A wonderful weekend

I had a wonderful visit with my parents-in-law and sister-in-law this weekend, who brought my BEAUTIFUL six-month-old niece to visit! What a lovely, smiley, pleasant little darling. I know you think I'm only saying that because she's my niece, but you just wait until I can get her picture up here on this blog. You'll most assuredly agree.

The weekend was filled with music, shopping, more music, eating, lots of pictures, staring at the stars, good conversation, learning to do Su Doku, playing with a new language (Kung nung-o wung wung hung-a tung-i mung-e a nung, Sunga Runga?) and more music. I loved listening to the boys play their pianos and Lil Sis sharing what she learned during the short time she took lessons. She really should continue!

On Sunday afternoon, we feasted on an excellent chicken barbecue with Memphis Style sauce along with sour cream biscuits, Tasha Tudor's macaroni and cheese, fresh tomatoes and corn.

And then we went shopping.

My mother-in-law began a tradition of taking each of her grandchildren to choose their own Build-A-Bear. Each of my older childen have one that they made while with their grandmother and each bear contains a coin bearing the year of their grandparent's birth. The "bears" (or turtles or cats) are very special to my kids and they have slowly added to their clothing collections. This weekend was The Baby's turn to choose her own Build-a-Bear. She chose a white kitty with pink ears and great big eyes and has thanked me for her "favorite kitty cat" about a million times.

But my favorite part of the weekend was listening to my husband sing. Have I mentioned that he has a voice that turns my knees to jelly and makes my heart go pitter-pat? This weekend's obsession was getting him to sing Sara Smile, a song he'd done on a friend's karaoke system, making our jaws drop to the floor with his perfect inflections and excellent pitch. He can even hit all those Daryl Hall high notes! (Daryl Hall [photo left], I just learned by visiting their website, has Lyme Disease which cancelled their o-HI-o shows. You can read about it on their blog.)

I'm so blessed to have a husband who is so very talented and a family who is willing to cross the miles to visit us.

Now, it's back to lessons. :-)

Expend Healthily That Energy

"To enable them to swim with the stream is the least of the benefits this early training should confer on the children; a love of Nature, implanted so early that it will seem to them hereafter to have been born inthem, will enrich their lives with pure interests, absorbing pursuits, health and good humour. 'I have seen,' says the same writer, 'the young man of firece passion and uncontrollable daring expend healthily that energy which threatened daily to plunge him into recklessness, if not into sin, upon hunting out and collecting, through rock and bog, snow and tempest, every bird and egg of the neighboring forest...I have seen the London beauty, amid all the excitement and tempation of luxury and flattery, with her heart pure, and her mind occupied in a boudoir full of shells and fossils, flowers and seaweeds, keeping herself unspotted from the world, by considering the lillies of the field, how they grow.'"

~Charlotte Mason, Home Education

I have a son with that fierce passion and uncontrollable daring. Through the summer, we dubbed him "King of the Log Roll," as he found his niche at the water hole atop the spinning cylinder in the middle of the lake. That's him in the photo above--the one in the orange shorts.

Sometimes, when I see him go after something so strongly, my fears almost simultaneously increase and dissipate. Increase, because I fear that this passion will find its way toward something unhealthy, something that threatens daily to plunge him into recklessness--yes, even sin. There is so much around us in our culture that pulls at boys, fights for their hearts and attempts to strip them of their joy and tenderness, preys on their curiosity and desire.

And then, pressing its way to the forefront comes hope to overcome my fears, reminding me that I am the director of my son's education, that I am here to guide him towards healthy pursuits. I can see when the monsters of destructiveness rise up to swallow him and I can steer him away. The pressure is great to yield to endless hours of zombie-like video game comas and mind-numbing television programming. Programming! I don't know about you, but I'm not interested in allowing someone to program my child!

So I make it a point to offer that which is wholesome. It's not easy. It's rarely ever easy. But I believe it's a race worth running, and there are moments when the reward is in sight.

