Pages from my Nature Journal

Well, I finally did it. After talking for months about my intentions to jump in and "just do it," I finally bought myself a notebook for a nature journal and started making entries. I am no artist, but I hope to improve as I practice! The boys are taking notice, and I think they will be excited when I buy them journals of their very own soon.

My first page is my list from the Great Backyard Bird Count. I drew a picture of our bird feeder. I use what I have, which happens to be pencil crayons.

 This is a snow bunting. We saw a small flock several times one sunny, warm day in February. (0 degrees Celcius...warm for here, anyway!)

And this is an entry I made this week about some sprouted apple seeds we found inside an apple, and how we planted them.

I also made an entry with what the boys want to plant in the garden this spring from the seed catalogues that arrived last week. I'm hoping to try to draw a downy woodpecker this week as well. We had one come to our feeder for the very first time on Monday while we were all standing not ten feet away! Obviously I am not drawing from real life yet, since I am not nearly fast enough. But I can still commemorate the occasion with a journal entry.

I think keeping a nature journal myself will be a pure joy, but also it will be a way to teach my children by example. And it can't hurt them to realize that Mama is always learning something new, too!


Sharing with Nature Study Monday at Fisher Academy International.

Wednesday with Words: The Myth of Ability

I just started reading The Myth of Ability: Nurturing Mathematical Talent in Every Child by John Mighton. The introduction started with a parable of education, and I thought I'd share it because it reminds me of several things I've been reading recently, both in Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles and in The Spark by Kristine Barnett.

"Imagine a school where the following ritual is observed. At the end of the year, after several days of coaching and preparation, the children are led to a cafeteria where tables have been set with plates of food, one for each child. A government official has inspected the plates; for a given grade each plate holds exactly the same foods, in the same proportions, at the same temperatures... Afterwards, the children are given a battery of tests to determine how well they are digesting their food.

"Now imagine that only those children judged to be superior eaters are allowed to eat a full and balanced diet at school the following year. The teachers at the school, though well-meaning, believe only a few children are born with the capacity to digest food properly; the rest, depending on what kind of stomach they've inherited, can eat only one or two kinds of food, and even then only in small quantities. When challenged to defend this belief, the teachers point to the vast number of weak and unhealthy students at the school: even those singled out for special attention continue to complain of stomach disorders when placed on restricted diets.

"One day people will look back on our present system of education as only slightly more rational or humane than this..." 

Mighton then focuses his attention on a solution for the state of math education in the school system. I am hoping it will be helpful for me as a homeschooler as well...




Sharing with Wednesdays with Words today. Click through to see what other people are reading this week!

{My CM Journal} Not a "Pope"

I didn't end up having time last week to write the post I wanted to publish today; instead, I just want to share a quote from Charlotte Mason's Home Education (Vol. 1 of The Original Home Schooling Series).

So far as education is a science, the truth of even ten --much more, a hundred--years ago is not the whole truth of today.
'Thoughts beyond their thought to those high seers were given';
and, in proportion as the urgency of educational effort presses upon us, will be the ardour of our appreciation, the diligence of our employment, of those truths which the great pioneers, Froebel and the rest, have won for us by no less than prophetic insight. But, alas, and alas, for the cravings of lazy human nature --we may not have an educational pope; we must think out for ourselves, as well as work out, those things that belong to the perfect bringing-up of our children. (p. 185)

I appreciate Charlotte Mason so much. She had so much insight and wisdom. I have only just begun to scratch the surface of all that I can learn from her. And yet, she also is not an "educational pope" (that is, an infallible authority). I doubt she would have appreciated hordes of followers doing things just "because Charlotte Mason says so." No, we ourselves must think, and do things because they are right.

I think it may also be worth saying that we should not be going around spouting the wisdom of our "educational pope" without acting on that wisdom for ourselves. We need to "work out" the principles we learn, and in doing that we will find out for ourselves whether they are really true.

