason encouraging me to let long hours in nature be a purposeful component in the education of my children! "Never," she writes, "be indoors when you can rightly be without."

Hooray!

Now, before you think that I was ready to just read a living book for fifteen minutes a day and then go run around in the woods all afternoon, let me assure you - there is a final distinctive that really drew me to a Charlotte Mason education. Charlotte Mason's method is academically rigorous. If anyone doubts that statement, one look at the average PNEU curriculum puts all concern to rest. Second graders read Pilgrim's Progress, fourth graders read Shakespeare and Tennyson, and sixth grade children are delving into Don Quixote! Unabridged! There is poetry, nature study, classical music and composer study, challenging history accounts, and more. This is no slacker curriculum. In fact, for some mothers, it can be rather intimidating. I am so thankful for the wonderful women who have collaborated and put together the free CM curriculum resources at Ambleside Online. They have taken so much of the potential stress and confusion out of applying Charlotte Mason's methods in the 21st century. What a tremendous blessing!

There are, of course, many other wonderful aspects of Charlotte Mason's approach. I have left out narration, copywork, dictation, drawing, handicrafts, and foreign languages. This entry is long already, though, and I couldn't possibly touch on all of them. If you have more interest in learning about these and other distinctives of the CM method, please click on the buttons in the sidebars of my homepage. I hope to be continually adding to my store of posts on these subjects.

I hope you have been blessed by something you have read here :)

Project FeederWatch

2007-12-01T07:19:00.000-08:00

Have you heard of Project FeederWatch? It's a great way to do nature study on those cold, blustery days of winter. The Project for 2008 began on November 10th, but you can still sign up to take part in this large scale research program sponsored by Cornell University's Department of Ornithology. There is a registration fee of $15 for United States citizens (not sure about the fee for Canadians, but I know you can participate!). Sign-up is really fast and easy - you can pay with any credit card. The research schedule officially runs from November 10th, 2007 through April 4, 2008. We joined today, and should receive our data collection packet in a few weeks. What a useful time frame for Ambleside Online's second term, which for Year One focuses on - you guessed it - BIRDS!

Also, don't miss out on the special link for homeschooling resources :)

If you decide to sign up, I'd love to know about it :)

Happy Birding!

Encouraging Excellence Without Making Little Perfectionists (Copywork: Part Two)

2007-11-30T07:10:00.002-08:00

In the discussion last night about perfect execution in handwriting, a few comments mentioned the issue of how to encourage excellence without fostering perfectionism. I thought about this more today, and I wanted to come back to it a bit.

I'm going to make the assumption that we all value excellence in the little things. That may or may not be true for you, but the rest of this post is going to at least assume that it's true ;) Making beds neatly, sweeping the little crumbs as well as the big ones, writing carefully, etc. (I might draw the line at making houses out of cards, though). The only exceptions are when excellence in bigger things overshadows excellence in little things. For instance, if my children are sick I'll leave the kitchen a bit messy until tomorrow. Being a tender, loving Mama over rules being a good housekeeper at that instant. In general, though, excellence in little things matters. So, slacking on the little things in order to avoid perfectionism is not an option.

How, then, can we communicate high goals to our children without setting them (and ourselves) up to be completely high-strung perfectionists? I think a great deal of the success lies in understanding at least four things.

Firstly, it's important to understand that we are completely fallible creatures with finite resources and abilities. In other words, we can't do it all as perfectly as it can be done, we can only do it as perfectly as we can do it. We can't do more than we can do. I know that's rather obvious, but less obvious is where that statement leads. This means that one man's work well done is not necessarily another man's work well done. I'm not trying to be completely relativistic here. There are absolute measures of what is excellent and what is not. Within those parameters, though, there will be varying degrees for each individual that depend upon his circumstances, personalities, abilities, etc. All we can do is what the grace of God and our own variables allow. Teaching our children that we all have limits (and letting them see our own) and that we all ultimately must lean on God for strength is a first step in combatting perfectionism.

The second helpful thing to understand is that when we react negatively to doing something imperfectly, it is usually stemming from a heart of pride. Why should it matter if the kitchen floor is not perfectly spotless when the company comes? Is it because we truly want that shiny floor to honor our guests or is it because we know our homes are a reflection of us and we want to look good? Pride has got to be one of the all time sneakiest sins. Why does a 7 year old get so angry when he can't figure out the answer to his math question or get his bike to do a wheelie? Chances are that he's good at a lot of things, so good at them that it's really a shot to his pride to have to work much at anything. Addressing the issue of pride in perfectionism is another helpful step.

Thirdly, I would think that a great deal of perfectionism in children is directly linked to their parent's emotional reactions to imperfection. Pressure to do it right. Last fall, I was expecting my Little Dude and was, at times, a little - well - hormonal. I remember getting especially annoyed at SweetP one morning during copywork. Usually such a good writer, it was like she went dull overnight! It was erase this and erase that. I was tired, sick, and really not excited about copywork. My daughter was feeling tense because I was on edge and the whole thing was starting to turn bad. Thankfully, it all worked out in the end, but I got a good look at what pressure does to a child. You can effectively encourage a child to do better without pressuring him to do so. It requires patience, time, and restraint, but it can be done. If you can somehow keep a matter-of-fact view of the whole process, without emotional reactions, that's half the battle of keeping pressure (and corresponding perfectionism) out of lessons.

Lastly, (and this one is especially pertinent to our relationships with our children) we need to see our actions as separate from our intrinsic worth. When my daughters do really excellent work, heaven forbid that I should do anything to communicate that I value them more for it. When they are sloppy with their work, may it never be that I lead them to believe I value them less for it. It is the work we are talking about, not my love for them. If we sense that our children are trying to "perform" for us, that ought to be a serious concern. Children must, from the first, learn that our love for them is because of who they are as our children, not because of what they do. Do you see how profound this is in predisposing children toward the gospel? Not that we can save them, but we can do much to either prepare their hearts for the truth of God's grace or we can set up a stumbling block in their way by fostering a works based righteousness in their little hearts. When they produce faulty or careless work, they must know that we are dissatisfied with the work, not with them. And we must leave them with the hope that they can do that work better.

There's a whole lot more, I'm sure, that could be said. This tension between encouraging excellence and discouraging perfectionism is an important one to resolve. It really touches on so much of life, not just homeschooling. I look forward to hearing thoughts on this :) I learn so much from your comments!

"Perfect Accomplishment" in Handwriting (Copywork Part One)

2007-11-26T07:08:00.001-08:00

During the last two weeks or so, I have been re-reading Charlotte Mason's instructions for teaching handwriting and transcription (copywork). I wanted to review my methods in these areas to see if I have been true to Miss Mason's methods. Honestly, there have been a few points that I had somehow missed the first five or six times I read them :] Since copywork is so much on my mind right now, I'd like to post a series focusing in on sections X and XI in Part V of Home Education, "Lessons as Instruments of Education". Not because I have anything to teach, but because I have so much to learn.

There is quite a lot packed into these two little sections on "Writing" and "Transcription". So much that I decided it was too much to tackle in just one post, or even a few posts. I'd like to go through just a little bit at a time, and really get it down well. I have no idea how many posts it will wind up being in the end, but I'm willing to bet we'll have a fairly good handle on these two sections when we're done ;)

The first subsection under "Writing" is entitled "Perfect Accomplishment", and this is where I'll begin. Miss Mason writes, "I can only offer a few hints on the teaching of writing, though much might be said. First, let the child accomplish something perfectly in every lesson––a stroke, a pothook, a letter. Let the writing lesson be short; it should not last more than five or ten minutes. Ease in writing comes by practice; but that must be secured later. In the meantime, the thing to be avoided is the habit of careless work––humpy 'm's, angular o's."

"The thing to be avoided is the habit of careless work". Our standard in each handwriting lesson, even from the beginning, is to produce something to perfection; whether that be a perfectly straight line, a perfectly round "o", or an entire word perfectly copied. There is no room for carelessness. With short lessons, there really isn't any time for carelessness either.

Does all this talk of "perfect" make us uncomfortable? Can a child really be expected to form his letters so well at such a young age? Lindafay at Higher Up and Further In has a great post about this very issue. She carries more weight on the subject than I ever could due to her many years teaching not only her own children but dozens upon dozens of school children as well. Her belief is that a child most definitely can make well-formed letters from the start. He must only be required to do so.

Earlier in Home Education, Miss Mason addresses perfect execution as a habit to be developed in the children. She uses copywork as her illustrative example here; although, the principle and the habit certainly apply across the disciplines. On page 159 she writes the following concerning The Habit of Perfect Execution: "The Habit of turning out Imperfect Work.––'Throw perfection into all you do' is a counsel upon which a family may be brought up with great advantage. We English, as a nation, think too much of persons, and too little of things, work, execution. Our children are allowed to make their figures or their letters, their stitches, their dolls' clothes, their small carpentry, anyhow, with the notion that they will do better by-and-by. Other nations––the Germans and the French, for instance––look at the question philosophically, and know that if children get the habit of turning out imperfect work, the men and women will undoubtedly keep that habit up. I remember being delighted with the work of a class of about forty children, of six and seven, in an elementary school at Heidelberg. They were doing a writing lesson, accompanied by a good deal of oral teaching from a master, who wrote each word on the blackboard. By-and-by the slates were shown, and I did not observe one faulty or irregular letter on the whole forty slates. The same principle of 'perfection' was to be discerned in a recent exhibition of school-work held throughout France. No faulty work was shown, to be excused on the plea that it was the work of children."