As I type this, fourteen-year-old Houdin is playing the piano with fierce passion, inventing for himself new sounds and chord combinations, new rhythms and feelings. When he is plugged into things like this--a piano that comes alive at the command of his mind and fingers, and a spinning cylinder that is tamed beneath his moving feet, I see him thrive. On the keys of the piano, he explores and discovers; on the log roll, he runs backwards, juggles, laughs and absorbs the sun until his back is as brown as a biscuit. His moodiness disappears. He is filled with purpose. He feels accomplishment. There is no electronic replacement for that.

I think it's so important to give our boys opportunities to succeed, feats that they can accomplish that help them feel good about themselves. Let him work with wood and power tools, give him a unicycle or a pogo stick, provide him with the opportunity to apprentice with a craftsman, allow him to explore the workings of an ant hill or the power of a living stream. Give him real books, exciting books with beautiful words, whether you read to him or give him a quiet, sunny corner where he can read independently.

And then, stand back, and watch him light up, expending healthily that energy that will not be allowed to plunge him into recklessness.

Wholesome and Nourishing

"The more the child shapes his own course, the less do the parents find to do, beyond feeding him with food convenient, whether of love, or thought, or of bodily meat and drink. And here, we may notice, the parents need only supply; the child knows well enough how to appropriate. The parents' chief care is, that that which they supply shall be wholesome and nourishing, whether in the way of picture books, lessons, playmates, bread and milk, or mother's love."

~Charlotte Mason , Home Education

The photo above is of my self-directed learner, fifteen-year-old Bard, practicing her piano. She called me in one morning to show me how beautiful her hands looked on the keys with the eastern sun filtering through the windows. I only wish you could hear her playing Prelude in C to complete the picture!

Our venture into a more conscientous, yet still relaxed, classical education has been very satisfying. Yesterday the kids and I sat around the kitchen table discussing Latin and Greek roots which lead into a discussion of the Carl Linnaeus classification system. It was, believe it or not, an entertaining and engaging conversation.

Lest you think that a Charlotte Mason curriculum is overwhelming and strict, let me assure you that it's actually freeing and enjoyable. Fifteen minute study sessions for the younger ones provide for constant interest and the realization that an enjoyable lesson can continue at will, and a difficult lesson will soon be over. And there is still so much freedom to pursue natural interest, like our discussion about the classification system. No one felt burdened or prodded to learn; we were all learning together--and I'm most definitely a big proponent of that. What I increasingly find is that the children don't so much dislike the lesson their doing as they dislike being alone while doing them, being isolated from everyone else for the sake of learning something they have no motivation to learn in the first place. But you, as the mother, the director of their education, the autodidact that you are, show a sincere interest and a humility that says, "I don't really understand this either; let's figure it out together," and suddenly your child is no longer alone, but on a journey with the one she loves and trusts and wishes for none other to learn alongside.

And the bonus, of course, is being there to see her eyes light up when she finally understands!

Now, an informal poll: Did you learn root words in school? If so, do they still help you? Do children in schools learn them now?

The View from Here

Ms. Booshay at Quiet Life assigned bloggers to take a photo of something within a mile of our homes and post it to our blogs or send it to her to post on her blog. This photo is the view from here. It's actually--and don't hate me for this--the gorgeous countryside that I see every time I look out my kitchen window. Breathtaking, no? When we were designing our house and staking out the perimeters before the excavator dug in, we literally stood on the hillside and marked where the kitchen window would be and planned the rest of the house around it.

Can you see why?

Being Educated

The parent who sees his way––that is, the exact force of method––to educate his child, will make use of every circumstance of the child's life almost without intention on his own part, so easy and spontaneous is a method of education based upon Natural Law. Does the child eat or drink, does he come, or go, or play––all the time he is being educated, though he is as little aware of it as he is of the act of breathing.