Saturday Commonplaces 9

Homeschooling

I wish you could have seen my little ones one morning this week. JJ (3) and MM (1) sat down on the couch together with some of SA's books. JJ carefully arranged a pillow behind their backs and a blanket over their toes, and they "read" aloud for about ten minutes. JJ had Bears on Wheels, and MM had Put Me in the Zoo. JJ especially is very keen to read now that SA has taken off with reading. I had to make him his own reading ladder (a paper where we record the books SA reads on his own). He mostly "reads" from memory, but if he doesn't remember, he runs his finger along under the lines and has me read, and he repeats after me. I don't really think he's ready yet for phonics lessons, though. I don't think he'd even realize the connection between phonics and reading. It's not about the words for him. It's about the stories.

SA (5) is still reading very easy-to-read books, but he is making progress all the time. Last week I had a few moments of self-doubt. I noticed SA was starting to be a bit resistant to my having him read a book a day. Maybe I just needed to go back to the reading lessons. I decided that I would not suggest any book for him to read this week, and see what happened. What happened was that most days he came to me on his own with about three new books that he wanted to read (I'm so thankful for the library!). We filled up the new reading ladder we started just last Friday. I'm going to have to get a poster board to make a gigantic ladder, because these dinky construction paper ones are filling up too fast. For phonics this week we talked casually about words with a silent E. I have been second-guessing myself when it comes to phonics...should I buy a phonics program? Am I doing enough? I think I will wait to see where he is at the beginning of Grade 1 next September, and pick up there.

I have also been second-guessing myself when it comes to math, which is his real love. There are so many options out there, and I guess it's natural to wonder sometimes if there's something you're missing. We are doing Miquon Math and Peggy Kaye's Games for Math. The games are wonderful. I pick one out every Monday and we do the same game again any time my children ask for it that week. Miquon is great, too, but it seems a bit slow for him. I think for next term I will try something new. As soon as he gets a concept and has reinforced it for a week or two with rods and games, I will move on to a new concept. He can continue to do worksheets on the old concepts as he pleases. I have started to do this already. I allow him to choose his worksheet from anything we've learned already. (We do worksheets two or three times a week.) This week he chose to do worksheets on addition and subtraction, though our "concept work" was in multiplication. He does the worksheets on his own, and uses or does not use the rods as he pleases. There was a "trick question" on one of the sheets this week, and I fully expected him to come to me for help. But when he showed me the paper, it was complete, and correct. (The question was 2-3= -1) I didn't know he knew how to do that, so I asked him about it. He said the answer was one less than zero. This is why I sometimes don't think I'm giving him enough challenging work.

I have been looking at MEP as well (a free program), which is totally different than Miquon. It seems more puzzle-oriented, but slower when it comes to concepts like addition, subtraction, and multiplication. It also has more variety every day. So I think SA might be bored with some parts of it, and greatly enjoy other parts. It is also more worksheet oriented, which I do not necessarily like, and which he may not be quite ready for. I'm thinking I may experiment with supplementing a few pages from MEP next term and see if he likes it. I'd probably have to start in the middle of year one in order to challenge him.

Books

I read another good book this week. It was a bit too good, actually, since I could not help reading it in one day (if you have three or more children, you'll realize why having this kind of book in the house is not a very good idea). However, I did better than my husband, who came home from work in the wee hours of the morning one night, picked up the book, and didn't put it down until it was done. (Don't worry, neither of us make this a habit...) The book was The Spark by Kristine Barnett. She's the mother of an autistic genius, and she tells the story of how she followed her mothering instincts in order to help her child.

I noticed that parents of autistic children do not tend to rate this book very highly, as this woman's son is quite unusual (He is a genius, first of all, and he began to function more normally when she gave him the resources to follow his interests.). I was inspired as a mom of ordinary children, though. Every child, no matter what their gifts or their shortcomings, is a born person and should be treated as such. She saw how all the therapy her son was taking was about what he couldn't do, and determined to allow him to do something he could do (and well!). She also saw how the hours and hours of work they were doing were taking away his childhood. So she made a focused effort to take the time to play, make friends, and do the things childhood memories are made of, even though these things are quite challenging to find ways to do with an autistic child.