This is impressive to me. Basically, Miss Mason is saying that no normal child is with excuse. There are, certainly, children that will be slower than others owing to some true deficit, but - on the whole - average children are able. Now, this is going to ruffle some feathers, especially since my only boy is a baby, but did you notice that Miss Mason does not make a distinction between boys and girls? She does not report that, of the forty little German students, the girls all turned out perfect letters but the boys did pretty well... for boys. No, she says that the entire class produced perfect writing. Is it possible that we are letting boys slide because we do not expect enough of them in handwriting? Are we excusing faulty work "on the plea" that it is only the work of boys? Charlotte Mason seems to be saying in this paragraph that all normally developing children are capable of perfect execution in their copywork, if only we will expect it of them.

How does this play out in real life with a real child doing real copywork? How do you get perfect execution? You can read Miss Mason's next paragraph if you would like. I'll be addressing these questions in my next post :)

Adapting the AO Booklists to Fit Our Needs

2007-11-25T20:36:00.000-08:00

Recently, cb, one of the frequent visitors here asked me how we fit all of the Ambleside Online readings into our weeks. The truth is that we don't. I've tried to credit AO for the books that we do use from their list (and give those dear women thanks, too!), but also make it plain that not everything we use is from the AO booklist. We have adapted the AO coursework quite a bit, and we continue to do so. Ambleside Online is an excellent resource for the CM family, and I truly praise the Lord for the work the AO advisory has put into helping others develop a curriculum that works for them. But, I think it's important to remember that the advisory gives us the freedom to adapt things here and there to fit our needs. They even mention on the AO site that many parents take an individualized approach to AO. That doesn't mean that those families are using "lesser" versions of Charlotte Mason's methods. There are many excellent books available today.

I prepare our little "schedule" (read that word loosely) for the school week each Sunday night. I'm doing it a bit earlier today because my children are under the weather and napping right now. I may not feel up to it tonight. I've been thinking some about our books for the term, and trying to pin down exactly what wasn't feeling "right" about our lesson time. For instance, I have felt a bit overloaded with the AO literature selections. Not that there is too much to read in a week, but I have felt that the bouncing back and forth between four literature books and a book or two for free reading has left me feeling a bit scattered. The children enjoy all of the books and look forward to all of the books, but I began to consider knocking a few out of the schedule and just letting the girls read them on their own when they had the inclination.

The first book I took out was Parables From Nature by Gatty. This is an excellent book and a beautifully written one. I found, though, that Charlotte Mason's PNEU schools used it as a "Sunday reading" book, and we decided to designate it the same. It is now one of the choices the girls have for their Sunday afternoon reading. They often choose it and enjoy the readings. They do not, however, need to narrate it or read it on a schedule. I read the book before the term began, so I can sometimes strike up a conversation about the story, but sometimes I don't.

Just this weekend I looked through the PNEU school curricula for Year One again. I wanted to see how many books Miss Mason's schools used for literature. Each year, Miss Mason chose different books for the children. Each term was different than the same term from the preceding year. So, some of the Year One literature booklists had only fairy tales and Aesop's fables listed or only two books such as Pilgrim's Progress and The Heroes of Asgard while other (later) years had three. None of the PNEU curricula that I reviewed had more than three literature selections for a single term in Year One. Ambleside Online lists five different books for the first term of Year One: Parables from Nature (which we moved to Sunday reading), Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, The Aesop for Children, Just So Stories, and The Blue Fairy Book. What does this mean for us? This means that now I get to personalize the AO booklist :) Five is too many for our little family right now; so, we made a few "cuts", but still kept the cut books in the bookshelf for free reading. We cut out everything from the official schedule but the fairy tales and Aesop. I firmly believe that this is not too little for us. More than a few of the PNEU years used only these two books for "tales" for the youngest students. In fact, the curricula list only three of each for an entire term! That means only nine fairy tales all year and only 9 Aesop's fables all year! I plan on reading a little more than that, so I'm actually doing more literature reading than the PNEU schools did even after dropping three AO books!

With these changes made, I have more time to read a few of the "extra" read alouds that I really look forward to reading with the children. We're finishing up The Secret Garden, and then we'll be reading The Magician's Nephew. The children will still pull Kipling and Gatty from the shelf to read on their own regularly. I feel really good about the way this fits us.

So, that's one example of how we modify the great information from AO to personalize our curriculum :) Hope this encourages someone!

Excellent Post on Year One Exams

2007-11-18T20:34:00.000-08:00

I have linked to Lindafay at Higher Up and Further In before. This weekend, I came across this excellent post on her family's exam weeks.

We will be finishing up our first term in three weeks, and I have been beginning to think about how we will approach our first round of exams. I can't tell you what a blessing and encouragement this post has been to me. Lindafay has faithfully followed Miss Mason's exam methods more than any other CM blogger I've read. I am so relieved by much of what she has to say. Miss Mason's methods are doable.

Peterson First Field Guides

2007-11-17T20:33:00.000-08:00

Our main book for Nature Study has been the AO recommendation, The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Comstock. I love the Comstock book, and have found it to be very valuable in taking nature study to the next level. It has plenty of detailed information on a wide variety of subjects - many of them pertinent to nature in our area.

Next to the Handbook of Nature Study, this series of Peterson First Field Guides has been my favorite nature study resource. Have you seen these handy little books? They are great for a number of reasons, not the least of which is their appropriateness for children of elementary age. My children love these books, and we have been able to use them to identify caterpillars, trees, and wild plants that are not covered in the Comstock book. I know more about nature than I did a short 5 years ago, but I still have far more to learn. For a mama like me, who can't necessarily spout off useful information from the top of her head on every twig, bug, and berry we come across, these little gems are a great find :)

Now, those of you who are already familiar with Charlotte Mason will know that the books are only part of the nature study lesson - and not the greater part. The education that comes from "things" is the primary sort of education in nature study. Children must actually be outdoors, and often, coming across the little wonders in nature on their own, personally dealing with the natural world through their senses. Books do have their place in nature study, but they are secondary to physical interaction with real things. This is especially true for the younger children.

If you'd like to hear a bit more of what Miss Mason might have to say regarding books like these and their relationship to nature study, I'd like to reference a section of Volume One. Regarding scientific classification and the use of naturalists' books, Miss Mason writes the following:

"For convenience in describing they should be able to name and distinguish petals, sepals, and so on; and they should be encouraged to make such rough classifications as they can with their slight knowledge of both animal and vegetable forms. Plants with heart-shaped or spoon-shaped leaves; leaves with criss-cross veins and leaves with straight veins; bell-shaped flowers and cross-shaped flowers; flowers with three petals, with four, with five; trees which keep their leaves all the year, and trees which lose them in the autumn; creatures with a backbone and creatures without; creatures that eat grass and creatures that eat flesh, and so on. To make collections of leaves and flowers, pressed and mounted, and arranged according to their form, affords much pleasure, and, what is better, valuable training in the noticing of differences and resemblances. Patterns for this sort of classification of leaves and flowers will be found in every little book of elementary botany.

The power to classify, discriminate, distinguish between things that differ, is amongst the highest faculties of the human intellect; and no opportunity to cultivate it should be let slip; but a classification got out of books, that the child does not make for himself and is not able to verify for himself, cultivates no power but that of verbal memory...

...The real use of naturalists' books at this stage is to give the child delightful glimpses into the world of wonders he lives in, to reveal the sort of things to be seen by curious eyes, and fill him with desire to make discoveries for himself. There are many to be had, all pleasant reading, many of them written by scientific men, and yet requiring little or no scientific knowledge for their enjoyment." -Home Education pgs. 63,64

Interestingly, these guides are the perfect size for stocking stuffers (hint, hint grandma and grandpa). At only $5.95 per book, they are very reasonably priced as well :) They are a great addition to help round out your nature study lessons and bolster the children's interest in the natural world all around them. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Happy field guiding!!!

More on Schedules and Routines

2007-11-15T20:31:00.000-08:00

I don't want to give you all the wrong idea, though. I do plan, just not in detail and not more than a week out. I plan our school weeks on Sunday nights, I plan my housework after I get an idea of the weather forecast, and I plan our days roughly the night before. I have an idea of my priorities for the day and into what order those priorities are going to fall. For instance, yesterday was unseasonably warm, but my kitchen needed some bigtime help. So, we didn't have a Park Day, but the children did play outside for three hours while I cleaned (with the kitchen door and window open, watching them and keeping things positive where needed). The kitchen was high priority yesterday. We got to our booklist readings, did some more drawing, and SweetP and I talked through a living math lesson, but not much more than that. I had gotten behind on the kitchen and it needed attention.

Today, it's gray and windy. Today's priorities (physically, there are others spiritually) are to focus in on more structured lessons, dust and vacuum the downstairs (we do it together), and work on some training issues with Punkin. Hopefully, we'll get a nature walk in around the neighborhood if the weather cooperates.

We do not have a schedule with designated times and time increments.