~Charlotte Mason

Nothing is Trivial

"Nothing is trivial that concerns a child; his foolish-seeming words and ways are pregnant with meaning for the wise. It is in the infinitely little we must study in the infinitely great; and the vast possibilities, and the right direction of education, are indicated in the open book of the little child's thoughts."

Charlotte Mason

Monarch Lifecycle

For your viewing pleasure, a collage of the lifecycle of the monarch butterfly, as observed by The Cozy Cottage Academy. We took pictures of most phases, with the exception of the egg (too tiny) and the green chrysalis (don't know how I missed it, but I'll get one). Make sure to click on the photo to get a full-sized view, and you'll see how tiny the caterpillars are when they first hatch and you'll also see a second-by-second series of the buttefly emerging and expanding her wings.

Enjoy one of life's miracles!

"Their Gravest Duty"

"Now, that work which is of most importance to society is the bringing up and instruction of the children––in the school, certainly, but far more in the home, because it is more than anything else the home influences brought to bear upon the child that determine the character and career of the future man or woman. It is a great thing to be a parent: there is no promotion, no dignity, to compare with it. The parents of but one child may be cherishing what shall prove a blessing to the world. But then, entrusted with such a charge, they are not free to say, 'I may do as I will with mine own.' The children are, in truth, to be regarded less as personal property than as public trusts, put into the hands of parents that they may make the very most of them for the good of society. And this responsibility is not equally divided between the parents: it is upon the mothers of the present that the future of the world depends, in even a greater degree than upon the fathers, because it is the mothers who have the sole direction of the children's early, most impressible years. This is why we hear so frequently of great men who have had good mothers––that is, mothers who brought up their children themselves, and did not make over their gravest duty to indifferent persons."

~Charlotte Mason, Home Education

Continuing Education

This year, we just jumped right in.

No trips to the store for the ceremonious "back-to-school" supplies; we've just been picking them up when we take our regular trips to the store for milk and Almond Joys. No huge order from Rainbow Resources, Timberdoodle or Alpha Omega, though there are a few things I'd still love to add to my collection. No sweating over curriculum--I actually continued using several things that have been working for us in the past and added a few things I saw when I went to the curriculum store for this year's Italic Handwriting books. No big "not going back to school" party and no big X number of days until returning to schoolwork countdown. Nothing.

We just...kind of...continued.

During the summer months, we do a lot of field trips, activities, family times, games, trips to the swimming pool, and we take every opportunity for learning that comes up. When the traditional "school year" starts, I get a little itch that tells me I'd like to be more organized, a bit more driven. In years past, that has meant setting a day for school, which was always the first Monday after Labor Day, taking a trip to Stuff*Mart to drool over the school supplies (do we really need to buy the Napoleon Dynamite Trapper Keeper?) and scrambling to find just the right math curriculum, just the right spelling program, and the absolute best art supplies.

But this year, I just got the itch to get started. On Tuesday, I had most of what I wanted to use to get back into our formal lessons, had made copies of some of the consumables I don't want consumed, checked stuff out of the library and printed stuff on the computer. So, with a swish of the chalk on the board, we were on our way. Just like that.

It's not a real big leap. We learn all year long anyway, so adding a few formal touches here and there really wasn't a huge change. I think the biggest changes are making a concrete list of goals for the day for each child which is posted on the chalkboard daily (we have done this before in different forms, but not through the summer) and cutting our formal lessons to fifteen minutes each as opposed to doing them until we're crying (which we actually did when we were using Ohio Virtual Academy). The fifteen minute guide is via Charlotte Mason. I bought each of the kids their own little kitchen timers (while I was at the store buying guinea pig food and kitty litter) so they can time themselves individually, and then we're incorporating Mason's suggestions of changing scenery often with a lot of outside time--jumping on the trampoline, sketching things from nature, reading poetry and just being outside together.