I did find myself wondering about the details of this book...is it all true? Everything is so highly coloured. My take on it is that the author is a very intense woman, and so you see everything through her dramatic viewpoint. Since my own natural tendency leans more towards downplaying things that happen, this sometimes felt strange to me. But even with that, I highly recommend this book.

Cuteness
MM has taken to clutching cars or other hard toys while I nurse him. As soon as I realized this, I got out some stuffed animals (they had been put away because they were not played with). But it was too late. He seems to like holding the angular, hard shapes better than the soft, squishy ones. Yesterday I called him to nurse, and as usual he bustled around first, finding things to hold. There were no toys around at that moment, so I found myself cuddling with a duster (stoffer), a pen, and a scrap of craft foam. I love this toddler so much!

And that's all for this week! Have a good week, everyone.

Wednesday with Words: The Robin

I've been thinking since last week that somewhere in my house I have a book of poetry by Emily Dickinson. The day after reading Emily at one of our poetry teatimes, I found SA (5) hunting through our children's poetry anthology for the "one by Emily" ("A bird came down the walk," of course.) So today I buckled down and searched until I found it: Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson. I think he will be pleased when I pull it out for tomorrow's teatime.

Since March has begun, and I've just recently begun seeing more robins (though none at my house yet, sadly), this poem seems suitable for today.

XLIV

THE ROBIN

The Robin is the One
That interrupt the Morn
With hurried—few—express Reports
When March is scarcely on—

The Robin is the One
That overflow the Noon
With her cherubic quantity—
An April but begun—

The Robin is the One
That speechless from her Nest
Submit that Home—and Certainty
And Sanctity, are best


Sharing with Wednesdays with Words...click through to see what other people are reading!

This post has been edited to remove my thoughts on the poem...I thought again and didn't want to spoil it for you all.

{My Charlotte Mason Journal} That's like unschooling, right?

I haven't made a lot of progress. After my post last week, I spent a lot of time thinking further about the same quote I shared then. Today's post will focus in on this part of it:

"It is illuminating, too, showing the value, or lack of value, of a thousand systems and expedients. It is not only a light, but a measure, providing a standard whereby all things, small and great, belonging to education work must be tested."

 Two other homeschooling approaches that have strong philosophies of education are the seemingly polar opposites Unschooling and Classical Education. I think it is illuminating to compare and contrast these two with Charlotte Mason's philosophy of education.

I believe that the reason people who aren't very familiar with Charlotte Mason say things like "Charlotte Mason? That's something like unschooling, right?" (though truthfully they are quite different in practice) is because the two are based on the same first principle: that children are born persons. Her thoughts about the "respect due to the personality of children," the "educational value of his natural home atmosphere," and the child's natural "appetite for all knowledge" would all earn a hearty affirmation from unschoolers, I think. (Quotes from the "20 Principles" found in the Preface of Volume 6)

When it comes to Charlotte Mason's "Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life," I think unschoolers emphasize the truth that "Education is an atmosphere" very strongly. I think that Charlotte Mason's "discipline of habit" is not recognized as a foundational aspect of education in unschooling (though different households would of course recognize it to a greater or lesser degree). As for "Education is a life," the similarities and differences seem more complex. Most unschoolers I know would take pains to expose their children to a wide variety of ideas and experiences. And yet this is the point where Charlotte Mason exposes her Classical roots and takes "Children are born persons" in a different direction than unschooling does.

"The fundamental idea is, that children are persons and are therefore moved by the same springs of conduct as their elders. Among these is the Desire of Knowledge, knowledge-hunger being natural to everybody." (Vol. 6, p. 14)

To Charlotte Mason, curiosity is "the chief instrument of education." (vol. 6, p. 11) Children are born with this desire for learning and maintain it until the artificial incentives for learning that teachers and systems set up stifle it and leave the students apathetic. (Vol. 6, p.11) She also says that "self-education is the only possible education; the rest is mere veneer laid on the surface of a child’s nature" and that "...The mind of a child takes or rejects according to its needs" (Vol. 6, p. 10). So far, my perception is that the unschooler would agree with her completely.