We do have a routine that we follow in general, with a set order - this thing always follows this other thing, but without set times and durations. That's up until about mid-morning. After that, things are highly variable.

So, I'm not completely bohemian ;) I guess it depends on the day. Somedays look fairly close to what Miss Mason suggests - morning lessons and afternoons outside. On those days, the little ones are the ones who flex the most. Somedays are more of what I call my "unofficial unschooler" days. At least, that's what they feel like to me. I stress out if I try to get each day to fit into some preconceived plan that just isn't going to fit. You know about the square peg and the round hole? I want my pegs and holes to match up ;) I'm hoping today will be a little more structured so Friday can be a little more bohemian when my sister visits ;)

We'll see.

My Bohemian Spin on Year One

2007-11-13T20:29:00.000-08:00

One of the things that I've been working on since our first term began in late September, is fitting in everything I want to fit in every week. Charlotte Mason's methods, as you know, call for many subjects. It helps me to take a look at the breakdown for one of Miss Mason's PNEU schools, Year One. From there, I can work out our own little plan. Here's what a week's work looked like for a PNEU child roughly between the ages of 6 and 7:

Old Testament - 2x a week (about 20 minutes w/ narration)
New Testament - 2x a week (about 20 minutes w/ narration)
Printing - 2x a week (about 10-20 minutes)
Writing - 2x a week (pretty certain this is cursive - about 10-20 minutes)
Drawing - 1x a week (about 20 minutes)
Repetition - 3x a week (poem,parable,or hymn - this is memorizing - about 10 mins.)
French - 3x a week (about 10 minutes)
Number - 6x a week (CM schools met on Saturday - this is math - about 20 mins.)
Reading - 6x a week (instruction - 30 minutes)
Natural History - 3x a week (10 minutes)
Picture Talk - 1x a week (10 minutes)
Geography - 2x a week (10 minutes)
Drill/Dancing - 3x a week (this is calisthenics or dancing - about 30 minutes)
Sol-fa - 2x a week (see AO's explanation - about 15 minutes)
French song - 1x a week (15 minutes)
Handicrafts - 4x a week (20 minutes)
Brushdrawing - 2x a week (this is drawing with a paint brush - about 20 minutes)

I'm in the process of adapting and flexing the PNEU schedule to fit our lives. For one thing, I should make it clear that when I need to deviate from Miss Mason's nitty gritty details in order to be able to accomplish the bigger picture, I do. For instance, Miss Mason recommended that children finish lessons before noon, that way they could have the entire afternoon to enjoy outdoors or do handicrafts or pursue other interests. Great. That makes sense. Children are bright and fresh in the morning, it's a great time for lessons.

BUT, in the afternoon, Punkin and Little Dude nap for 2 and 1/2 hours. That means morning would be school and afternoon would be nap and when do I get to be with my sweet babies? My time with the younger two is seriously hampered by a morning school schedule. We can do it, but it is not my first choice. I have four children, not just two. I need to work out a way to take all four into consideration without *homeschooling* running the show. As the school age children get older, they will be able to do more of their schoolwork independently - and in the morning. For now, though, we flex.

So, I'm a teensy bit deviant. I do some lessons in the morning, usually Bible, handwriting, and reading instruction. These subjects really are best done in the morning when the children are fresh. Math often happens before lunch, too. The rest I save for naptime. Yes, that's right dear bloggy friends, it's not uncommon for us to be finishing up the day's reading at 4:30pm or later. In fact, on days that My Sam does history tales with the children, those readings are after dinner and more like 7pm or later. For our family, it seems to be working best to let school kind of weave through the other parts of the day. It isn't really segregated into its own room or its own time slot. Lessons happen in short segments throughout the day. This helps me get the children all outside together for longer periods of time. It helps me get housework done. And, believe it or not, it helps me get school work done. If brushwork has to happen at 10:15am, it probably won't get done. If it can happen at the kitchen table and it's almost 5:30pm and I'm in the kitchen getting dinner anyway, that's more doable for me.

The children are being presented with new ideas daily in a home where interests are fostered and encouraged. That's part of the big picture. Sure, that means that drawing may come at dusk on some days, but that's better than not at all, and better than losing my head over trying to fit everything into a morning block of time just because Charlotte says morning is best.

Cindy at Dominion Family has a great post discussing the importance of an atmosphere of learning instead of just a good schedule. I think you'd enjoy reading what she has to say.

That's where I got the bohemian phrase ;)

My Three Year Old Digs Mozart

2007-11-08T20:27:00.000-08:00

I had the most frustrating telephone conversation today.

I called our local philharmonic orchestra to get information on a special "Concert for Young People" scheduled for next Tuesday. I knew I was late in trying to get tickets, but I thought I'd give it a shot. They were sold out of both performances. Phooey.

But, that wasn't the frustrating part.

I was speaking to the lady in charge of the educational programs associated with the philharmonic. I thought that was lovely to be able to speak to her in person. She was very kind and seemed supportive of homeschoolers in general. She was busy suggesting other performances that might be good alternatives since we could not buy tickets for the performance we had wanted to attend when (whew, catching her breath) she stopped for a moment, realizing she didn't really have all of the information she needed. "I'm sorry," she said, "I don't know the ages of your children". "No problem," I replied. "They are six and a half and five."

Dead silence.

Suddenly, she took on a rather uppity tone of voice and changed her demeanor entirely, saying things like "Oh, well, the concert you were asking about is for children older than third grade anyway" and "Oh no, that concert isn't very accessible for young children".

Accessible? What exactly did she mean by "accessible"?

After she had gone on and on... and on, I finally got a chance to ask a question. I asked her to please explain what she meant when she said that a concert wasn't "accessible" for children under the age of 9. She fumbled around a bit for her words and then blurted out something about not enough explanation and not enough talking through the music. And, besides, many of the groups attending these concerts have received teacher's packets preparing them to hear the music and blah, blah, blah.

"So", I continued, "are you saying that there really insn't anything available for children younger than third grade?" Well, there was the production of Peter and The Wolf in January. "But, what about the philharmonic?" Well, not really. There are not any philharmonic performances that are made accessible for children that young.

There was that word again.

I tried to sound polite, but I was getting annoyed. Here was the woman in charge of the educational programs for the philharmonic and she's telling me that you have to be nine to have a worthwhile experience at the philharmonic and, even then, you need several worksheets and quite a lot of talking to get anything out of it.

I started to get a little bold (but still polite). I admit, I started to sound a little impassioned, too. "I am not a professional, but don't you think wonderful music can, to a large extent, stand on its own as wonderful music? Don't you believe that it IS wonderful music because of its innate ability to affect people, to move them and incite them? Even if a child has no idea what a 'movement' is or which instrument is the viola and which is the violin, don't you think that there is quite a lot to be gained by merely listening to a great piece played by a full orchestra right before your very eyes? Doesn't great music do much of the teaching all on it's own?"

Apparently, she didn't think so.

After a little more blah from her, I finally told her that, since our children did not yet fit into the "accessible" age range, we would continue to do what we have done up to this point. We would take the children along with us to performances we would like to attend. Yes, full length performances. Yes, they really could sit that long. Yes, they really would be thrilled. Yes, I believe they really would get quite a lot from just listening, because...

...I believe truly great music is "accessible" to anyone.

The North Wind Doth Blow

2007-11-08T20:26:00.000-08:00

It's beginning to get trickier to get outside for long hours at a time. Up to this point, we've been able to have two park days a week during the school term, often having another long day outside on Saturday. With getting our school work and house work done, it's been difficult to do more; although, we have had one or two weeks that were so incredibly beautiful that we took school with us and went to parks for three or more days out of the week. Schedules like that have been more the exception than the rule.

Charlotte Mason urged parents to take the children out for long days in the country on "every suitable day" between the months of April and October. She lived in England's Lake District, which may have a very different climate from our own homes. Being in Ohio, our weather is not so terribly different than that of London, but we are, generally, about ten to fifteen degrees warmer and less rainy. One day in July, when the temperatures in Ohio were pressing 100 degrees with high humidity, I checked the London weather online. It was in the mid-70s. Armed with this bit of pertinent information, I decided that July and August were generally miserable months in my neck of the woods, and I would trade them in for March and November, instead.

So, November is here. Can we really try for more than 4 hours outside on two days this week? On Monday, we had a shorter park day, 2 hours, but it's been our only one so far this week. Looking at our 10 day forecast, all of next week is going to be rainy, rainy, rainy. We have today and tomorrow before all that rain comes. I'm wondering, though, if 45 degrees at noon (wind chill 40) and 49 degrees at 3pm (wind chill 44)is too cold with Little Dude. I guess we'll bundle up and find out! The worst that can happen is that we'll come home after an hour or so. Even then, we will have had an hour outdoors.

I'll take what I can get :)

Oh, and by the way, yes, my birthday is tomorrow, Esther :)

UPDATE:

Well, we got out there :) This morning we went to a metropark and walked through a one mile wooded trail. It was cold, but the trees blocked much of the wind and it seemed warmer once we were deeper into the woods. We were all bundled up, besides :) The children were running so much, they barely noticed the cold. We were there for an hour and a half (part of the time on the trail I had them walk slowly and quietly "like Indians" and this took a bit longer). Then we drove back toward our house, picked up some food for lunch, and headed on to the arboretum. We spent 2 and a half hours there. The sun was out for most of it and, again, the trees helped block the chilly wind. Little Dude was probably warmer than he needed to be. All you could see was his little face :) I'm not sure how high it actually got today, but I'd say the actual temp was probably near 50 degrees. Without the wind, not too bad. In the windier parts, we needed mittens. Brrrrr. Baby was toasty all day, though. That's encouraging!

