Our Winter Guest

"Many birds come into view the more freely in the cold weather that they are driven forth in search of food.

The cattle mourn in corners where the fence screens them.

          The sun, with ruddy orb
     Ascending, fires the horizon.

          Every herb and every spiry blade
     Stretches a length of shadow o'er the field.

    "The sparrows peep, and quit the sheltering eaves.

     "The redbreast warbles still, but is content
     With slender notes, and more than half suppress'd;
     Pleased with his solitude, and flitting light
     From spray to spray, wheree'er he rests he shakes
     From many a twig the pendent drops of ice
     That tinkle in the wither'd leaves below.

There is no reason why the child's winter walk should not be as fertile in observations as the poet's; indeed, in one way, it is possible to see the more in winter, because the things to be seen do not crowd each other out." ~ Charlotte Mason Vol 1 pg 86

 A few nights ago we discovered this little guy fluttering around on our front porch...

It was after dark and though, at the time, he wasn't in the nest, I was able to make him stay still for quite a while by shining a flashlight on him. After we noted his color, bill shape, and size, we headed inside for our Birds of Texas Handbook to look him up. We discovered that he is a male House Finch. We have seen the females many times, but he is the first male we have had close enough contact with to identify. 

He has decided to reside in a nest on our front porch. It was built in the spring by a couple of swallows who abandoned it. (Probably due to a high level of human traffic through the front door a few feet from the nest.)

Our comings and goings don't seem to bother our winter boarder. We have had guests over observing him and taking pictures, children running and playing under his nest, and a cat watching him longingly. He observes all with a quite aloofness.

I believe our little House Finch has "come into view the more freely" in search of warmth. We have provided him with a little bonus of food as well, and in exchange he has offered us the pleasure of his company and the opportunity to learn more about his kind.

The Evolution of Our Book of Centuries

“The Book of Centuries, is a great joy to the owner, and even in these busy days it is possible to find some time, however short, to add an illustration from time to time.” ~ G. M. Bernau, Volume 34 1923 pgs. 720-724 of The Parents Review

One of the first tools of learning to inspire my imagination as I began studying about homeschooling was that of the Timeline. Ours has taken many forms throughout the past nine years. From a spiral bound artist book, divided by decades, to a fancy one I downloaded which had different colored pages for different subjects… Science, the Arts, Wars, etc. We have had timelines which were long strips of butcher paper going down the hallway, and timelines which were index cards clothes-pinned to a string attached to the edge of our bookshelves. All of these have been fun and educational, but the way in which we have used them is not quite what I would deem "CM".

Our latest and almost greatest timeline is our current Book of Centuries, which we began right after the index card timeline... about 2 years ago.

It consists of a spiral bound artist book, divided by centuries. This particular book has evolved in tandem with my understanding of what Miss Mason intended the Book of Centuries to be. In the beginning, I would choose a date from our reading each day, tell my daughter what it was, write it in the book for her and point out the other people and events that were contemporaneous.

Ahem, now… I’m not saying that was bad… or that she didn’t learn from the method, but I highly suspect that I learned much more than my student did because I was the one making the connections and doing the writing and noting the other people and events. You see, it took a while for me to begin to grasp this concept…

“Let them get at the books themselves, and do not let them be flooded with a warm diluent at the lips of their teacher. The teacher's business is to indicate, stimulate, direct and constrain to the acquirement of knowledge, but by no means to be the fountain-head and source of all knowledge in his or her own person. The less parents and teachers talk-in and expound their rations of knowledge and thought to the children they are educating, the better for the children.” ~ Charlotte Mason Vol 3 pg 162

Unfortunately, this continues to be a concept I struggle to put into practice!

After reading the above passage numerous times I began asking Georgi to tell me what she thought was important enough to write in her Book of Centuries, and to allow her to write it. (I must confess, I do keep a private list of dates from the readings so that if she gets stumped I can make suggestions, sorry Miss Mason.)

A few months ago I read the Parents Review Article on the Book of Centuries for the first time. The idea of including the maps and drawings was so inspiring that my first inclination was to throw ours out and start all over... right in the middle of the 1700’s! (Don’t laugh, I’ve done it before.)

After much consideration, I have decided to wait until we finish this cycle of history, and begin again at the beginning, with a new book. (Which, by the way, will certainly be our greatest timeline!)

In the meantime I am encouraging my daughter to start including pictures of anything she thinks relates to the date she has entered in her Book of Centuries. So, here’s our current BOC, you’ll see my writing, my daughter’s writing, and her drawing all together.

I’ve learned a lot from creating our Book of Centuries – The people and events which were contemporaneous (up through the 1800’s anyway), how Charlotte Mason used the BOC in her schools, and most importantly the simple fact that the less I talk, the more Georgianna learns! (Hmm, I guess I’ve still learned more from the Book of Centuries than my student has!)