The conclusion Charlotte Mason comes to from these points is startlingly different than the one unschoolers come to, however. Because children are born persons, and are naturally curious about everything, we owe it to them to give them a broad, generous, liberal arts education. How do we do this in a way that stimulates the desire for learning, rather than stifling it? Put the children in touch with great minds and great ideas through "living books" (Books by people who lived what they wrote about, who were passionate about their subject.). Then get out of the way and trust the child to take what he needs from the banquet of ideas you set out.

"...mind appeals to mind and thought begets thought and that is how we become educated. For this reason we owe it to every child to put him in communication with great minds that he may get at great thoughts; with the minds, that is, of those who have left us great works; and the only vital method of education appears to be that children should read worthy books, many worthy books." (Vol. 6, p. 12)

And so you will find that, unlike unschooling, Charlotte Mason does not advocate following a child's own interests in his lessons, though she does call for short lessons and plenty of spare time for a child to do just that. The lessons should be consecutive, she says, and there should be "no stray lessons." This is so we do not unduly limit the amount of knowledge a child can learn in the short years that are their school years.

13. In devising a SYLLABUS for a normal child, of whatever social class, three points must be considered:
     (a) He requires much knowledge, for the mind needs sufficient food as much as does the body.
     (b) The knowledge should be various, for sameness in mental diet does not create appetite (i.e., curiosity)
     (c) Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language, because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form. (20 Principles, Preface, Vol. 6)

If you'll forgive me for saying this, in Charlotte Mason we find a Classical education flowing from what looks very much like an Unschooling heart, and that distinguishes it from the majority of the Classical education we are familiar with in the homeschooling world today.

This post has become long enough, though. I'll get into measuring Classical education against Charlotte Mason's philosophy of education next time.

(disclaimer: I am no expert in any of these philosophies or methods, even Charlotte Mason's --you can see I'm still quoting from prefaces and introductions because I haven't gotten any farther yet. You can also see that my perspective is one of love for Charlotte Mason's ideas, and that I'm analyzing these philosophies based on my perception of them, which may possibly be faulty. I am open to gracious correction.)

Saturday Commonplaces 8

/ˈkämənˌplās/ noun 1. a usual or ordinary thing.

It has been a few weeks since I've done this little newsletter. I was just browsing through my "old" posts (all from this winter) and realizing how valuable they are for capturing and remembering a bit of everyday life. Many of the things I wrote were already on their way out of my memory! This is one of the reasons I started to blog in the first place...

Some Quirky Language from JJ: 

"Afta" (After)
definition: before.
"What time is it, JJ?" I ask as I'm rudely awoken at some dark hour of the morning.
He switches on the cell phone to check. "It's six afta two afta zero." (meaning 6:20)
Or he weighs himself. "Mama, I'm three afta eight afta six." (38.6 lb)

"Eida" (Either)
definition: too
"I want to come with you eida, Mama."
or "Can I have a cookie eida, please?

JJ painted a watercolour picture yesterday.  He started in the corner of the page, and painted part of a circle. It was mostly blue, with some patches of green and brown. I asked him what it was, he said "the sound from the speakers." I had no idea what that meant, but Stephen filled me in today. When he's playing music on the stereo upstairs, there are pictures of earth from space showing on the screen. JJ had painted the earth. That paper is going in our keepsake box, along with its title.

A Good Book I Read Recently:

I first heard about Surprised by Oxford from some quotes I read on a blog. I lost no time in finding it at my library. For me, its beauty was that it was yet another illustration of how God reaches down and meets us where we are. What believer does not have a similar story of the providential leading of God as they came to faith?
I couldn't quite figure out whether this book was well-written or not. On the positive side, I finished it in two days because I just couldn't put it down. On the negative side, the language of many of the conversations is stilted and unreal. One possibility is that these "conversations" are in fact distillations of the wisdom found in several conversations over time. And the truth is, this concentrated form of conversation often results in some of the most quotable passages of the book. Overall, I highly recommend it.

And that's all for today. Have a good week!