Narration in the Charlotte Mason Method

2007-11-06T20:24:00.000-08:00

My father-in-law has been a public school teacher for 30 years now. It's always interesting to me to hear his opinions on education and the public school system. What does he think has worked best with his students over the years? What does he think are the biggest time wasters? What have the kids always been drawn toward? What seems to really hit home with them? In general, what has he learned in the last three decades about children and how they learn?

Just a couple of weeks ago, another one of these conversations came up. It was short and sweet, like many of them are, but I've been thinking about it ever since. We were talking about the problem that arises when a teacher knows a particular student "gets" the material, but for some reason does poorly on the test. He said that was one of the more frustrating parts of teaching. In cases like those, it's the test that has really failed, not the child. Then, there are children who are naturally good at taking tests, ace them regularly, and then cannot tell you anything about the information a week later. That would be frustrating.

Then came the part I've been mulling over for the last two weeks. My father-in-law, veteran public school teacher, to whom the name Charlotte Mason means nothing, said the following:

"If we could just sit down one on one with each kid and just ask them to tell us all they knew about the topic, not what they didn't know, not what they sort of knew, but all that they really knew about it, that would be the absolute best measure of their actual knowledge of the material".

My husband and I literally stood there with mouths agape. He had just described narration to a tee.

I had already been completely sold on the idea of narration replacing tests and questioning, but this little testimonial from my father-in-law was certainly reassuring. In a classroom situation, where the state expects certain forms of evaluation, "the absolute best measure of knowledge" may not be feasible. But, it is feasible for us! How thankful I am to have the freedom to use this tool in our homeschool :)

Charlotte Mason wrote extensively on the subject of narration. It is meant to be a core component of her method. You may be able to "do" CM without handicrafts or without French Songs, but there is no way you can truly do CM without narration. It's a cornerstone of the entire CM philosophy.

Narration is not merely a tool to evaluate what a child has learned, however. In fact, I would say that evaluation is one of its lesser functions. Narration serves to actually impress the ideas of a book or lesson upon the child's mind. It is, in actuality, an exercise in learning. I like to tell my daughter that we use narration because it helps her mind gather the book in and keep it. It is a powerful learning tool. Narration is also the Charlotte Mason precursor to composition. In effect, the child is "writing" an oral composition when he begins narrating. He is choosing content, sentence structure, and vocabulary. He is (hopefully)imitating style, as well. The benefit that narration has over written composition in the early years is that the young student does not need to get hung up on spelling, handwriting, and punctuation. He is free to focus on content, and the oral narration flows without the distractions of mechanical limitations. Later, as the child matures and his skills develop in these areas, he begins writing his narrations. The child's narrations continue to grow and improve. At this point, narration and composition are one and the same.

So how does one get started in narration?

Many experienced Charlotte Mason moms suggest beginning narration with Aesop's Fables. The fables are concise and fairly straight-forward, making them ideal for a first time narrator. We began with the tale of Tom Thumb, which is told as a collection of short incidents in the main character's life. Each incident occupies only a paragraph or two, and is independent of the other parts of the tale. This worked well for us, and my daughter enjoyed the story very much. The keys are to choose a living book, a concise book, and to start small. Many moms expect the first narrations to be a bit skimpy, at best. Charlotte Mason maintained that children who narrate regularly will eventually develop this skill and be able to narrate easily, even if they had a rocky start.

In addition to the traditional oral approach, Charlotte Mason offered suggestions for "creative" ways to present narration to young children. My daughter is really just beginning narrations, so we're still mainly focusing on the oral road, but we have done drawing narrations for Aesop's Fables. She likes to draw a little scene depicting the main characters in the fable, write the title, and write the moral. I let her use a black permanent pen to trace over her writing when she is finished. We hope to make a little book out of these drawn narrations when we've finished the fables. We also did one narration (of Sleeping Beauty) where I asked her to tell the story as though it were a book for very little children. She enjoyed this and I think it helped her summarize the content better than she usually does. She tends to be rather detail oriented ;)

I'm excited to continue learning about narration as we go through Year One and as I read more of Charlotte Mason's volumes. If you would like to read more of what I post concerning narrations, please click on the "narration" tag at the bottom of this entry. I hope something you read here was a blessing to you today!

A Child Gets Knowledge By Means Of His Senses

2007-11-05T20:22:00.000-08:00

"Watch a child standing at gaze at some sight new to him––a plough at work, for instance––and you will see he is as naturally occupied as is a babe at the breast; he is, in fact, taking in the intellectual food which the working faculty of his brain at this period requires. In his early years the child is all eyes; he observes, or, more truly, he perceives, calling sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing to his aid, that he may learn all that is discoverable by him about every new thing that comes under his notice. Everybody knows how a baby fumbles over with soft little fingers, and carries to his mouth, and bangs that it may produce what sound there is in it, the spoon or doll which supercilious grown-up people give him to 'keep him quiet.' The child is at his lessons, and is learning all about it at a rate utterly surprising to the physiologist, who considers how much is implied in the act of 'seeing,' for instance: that to the infant, as to the blind adult restored to sight, there is at first no difference between a flat picture and a solid body,––that the ideas of form and solidity are not obtained by sight at all, but are the judgments of experience.

"Then, think of the vague passes in the air the little fist makes before it lays hold of the object of desire, and you see how he learns the whereabouts of things, having as yet no idea of direction. And why does he cry for the moon? Why does he crave equally, a horse or a house-fly as an appropriate plaything? Because far and near, large and small, are ideas he has yet to grasp. The child has truly a great deal to do before he is in a condition to 'believe his own eyes'; but Nature teaches so gently, so gradually, so persistently, that he is never overdone, but goes on gathering little stores of knowledge about whatever comes before him.

"And this is the process the child should continue for the first few years of his life. Now is the storing time which should be spent in laying up images of things familiar. By-and-by he will have to conceive of things he has never seen: how can he do it except by comparison with things he has seen and knows? By-and-by he will be called upon to reflect, understand, reason; what material will he have, unless he has a magazine of facts to go upon? The child who has been made to observe how high in the heavens the sun is at noon on a summer's day, how low at noon on a day in mid-winter, is able to conceive of the great heat of the tropics under a vertical sun, and to understand the climate of a place depends greatly upon the mean height the sun reaches above the horizon."

So, I Made Her Cry On Purpose

2007-11-05T20:20:00.000-08:00

My children don't get much screen time. I've already hinted at that a little here and there in previous posts. When they do watch something on the television it's always from a DVD. Every once in a blue moon they watch a live football game, but the TV gets turned off during commercials. You never know what's going to pop up on that screen. I've seen gorey previews for some of those forensic-type shows in the middle of the day. Um, excuse me, but my five year old is not accustomed to seeing bloody crime victims, thank you. So, commercials off.

One of the (potential) downsides of limiting television viewing is that my children seem hyper-sensitive compared to their more media-savvy peers. Two years ago we were visiting friends in Virginia. Their oldest daughter, with good intentions, popped Nemo in the DVD player while I was elsewhere. You know it doesn't get too far into the movie before Nemo's mom and all her little babies (minus one) get swallowed whole and Nemo's dad is in a fit of hysteria. My children know about the food chain. They know big fish eat little fish. However, they had never before seen a fish with human thoughts and emotions lose his beloved wife and children to violent deaths. My kids were screaming their heads off. At Nemo.

Hmmm. This might be a problem.

Husband and I saw the trend. The girls, then ages 4.5 and 3, didn't want anything to do with tension in their storybooks, either. They wanted me to skip whole sections of The Little House in the Big Woods (Grandpa and the Panther). Of course, they were still awfully young. We did realize, though, that we didn't want them to get around to school age and still be avoiding anything uncomfortable in the world. What were we communicating to our children? Were we attempting to create a childhood apart from The Fall? When were we going to break it to them? The world is not a cozy, rosy place. Gradually, we began adding books with more tension, more suspense, and yes, even frightening episodes. We've done this on an individual basis. Shug is still rather sensitive to "scary" things like the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, while SweetP is completely entranced by the more intense fairy tales right now. Maybe it's just that she's a little older. Not sure. But, they have both come a long way. Oh, and we watched Mary Poppins with them until they were okay with flying people and children lost in alleyways ;)

Just reading through the Bible has helped a bit, too. The Old Testament can be very interesting, to say the least, to read to the younger set. People get run through, eaten by dogs, decapitated, you name it. I admit, old habits die hard for us. We still avoid Jael and Jezebel, edit some storybooks and leave out passages when Punkin is around. She can't handle as much as her older sisters can. I'm not in the business of giving people nightmares. She can certainly handle a great deal more than the older two could at her age. She might even be able to handle Nemo ;) Maybe just because we stopped trying to create that perfect little dream world. Or, maybe because Shug is regularly launching assaults on imaginary Indians in the family room. Punkin has a much different childhood than her sisters had ;) Admittedly, there are still books that I reserve for when they are just a little older. Did you know people get quartered and sewn back together again in the real Aladdin? Yeesh! I do want to stretch them a little at a time, though. We'll get to it. Baby steps.