Fifteen-year-old Bard is following the Charlotte Mason Year 9 schedule and seems to really be thriving with it, pretty much directing her own education. I'm loosely following the Year 3 schedule with the boys, a differently-learning (aren't we all?) 14 year old and a very bright 10 year old. We started Latin, grammar, handwriting, copywork and reading/spelling and poetry--William Blake this trimester. I'm also assigning good quality books for the boys to read, like At The Back of the North Wind ("Is Diamond a boy or a horse? Well? WELL?"). They have a tendency to flounder between activities, so providing them with some quality literature and asking them to narrate to me is helpful for occupying their time and inspiring creativity.

With Sweetheart, who's six and a half, we're working on handwriting, lots and lots of play time and nature study, relaxed copywork, and Explode the Code because she really wants to learn to read. I don't push reading until I see the signs that they're ready to dive in. Bard read fluently at four, Houdin didn't care to read at all until twelve, Monet learned to read at 7, and now Sweetheart. As a result, they all enjoy reading as both a hobby and a learning tool.

This is my first year of dabbling in the Charlotte Mason curriculum. We've always been eclectic with a bent towards a kind of classical unschooling and a few formal lessons thrown in, but I recently decided to look more closely into Mason's methods for Sweetheart after recommending it to a friend who was asking about inexpensive curriculum options. I saw that they had courses up through Year 10, and now I see that they've just completed Year 11. After reading through the schedules and suggested reading lists, I realized that we have been very loosely following Mason's philosophies all along and that Bard, especially, would really appreciate Mason's education suggestions.

If you aren't familiar with Charlotte Mason or just have a basic knowledge, you can find out much more about approaching a classical-type education in a more relaxed way by checking out Ambleside Online, a free online curriculum created by parents who are using Charlotte Mason's learning methods. From the Ambleside site, you can access many books, including Charlotte Mason's original writings as well as many pieces of literature that are out-of-print and hard-to-find.

Over the next few days, I'll be sharing some of Mason's words that resounded with me as well as my thoughts about this approach and how it is working in our family.

I'd love to hear your thoughts as well.

Transfixed by transfiguration.

My life has been all-consumed by learning. We've been learning about hosting house concerts, meanings of Latin root words, curbing bad tempers, counting to three, making friends, getting fresh air and studying nature.

It is with that last, the "studying nature" category, that I have become transfixed.

Several weeks ago, a mother from our portrait drawing class, along with her three bright-eyed daughters, presented our family with a sprig of milkweed, the milk dripping from the stalk. On it, so tiny that the human eye (especially the approaching forty human eye) could barely see, was a tiny caterpillar, barely boasting its black, yellow and white stripes. "Keep it in a jar," the mother shared, "and provide it with fresh milkweed. You'll be amazed."

And I was. Daily, that little caterpillar grew, munching and pooping and munching some more until it was the size of my pinky finger. I've since read that caterpillars, from their hatching to their pre-pupation stage, increase their weight by 2,700 times!

Watching a monarch caterpillar pupate is a wondrous sight to behold. Mr. Caterpillar will give you some indication that he'll be performing his stunt by hanging upside down from his container in the shape of a "J." Within a day, his black antennae and tiny legs wither and he begins to move, ever so slightly but very rhythmically, as if squirming beneath his skin. And then, with an inaudible pop, the skin at the head breaks open and the hiding pupa can no longer be contained by the restrictive black, white and yellow skin that has already made room for the growing beast eight times previous.

I'll not tell you any more. You can see for yourself. The children and I gathered around to watch the miracle of a pupating monarch, and I was able to capture it on film. The photos go in order from top to bottom, which you're likely not used to on a blog, but I felt that was the right way to do it.

Next week, you'll be in for a very special treat. Can you imagine what I caught with my camera this fine morning?

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The telltale "J." If you look closely, you can see the limp antennae.

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Just before the skin begins to split, the caterpillar stretches out straight.

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If you look closely on the bottom left, you can see the green of the pupa beginning to emerge.

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More of the pupa will be progressively visible in the next few frames.

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