Besides reading the Bible and fairy tales, we've also added in missionary biographies. We hope to read about a different missionary each term. The lives of these missionaries are often heart-breaking. Would I really want to shelter the children from that kind of sadness, though? Not for all the world. These are, by God's grace, the best of all those who will become their personal heroes. These are stories I want them to know, to remember, to feel. We are reading about David Livingstone this term, and Shug has been listening in since Chapter 2. (I decided the first chapter was okay for SweetP, but a bit much for her younger sister - lion's teeth ripping flesh and other graphic language). Yesterday, we read of young David leaving home, likely to never see his ailing father again.

"It was a sad parting in Glasgow for David and his father. Mr. Livingstone's health was failing, and David was on his way to the white man's grave. Neither of them expected to see each other again, and David stood on the aft deck for a long time watching his father disappear from view as the boat slipped down the Broomielaw and out to see."

I looked down at sweet little Shug.I knew what to expect. I had a little catch in my voice as I read. She looked up at me, holding back the tears in her eyes. She did not cry, but she was having to fight it. I gave her a gentle squeeze and smiled at her. "It's seems hard, doesn't it? Leaving his father when he knew his father might die soon?," I asked slowly. She nodded silently. "Missionaries have to leave quite a lot behind when they go to the mission field," I continued, "but, for those that go, it's always worth it, isn't it?" Another silent nod, and she wiped her eyes dry.

That's good, Shug. That's good.

Children's Bible Reading Plans: Exile

2007-11-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

Name:_____________________________

My Bible Reading Plan: Exile

Daniel 1
Daniel 2
Daniel 3
Daniel 4
Daniel 5
Daniel 6
Ezra 1
Ezra 2
Ezra 3
Isaiah 44
Isaiah 45
Ezra 4
Ezra 5
Ezra 6
Zechariah 2
Zechariah 4
Zechariah 9
Esther 1
Esther 2
Esther 3
Esther 4
Esther 5
Esther 6
Esther 7
Esther 8
Esther 9
Esther 10
Ezra 7
Ezra 8
Ezra 9
Ezra 10
Nehemiah 1
Nehemiah 2
Nehemiah 4
Nehemiah 6
Nehemiah 8
Malachi 3

Children's Bible Reading Plans: Prophets (Part One)

2007-11-02T19:56:00.000-07:00

Name:_____________________________

My Bible Reading Plan: Prophets (Part One)

1 Kings 1
1 Kings 2
1 Kings 3
1 Chronicles 28
1 Chronicles 29
1 Kings 5
1 Kings 6
1 Kings 8
1 Kings 9
1 Kings 10
2 Chronicles 2
2 Chronicles 3
2 Chronicles 4
2 Chronicles 5
2 Chronicles 6
2 Chronicles 7
2 Chronicles 9
2 Chronicles 10
2 Chronicles 13
1 Kings 11
1 Kings 12
1 Kings 13
1 kings 14
1 Kings 15
1 Kings 16
2 Chronicles 14
2 Chronicles 15
1 Kings 17
1 Kings 18
1 Kings 19
1 Kings 20
1 Kings 21
1 Kings 22
2 Chronicles 17
2 Chronicles 18
2 Chronicles 19
2 Chronicles 20
2 Chronicles 21

Children's Bible Reading Plan: Kings

2007-11-02T19:54:00.000-07:00

Name:_____________________________

My Bible Reading Plan: Kings

1 Samuel 1
1 Samuel 2
1 Samuel 3
1 Samuel 4
1 Samuel 5
1 Samuel 6
1 Samuel 7
1 Samuel 8
1 Samuel 9
1 Samuel 10
1 Samuel 11
1 Samuel 15
1 Samuel 16
1 Samuel 17
1 Samuel 18
1 Samuel 19
1 Samuel 20
1 Samuel 21
1 Samuel 22
1 Samuel 23
1 Samuel 24
1 Samuel 25
1 Samuel 26
1 Samuel 29
1 Samuel 30
1 Samuel 31
2 Samuel 1
2 Samuel 2
2 Samuel 5
2 Samuel 6
2 Samuel 7
2 Samuel 8
2 Samuel 9
2 Samuel 11
2 Samuel 12
2 Samuel 15
2 Samuel 16
2 Samuel 17
2 Samuel 18
2 Samuel 19

Children's Bible Reading Plan: The Early Church

2007-11-02T19:53:00.000-07:00

Name:_____________________________

My Bible Reading Plan: The Early Church

Acts 2
Acts 3
Acts 4
Acts 5
Acts 6
Acts 7
Acts 8
Acts 9
Acts 10
Acts 11
Acts 12
Acts 13
Acts 14
Acts 15
Acts 16
Acts 17
Acts 18
Acts 19
Acts 20
Acts 21
Acts 22
Acts 23
Acts 24
Acts 25
Acts 26
Acts 27
Acts 28
2 Corinthians 11
2 Corinthians 12
Revelation 1
Revelation 5
Revelation 7
Revelation 20
Revelation 21
Revelation 22

Children's Bible Reading Plan: Settlement

2007-11-02T19:52:00.000-07:00

Name:_____________________________

My Bible Reading Plan: Settlement

Joshua 1
Joshua 2
Joshua 3
Joshua 4
Joshua 5
Joshua 6
Joshua 7
Joshua 8
Joshua 9
Joshua 10
Joshua 11
Joshua 13
Joshua 14
Joshua 15
Joshua 16
Joshua 17
Joshua 18
Joshua 19
Joshua 20
Joshua 21
Joshua 22
Joshua 23
Joshua 24
Judges 1
Judges 2
Judges 3
Judges 4
Judges 5
Judges 6
Judges 7
Judges 8
Judges 13
Judges 14
Judges 15
Judges 16
Ruth 1
Ruth 2
Ruth 3
Ruth 4

Children's Bible Reading Plan: Laws

2007-11-02T19:49:00.000-07:00

Name:_____________________________

My Bible Reading Plan: Laws

Leviticus 1
Leviticus 2
Leviticus 3
Leviticus 16
Leviticus 23
Numbers 9
Leviticus 25
Numbers 10
Numbers 11
Numbers 12
Numbers 13
Numbers 14
Numbers 16
Numbers 17
Numbers 20
Numbers 21
Numbers 22
Numbers 23
Numbers 24
Numbers 25
Numbers 31
Numbers 26
Numbers 32
Deuteronomy 3
Deuteronomy 31
Deuteronomy 33
Deuteronomy 34

Children's Bible Reading Plan: Wandering

2007-11-02T19:46:00.000-07:00

Name:_____________________________

My Bible Reading Plan: Wandering

Exodus 1
Exodus 2
Exodus 3
Exodus 4
Exodus 5
Exodus 7
Exodus 8
Exodus 9
Exodus 10
Exodus 11
Exodus 12
Exodus 13
Exodus 14
Exodus 15
Exodus 16
Exodus 17
Exodus 19
Exodus 20
Exodus 24
Exodus 32
Exodus 33
Exodus 34
Exodus 35
Exodus 36
Exodus 37
Exodus 38
Exodus 39
Exodus 40

Children's Bible Reading Plan: The Savior (Part Two)

2007-11-02T19:45:00.000-07:00

Name:_____________________________

My Bible Reading Plan: The Savior (Part Two):

Matthew 19
Mark 10
Luke 18
Luke 15
John 11
Matthew 26
Mark 14
John 12
Matthew 21
Mark 11
Luke 19
Matthew 22
Mark 12
Luke 20
Matthew 24
Matthew 25
Matthew 26
Mark 14
Luke 22
John 13
John 14
John 15
John 16
John 17
John 18
Matthew 27
Mark 15
Luke 23
John 19
Matthew 28
Mark 16
Luke 24
John 20
John 21
Acts 1
1 Corinthians 15

Children's Bible Reading Plan: The Savior (Part One)

2007-11-02T19:43:00.000-07:00

Name:_____________________________

My Bible Reading Plan: The Savior (Part One)

Luke 1
Matthew 1
Luke 2
Matthew 2
Matthew 3
Luke 3
Mark 1
Matthew 4
Luke 4
John 1
John 2
John 3
John 4
Luke 4
Matthew 8
Matthew 9
Mark 2
Luke 5
Matthew 12
Mark 3
Luke 6
Matthew 5
Matthew 6
Matthew 7
Matthew 8
Luke 7
Luke 8
Mark 4
Matthew 13
Mark 5
Matthew 14
Mark 6
Luke 9
John 6
Mark 7
Matthew 15
Mark 8
Matthew 16
Matthew 17
Mark 9
John 7
John 8
John 9
Luke 10
John 10

Children's Bible Reading Plan: Creation

2007-11-02T19:42:00.000-07:00

Name:_____________________________

My Bible Reading Plan: Creation

Genesis 1
Genesis 2
Genesis 3
Genesis 4
Genesis 5
Genesis 6
Genesis 7
Genesis 8
Genesis 10
Genesis 11
Genesis 12
Genesis 13
Genesis 15
Genesis 16
Genesis 18
Genesis 19
Genesis 21
Genesis 22
Genesis 23
Genesis 24
Genesis 25
Genesis 27
Genesis 28
Genesis 29
Genesis 30
Genesis 31
Genesis 32
Genesis 33
Genesis 35
Genesis 37
Genesis 39
Genesis 40
Genesis 41
Genesis 42
Genesis 43
Genesis 44
Genesis 45
Genesis 46
Genesis 47
Genesis 48
Genesis 49
Genesis 50

Children's Bible Reading Plans (Prophets: Part Two)

2007-11-01T08:10:00.000-07:00

Name:_____________________________

My Bible Reading Plan: Prophets (Part Two)

2 Kings 1
2 Chronicles 19
2 Chronicles 20
2 Chronicles 21
2 Kings 2
2 Kings 4
2 Kings 5
2 Kings 6
2 Kings 7
2 Kings 8
2 Kings 9
2 Kings 10
2 Chronicles 22
2 Chronicles 23
2 Chronicles 24
2 Kings 11
2 Kings 12
2 Kings 13
2 Kings 14
2 Chronicles 25
Jonah 1
Jonah 2
Jonah 3
Jonah 4
2 Kings 15
2 Chronicles 26
2 Chronicles 27
Isaiah 6
Isaiah 7
Isaiah 9
Isaiah 53
2 Kings 16
2 Kings 17
2 Chronicles 28
2 Kings 18
2 Kings 19
2 Kings 20
2 Chronicles 29
2 Chronicles 30
2 Chronicles 31
2 Chronicles 32
2 Kings 21
2 Chronicles 33
2 Kings 22
2 Kings 23
2 Chronicles 34
2 Chronicles 35
Jeremiah 1
Jeremiah 20
Jeremiah 36
2 Kings 24
2 Chronicles 36
2 Kings 25
Jeremiah 37
Jeremiah 38
Jeremiah 39
Jeremiah 40
Lamentations 1
Psalm 137

A Sample Week: Year One Week Two

2007-09-30T09:04:00.000-07:00

This is not the official Ambleside Online reading list. I have taken a good deal of liberty with arranging, rearranging, deleting, and adding. For the AO list, please visit the Ambleside Online homepage. Also, some of the books are really for Punkin :)

Our schedule this week will still not include all of our subjects, but we will be getting closer to the full schedule. This week we will be adding the following: daily penmanship (copywork), recitation/memory work, math, drill & dance, phonics and reading with Shug, brushwork, Spanish & ASL, and handicrafts. Sounds like a lot, doesn't it? Most of these "new" subjects are not everyday, though. Also, remember, those CM lessons are short! :) Here we go...

Monday (A.M.):

I still want to try to start lessons by 8:00am! - yeah, right. Little Dude was up several times again last night... definitely teething. I heard the alarm, but I turned it off and rolled over. We started lessons after 9:30am. Our latest morning yet. BUT, we did get everything but poetry done. No biggie, we aren't on a poetry schedule anyway. We'll just read some tomorrow :)

Bible* - Genesis 12:1-6

20 minutes of chores after breakfast* - actually more like 30 minutes today

Copywork* - Shug practiced d,b,and r and SweetP wrote the first verse of Psalm 150

Recitation* - Psalm 150:1-3

Took a 45 minute break outside around 10:45am. The rain stopped and it was nice out, even though it was cloudy. Found the largest stinkbug I've ever seen. He was on the trunk of one of the plum trees. Put him in a magnifying container and SweetP drew him for her nature notebook. Also found an unidentified cocoon on the sugar maple. Orbette (our "pet" orb weaver garden spider) made the most perfect web this morning. All our cold-blooded friends were moving a bit slowly this a.m.

Math* - 2 pages from FFrogs. Also, talked about sets and different set combinations totaling 6.

Drill and Dance* - What great fun! Reviewed "Forward and Back" and how to "swing" a partner. Dancing the Bastringue.

Took a 30 minute walk around the neighborhood after lunch and before nap. Girls were able to get fairly close to a Killdeer. He screeched so loudly when he flew away. Everyone jumped :) Picked fuzzy grasses, queen anne's lace. Empty lots have their advantages :)

Read Milne at lunchtime* - this was before nap, Eeyore lost his tail

Mother Goose rhymes before nap* - this was after nap

Monday (P.M.):

Among the Forest People - Chapt. 2* - great book, excellent narrations today...often in a British accent, lol. Must be from The Secret Garden and B. Potter :) Or maybe I tend to read Milne with a touch of an accent???

Livingstone biography - Chapt. 2* - Shug joined in this week

Phonics Pathways* - ummmm, not sure what we're going to do with phonics this year. I tried to figure out where Shug was in the PP book (in terms of reading skill) and she's at the end. I don't want to begin spelling with her yet, though. She's only 5. Maybe we'll just read together until I notice trouble words. Need to think more about this...

Brushwork* Used tube paints in primary colors. Explored mixing to get secondary colors: purple, green, orange. SweetP even came up with a really lovely brown by mixing purple with some green.

Poetry - Missed this today.

3 more books for Punkin - May not get these in today. Plan on playing outside most of the evening. It's bee-u-ti-ful out there right now! :)

Tuesday (A.M.):

I still want to try to start lessons by 8:00am! This is getting funny. We did not start by 8am. When is it considered giving up and when is it considered adjusting to reality???

Bible* read from Vos Bible storybook about Abraham leaving home

20 minutes of chores after breakfast* more or less

Copywork (from Phonics Pathways)* Gave SweetP 6 words for her copywork. She will copy them again on Thursday and will have them for dictation on Friday.

Spanish/ASL* Lyric Language CD - "Roll on, Roll on, Pretty River!" We rock out in the van to this song :)

Folk song "Turkey in the Straw" - Had a great time listening to this in the van with my sis. We went up mom & dad's house today, so we made the most of the van time. We listened to this song several times, but also listened to other folk songs. "Shenandoah" has been a favorite since early this summer.

Little House in the Big Woods at lunchtime* read this to Joy in the p.m. while Sam read Damon & Pythias to the older two.

Poems to Read to the Very Young before nap* read outside while Joy rested on a cushiony lounge chair in Mom & Dad's backyard. Also sang nursery rhymes to her :) She eventually moved inside, but still never napped. Not a good away from home napper.

Tuesday (P.M.):

Reading with Shug - still trying to figure out what we're doing. I gave her some copywork this morning from PP.

Aesop - The Boy Who Cried Wolf (CBOV)* Read it on porch steps with the two oldest. Very strong narrations.

George Washington - D'Aulaire, 3 pgs.* The girls really like this book :) Read it in the swing in parents' backyard. Nana narrated, too :)

Poetry* from Poems to Read to the Very Young today instead of the usual book

Handicrafts - didn't happen. Decided to let the girls ride bikes all afternoon instead.

Damon & Pythias - w/ Sam*

3 more books for Punkin - didn't happen. She rode her bike a lot today and after we left Mom & Dad's we took Sissy home and wound up having dinner at Heather & Brian's house. It was getting close to bedtime by the time we were home. I did read all of the poetry book this afternoon, though, and a good bit of Little House to her. She's doing well with it. She likes the pages with the pictures best, but she's listening intently. Somehow the first chapter always seems strange with a very little one. Gutting deer and hanging them in trees and all that. I think it bothers them less than I think it will, though ;) Maybe, just maybe we can start lessons by 8am tomorrow. I'm going to bed now!

Wednesday (A.M.):

I still want to try to start lessons by 8:00am! - Now I'm laughing.

I was feeling OLD this morning, and I really needed to go slowly. I made spelt muffins and sent the girls out to play before 9am. They played for quite a while this morning. I thought of you, Amanda, and wondered if any of my neighbors were tsk tsking about the children being out ;) If I get reported, I have my proof! We really, truly did all of school today :) SweetP had a captive grasshopper for a bit and later came to me with grasshopper "scat" on the end of a dried shaft of panicum grass. "Look, Mama!" We did Bible and reading outside, then came in for copywork.

Bible* Luke 2:1-20

20 minutes of chores after breakfast*

Copywork* Shug did a review page from A Reason for Handwriting Book K and SweetP copied Psalm 150:1

Recitation* Getting Psalm 150:1-3 down fairly well

Math* Great math day. Did 2 pages of Funtastic Frogs, but the best part was combining different sets of frogs to total five. I would say something like, "Make five using three sets of frogs". Then SweetP would have to decide how to show five with three sets. She got excited when she came up with the answer. A set of 2 blue frogs, a set of 2 green frogs, and 1 red frog. Then we would say the math sentence - "2 plus 2 plus 1 makes 5". She made 5 in 4 different ways. We also discussed the meaning of "empty set".

Drill & Dancing* short today. We learned how to circle right and circle left and also how to curtsey :)

Milne at lunchtime* Piglet met up with a heffalump - one of my favorites

Mother Goose rhymes before nap* I recited some and sang some as I cleaned up after lunch, no book

*read The Seasons of Arnold's Appletree before nap

Wednesday (P.M.):

Reading w/ Shug * This was actually in the morning today. Decided to listen to Shug read through the first 3 chapters of Genesis over the next few weeks, about 10 verses at a time. When she came to a word she didn't know this morning, I wrote that word on a plain white index card. After the lesson, we put the index cards into a letter envelope on which I wrote "Kindergarten Sight Words". She ate it up :) Her sight words today, from Genesis 1:1-9, were "void" and "expanse". I noted that she could not sound out "void". Tomorrow, we'll be doing the Phonics Pathways lesson that covers "oi" words and words with the same sound. We'll go back to Genesis on Friday. We'll see how this works. She loves the idea.

George Washington - D'Aulaire, 3 pgs.* Getting exciting - French forts in the Ohio wilderness!

The Secret Garden - Chapt. 21*

Lapharp* Most of our time was spent tuning the things! They aren't perfect, but at least the songs are recognizable now. We'll get to a song or two later in the week. Each of the older girls played random little tunes for a bit while I laid Punkin down for nap.

Handicrafts - Nope, guess we'll start next week. We'll be sewing :)

3 more books to Punkin*

Thursday (A.M.):

I still want to try to start lessons by 8:00am! - This is getting embarrassing. Good for my pride, I guess ;)

Bible* read from Vos story Bible

20 minutes of chores after breakfast* did about an hour of housework upstairs w/ the children

Copywork (from Phonics Pathways)* Shug copied "moist" (5x) and "point" (1x), SweetP copied her phonics word list again

Spanish/ASL* reviewed colors and numbers, began shapes - circulo, rectangulo, diamante, and triangulo

Cursive w/ SweetP* on dry erase board, writing our last name

Little House in the Big Woods at lunchtime* moved to evening while Sam does "A Laconic Answer"

A Child's Garden of Verses before nap* with all 3 girls

Thursday (P.M.):

Reading with Shug* did page 172 in PP, "oi" words

George Washington - D'Aulaire, 3 pgs.*

Paddle to the Sea, 2 pgs.* we did one page, that's what AO recommends. The three pages I did last week were enough to get the story sufficiently underway. Today, with three narrations and some mapwork, one page was enough. We have a large laminated map of the U.S. on a bulletin board and we are following Paddle along with blue pushpins :)

Brushwork - ditched it for a nap for Mama and some after nap time outside

A Laconic Answer - w/ Sam*

3 more books for Punkin*

Friday (A.M.):

I still want to try to start lessons by 8:00am! - I'm going to quit writing this ;]

Bible* Psalm 150

20 minutes of chores after breakfast*

Dictation, SweetP only (then, cat, cap, rock, kiss, kill, sock - starting easy), Shug copied "point" 4x

Spanish/ASL

Math* adding 3 sets to make 5 or 6. Wrote and discussed "plus" sign. I placed 3 sets of frog counters on the floor and SweetP wrote the math sentence on a dry erase board. For example, "3 + 2 + 1 is 6". She did three sentences that way. Showed how the order of the sets does not change the total number, "2 + 1 + 3" is also 6. Then, I wrote a math sentence or two and SweetP placed the sets of frogs out.

Drill & Dance - no dice today. Mama's working on a headache. I'm glad we finished what we did.

Milne at lunchtime - no Milne, but we read Oxcart Man and Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf

The Little Red Hen at lunchtime*

Friday (P.M.):

Reading with Shug* she read Gen 1:9-19, stumbled a bit on "seasons". We talked about words where "s" is pronounced like "z". Wrote these words on dry erase board for her to read. Added "seasons" to her sight word envelope.

Geography (continents mapwork)* SweetP took off on this while the 2 other girls napped and I fed Little Dude his peas. We have a blackline dry erase map of the world. I gave her the words "Africa", "Indian Ocean", and "Atlantic Ocean" so she could copy them onto their proper places on the map in dry erase marker. Baby was still chowing away, so SweetP kept asking me how to spell different continents. By the time I finished feeding Dude his babyfood, SweetP had labelled, Africa, Antarctica, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Greenland (made sure she knows this isn't a continent), North and South America, and Asia. This sort of thing is right up her alley. She loved it :)

Handicrafts - did brushwork instead

The Secret Garden - Chapt. 22*

3 more books for Punkin*

Music Appreciation

2007-09-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

With all of the material to cover each day, how can a family make time for the "extras" like art and music appreciation? It seems to me that the best way to make sure the children are regularly exposed to the arts is to find a way to seamlessly weave these subjects into the day. This is especially easy when it comes to music - just play it on a CD! If we can just remember to play the music, there are great gains in just listening to it. There may be occasional conversations about instruments, movements, etc., but they are not necessary for young children to genuinely benefit from the music. Simply enjoying Strauss while we do a few chores or eat breakfast is enough to introduce great music to our children.

It should come as no surprise that, as with the other subjects, Charlotte Mason urges the very best quality for our children. Our modern minds immediately jump to defend our preferences and we ask who can judge what is really quality. My reply would be that time is the best judge of quality. Music that has lasted the test of time and has been continually considered excellent most likely is excellent. With this view in mind, classical and folk music will take center stage in our listening choices for Year One. Hymns, of course, also qualify as quality music. We often listen to hymns in the van and Sam memorizes a new hymn each month with the children during bedtime devotions. I'd like to play hymns more regularly in the house during the day. I'll have to move some hymn CDs inside :)

Although I played around some with the idea of a "composer for each term" during this last year, I admit that it seemed more contrived than I liked for my everyone-six-and-under crew. I'm willing to give it a go, however. Above all, for this age group, the music is about beauty and big ideas. We may get to some of the details of the composer's lives, but if, at the end of the term, I can say that the children have grown to love classical music more, I will consider our term's "study" a success.

Keeping a regular time for this music seems to help me play it consistently. A habit of playing a CD every morning while I make breakfast, for instance, is an easy way to make sure that quality music is a part of each day. Even if we don't get around to it every day, though, a couple of days a week is better than none and probably enough to make a positive impression on the children. Beyond a regular listening time, we will also use our term's music for some of our drill & dance days (that's just fancy PNEU lingo for dancing up some exercise in the family room).

Beyond listening to CDs, we also hope to establish a bit of a family tradition by attending several philharmonic concerts together each year. The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra has some great, informal "teaching" performances on Thursday and Friday nights that are reasonably priced and appropriate for preschool and up. Special nights like these can be a great way to show the children how much we enjoy beautiful music, besides just being a really nice way to spend an evening together. We have used the fall season's performance schedule to choose our composers for the term (we'll being focusing in on two composers from now until December). We plan to attend a concert in November with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major and Mahler's Symphony No. 7 in E Minor. So, Mozart and Mahler it is!

Apart from the set composer study schedule, Classics for Kids is a really neat radio program and website that offers a little more in-depth music study than just listening alone. There is a weekly show available as well as a backlist of previous airings. Worth looking into. Also, the Classical Kids Series of CDs has won award after award. We own the Vivaldi CD (purposefully a little spooky in parts - I could do without all that, but overall okay for children old enough to handle it) and hope to buy the Mozart disc soon. I haven't heard this one, yet, so I cannot vouch for it personally, but these CDs seem to be favorites with lots of homeschooling families. I didn't realize it before tonight, but apparently there are theatrical tours of these productions, too! That sounds like something I want to look into :)

*edited to say that Mozart's Magnificent Voyage wasn't really our cup of tea. We checked it out from the library, but we will not be buying it. Just wanted to say that ;)

Example Week: Year One Week One

2007-09-25T09:10:00.000-07:00

**Just wanted to clarify that we NEVER got started with lessons by 8:00 AM. Eventually, I gave up on even having this as a goal :) Didn't want anyone to think that we actually did that. It seemed like a good idea, but reality set in rather quickly ;)**

This is not the official Ambleside Online reading list. I have taken a good deal of liberty with arranging, rearranging, deleting, and adding. For the AO list, please visit the Ambleside Online homepage.

Our schedule this week will not include all of our subjects. We are using this week to ease back in to a school day routine. All of the readings will include narration. I'd really like to be able to work with Shug some this week with her drawing and I also want to work with watercolors once this week. Shug has also started making her circles clockwise - need to fix that :) Punkin will be learning about seasons and we'll introduce a shortened version of our preschool Apple theme for her. Some of my goals are not directly related to the curriculum, but instead relate more to family life and running the household. Prayer is always good :) Here are our hopes for the coming week:

Do 20 mins. of chores after breakfast each day

Begin Lessons at 8:00am each day

Monday:

Before we even got going this morning, SweetP asked, "Mama, what's 'the fall of Rome'?" Checked my facts in an encyclopedia and we discussed it for a few minutes (Yay for books in the house - I wouldn't have come up with Germanic Barbarians on my own, lol.)

Began lessons at around 9:15am - we'll try again for 8 tomorrow ;)

We did 20 minutes of morning chores after breakfast*

Bible*

I made my bed

Among the Forest People - Chapt. 1* (love it!!)

Livingstone - Chapt. 1* (lion attack, intense, SweetP only. Looked at Africa on the globe. Found the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Equator, and Victoria Falls)

Poetry* (favorite was "Somewhere" by Walter de la Mare)

A.A. Milne (kindergarten)* ("We Are Introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees, and the Stories Begin" - somehow Pooh just feels restful. I like that.)

5 books for Punkin* (6 if you count the one SweetP read to her)

Work on counterclockwise circles w/ Shug* (also "o", "a" on the dry erase board)

An Island Story - Chapt. 1 (Sam in P.M.)* (with 2 oldest girls - Hubby even listened to a narration from SweetP)

Well, we got everything on the list read and narrated today, but not without a few eventful moments. The actual "school" part went fine, but everything was against us getting outside today. LOL, more later... ;) Thanks for your prayers and encouragement! We're feeling a bit better, btw. Little Dude is still the worst off - gunky nose, poor guy.

Tuesday:

Began lessons around 9:00am - a little improvement, *sigh*. We were ready at 8:30, but baby peed on himself.

Girls did 20 minutes of chores after breakfast, but I bathed Dude & fed him, washed his sheets- did chores later

Bible*

Aesop: Hercules and the Wagoner* (discussed why the moral isn't truthful. A better choice might be "Do thine own part faithfully." from the hymn 'If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee' - old PCA days, lol)

I dusted and vacuumed the living room after Aesop/ older girls played in family room/ Punkin helped me dust

Just So Stories: Whale* (Vocab "astute", "infinite", "sagacity"- Shug got SO excited when it mentioned Albion)

I put new sheets on Dude's mattress before his nap, then I broke the crib - literally. *sigh, again*

Poetry* (favorite was "The Secret Cavern" by Margaret Widdemer)

D'Aulaire's George Washington: 2 pgs.* (discussed slavery a bit)

Work on counterclockwise circles w/ Shug* (also "o", "a", and "d" on the dry erase board)

5 books for Punkin*

50 Famous Stories - Sword of Damocles* (Sam in P.M.) (Sam wrote out "Dionysius" and "Damocles" on the dry erase board beforehand. SweetP had a hard time narrating this one. Sam more or less discussed it with them afterward. Concepts a bit abstract, it seems.)

I feel like I ran a marathon and I never did get around to making my bed today. Little Dude still not shaking this cold :( Joy asked me today if Aunt Sissy was coming soon. Hopefully, we'll see her at the end of the week :)

Wednesday:

Began lessons by 9:15am. I chose to let the children sleep in a bit because I wanted to have breakfast alone with Sam. He left for NYC today. I also chose to hold off on most of our lessons until the 2 youngest were down for nap. Not sure yet if that was a good idea or not.

We did not do chores right after breakfast. Instead, because there was a lull in the rain, we went for a nature walk around the neighborhood. Incorporated map study by drawing a little map of the corner and a dozen or so trees that are there.

We did chores after our (rather lengthy) walk*

Bible*

Parables From Nature - Faith*

Little House in the Big Woods - half of Chapt. 1 (Joy's first time!)*

Poetry (didn't get to this today)

D'Aulaire's George Washington: 2 pgs.*

A.A. Milne (kindergarten): ("Pooh Goes Visiting and Gets Into a Tight Place")*

5 books for Punkin*

Drawing with Shug (Draw-Write-Now Book 1)*

Also, older 2 girls played the card game "War" together in the afternoon (greater than, less than)*

Added in copywork (Shug copied o,a,d,g again and SweetP copied "Praise the LORD!"*

Began memorizing Psalm 150*

Folksongs and dancing/exercise in family room for about 20 minutes ("Turkey in the Straw" is a fave)

I made a big mistake today with SweetP's narration of Parables of Nature. She has been narrating so fluidly and with such great detail that I thought she might be able to narrate once at the end of the reading. I turned out to be entirely too much for her to narrate in one fell swoop, and she became flustered and overwhelmed. Poor thing. It was foolish of me, really. I know I'm not *supposed* to read twice, but I felt that I had to give her another chance since the mistake had been my own. I'm also not *supposed* to ask a beginning narrator to narrate an entire reading at once. I'm also not *supposed* to do lessons in the afternoon. That whole lesson was a big CM failure.

On the bright side, though, I did get a chance to explain again why we even do narrations at all. I emphasized how narrations help SweetP fix the story in her mind and are really part of the learning process - not just a test of what she remembers. I wanted to ease any sense of pressure she may have been feeling. Testing, as such, is a nasty process - I saw a glimpse today of how a test-oriented misunderstanding of narration could take the focus off of the material and onto the "performance". Lord willing, we dealt sufficiently with the issue this afternoon. Her next narration (of the D'Aulaire book) was lively and detailed again. Phew. Thank you, Lord, for covering over my mistakes.

Thursday:

This is a light day. Yay. I hope to add in some recitation, copywork, and something for our nature notebooks. Collected leaves yesterday, so we may try to identify those trees and press the leaves. Sissy is visiting, too, so it's nice that we don't have a full school schedule going. She'll probably read all of the books to Punkin ;)

Began schoolwork by 9:00am - maybe I should just give in :[

Did 20 minutes of chores after breakfast*

*Heather did come today and she read 3 books to Punkin. I love my sister. Also, my mom came down last night so I'd have another adult in the house with us. I love my Mom, too. See you tomorrow night, Mom!*

Bible* (John 9, helped illustrate concept of "faith", clarifying Parables of Nature a bit)

Poetry* (favorite was "Rathers" by Mary Austin - Shug just helped me remember the poet, lol)

D'Auliare's George Washington: 2 pgs.* (did 3 pages instead, really took time to enjoy the illustrations today)

5 books for Punkin*

Drawing with Shug (Draw-Write-Now Book 1)*

Read through Psalm 150:1,2 several times for memorization*

Copywork* (Shug worked on o,a,d and SweetP wrote "Praise the LORD in his sanctuary;")

Playdoh*

Had "Aunt Sissy Time" instead of doing nature notebooks

Good, good day today. I think I'm starting to get a feel for what to do in the morning and what to save for the afternoon. Also, if we're going to do some work during naptime, I have to get the youngest two down by 1:15pm or so. Much later than that and the older two are too toasted to give much attention by the end of lessons. Good day today. We're getting there... I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

Friday:

Finally! Today felt right :) *relieved sigh* Amanda asked me earlier this week, "Isn't this fun?!" and my honest reaction was, "No. It's exhausting." Today, though, we found a groove. Of course, now we have to add more into the picture for the beginning of next week, but at least we ended this week without Mama wondering if she'd completely lost her mind :)

We began "lessons" today at 9:45 am - and in a prairie. The morning was so beautiful, I decided to head for the great outdoors before we did anything else. We were moderately successful animal trackers - we located the tracks of one mature deer with a fawn. We were able to follow their walk for about 30 feet along the muddy trail. SweetP noted how they stayed to one side of the path and Shug found several spots that looked like deer had bedded there. Goldenrod, asters, and prairie coreopsis were everywhere - beautiful. We stayed at the arboretum for about 2 and 1/2 hours. Had lunch from Tim Hortons on the way home (I mentioned that just for P Steve).

All of our lessons were during naptime. SweetP and Shug did fine with that today and didn't seem too tired. We did not do any copywork. Honestly, the days that we did copywork this week were a "bonus"; I hadn't planned on officially beginning handwriting until next week. Mom is coming over again this evening to spend the night with us. Considering that Little Dude was up no less than four times last night (teething?), I'm very glad to have her with us :) I'm always glad for her visits, but this one is especially appreciated. Sam comes home late tomorrow afternoon. Yay.

Bible* (Exodus 25:1-8 describing the offerings for the building of the tabernacle - God's earthly sanctuary)

Recitiation* (Read aloud through Psalm 150:1,2 together twice. Talked about "Praise God in his sanctuary")

Paddle to the Sea - Chapt. 1* (We cheated. This was the very beginning of the book and the first chapter was ONE page long. I read the first three chapters (three pages total) just to get into the story a bit. The girls really, really enjoyed this book. SweetP narrated chapters 2 and 3. I'll try just reading one page next time, but I felt like it was worth it to get "into" the story a bit here at the beginning. Believe me, they are highly anticipating following along with Paddle on his adventures!)

Poetry* (Favorite was "For a Child" by Fannie Stearns Davis. Shug is really getting into the poems. She actually asked to take our poetry book up with her for rest time yesterday.)

A.A. Milne (kindergarten): ("Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle". Punkin asked me if we were going to read about "catching the weasel". I told her we were and then she said that she didn't like that one. "My sisters like that one, but I don't like that one. May we please read a different one". Sure, honey ;) Woosels apparently unnerve more than just Pooh Bear.

5 books for Punkin (we'll reach this point by tonight)

Watercolors* (Used tubed colors for the first time. Played around with adding more water and changed the shades of green from dark to light. Worked on brushdrawing ovals (tip from a Parent's Review article). Then, SweetP and I brushdrew (sounds funny) one of the leaves from our Wednesday nature walk. We'll add it to her nature notebook when it dries. We always take longer w/ watercolors than I mean to. It was a profitable lesson, though.

Animal Tracking :)* (SweetP also studied the introduction to our tracking field guide. She drew a picture of a white-tailed deer and assigned herself copywork. She was writing common tracking terms down when I came downstairs from laying the baby down. She's a crack up.)

Praise the Lord that our first week is under our belts! Part of me wishes everyone could be in kindergarten forever, but I think I'm just adjusting to the change. It will probably take a full three weeks to start hitting the groove on a regular basis. Thank you for your prayers, everyone!