The Closest of All Relationships

"Perhaps the first vitalizing idea to give children is that of the tender fatherhood of God; that they live and move and have their being within the divine embrace. Let children grow up in this joyful assurance, and, in the days to come, infidelity to this closest of all relationships will be as shameful a thing in their eyes as it was in the eyes of the Christian Church during the age of faith." ~ Charlotte Mason Vol 3 pg 145

We "live and move and have our being withing the divine embrace." This, to me, is the core of our religious studies. The goal of our studies is to encourage and strengthen our relationship with God.

For our formal studies we use selected readings from the Amplified Bible, alternating readings from the Old and New Testaments using Penny Gardener's Highlights and including a selection from Psalms each week as well as a couple of scriptures from Proverbs daily.

We also use the Westminster Catechism along with the Westminster Singing Catechism to help it stick in our heads! Then I have Georgi use the catechism for copywork with the help of our Westminster Copybook. And to round it all out, we have been memorizing Colossians this year, using the week's scriptures for copywork as well. Additionally, I have found that the presence and providence of God is celebrated in numerous Ambleside Online books - Trial and Triumph, Parables from Nature, Pilgrim's Progress, Heidi, Pollyanna, and Robinson Crusoe
just to name a few!




Perhaps even more important than our formal religious studies is our desire and our efforts to acknowledge Him in all that we do each day - to "earnestly seek Him".

"And these words which I am commanding you this day shall be [first] in your [own] minds and hearts; [then] You shall whet and sharpen them so as to make them penetrate, and teach and impress them diligently upon the [minds and] hearts of your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up.And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets (forehead bands) between your eyes.And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and on your gates." ~ Deuteronomy 6:6-9

So whether we are exploring and observing God's creation, or using the gifts He gave us to create things ourselves; discussing the best way to handle a problem or what to watch on T.V.; we strive to include our Lord in everything we do - to have and enjoy a real and intimate relationship with Him.

A Little Squirrely

"Then, as for the 'living creatures,' here is a field of unbounded interest and delight."
~ Charlotte Mason Vol 1 pg 56
This past week our nature study seems to have turned a little squirrely. We spent quite awhile Sunday watching a squirrel dig a hole, check the size repeatedly until he had just the right fit for his pecan, use his little forepaws to rake the dirt back in the hole then swiftly pat the dirt down to protect his hidden treasure. (How I wish I had had my camera.)

Fortunately, I did have it Friday when this little guy was very adamantly insisting that Georgi and I leave his territory. Unfortunately for him, his "territory" is a pine tree in our front yard! So, he's just going to have to learn to accept our presence in his space.

(Turn your speakers up to hear him telling us off.)

Dictation - It Really Works!

"After the sort of preparation I have described, which takes ten minutes or less, there is rarely an error in spelling. If there be, it is well worth while for the teacher to be on the watch with slips of stamp-paper to put over the wrong word, that its image may be erased as far as possible. At the end of the lesson, the child should again study the wrong word in his book until he says he is sure of, and should write it correctly on the stamp-paper." ~ Charlotte Mason Vol 1 pg 242

The effectiveness of simple dictation has astounded me. Georgi has had very few spelling lessons, all in 2nd grade (before I discovered Ambleside Online), yet, at 11 she spells wonderfully. We have used Charlotte Mason's methods of teaching spelling (lots of quality books, copywork and dictation) for three years now and I am thrilled with the results. In addition to spelling well, she actually enjoys the dictation lessons!

I use Spelling Wisdom as our source for dictation passages. It just makes me feel good to know that all of the important words are being covered, and it's nice to not have to choose a dictation section each week.

Just as Miss Mason recommends, I allow Georgi to study the passage to be dictated, paying careful attention to punctuation or "the pointing". When she is ready I read the passage to her, clause by clause, pausing at the places where punctuation should be until she remembers to put it there. Since I'm unsure what "stamp-paper" is and have no idea where to buy it, I use the post-it page flags cut into thinner strips. If any words or punctuation are missed in the passage, we will repeat the lesson later in the week. Here is an example of our latest lesson.


This is her first try, she doesn't usually miss a word, but she only put one "m" in "commandment". As soon as I covered it she figured out her error and spelled it correctly the second time. At the end of the lesson she wrote it on the post-it flag and then we repeated the same lesson a couple of days later with perfect results.

And, lest you think her handwriting excessively sloppy, here is a sample of her copywork.

This sample is shorter than usual, but I use our memory work for copywork, and this week's catechism was short.

I don't judge the handwriting too harshly during dictation, that is when I want Georgi to focus on the words as a whole, on proper spelling and punctuation. It is during copywork that I expect her to take the time to focus on the proper formation of each letter in addition to the spelling and punctuation.

If you are struggling to understand how to implement dictation in your homeschool, watch this video by Sonya Shafer, she does a fabulous job of laying it all out which helped me tremendously when I was first learning the art of dictation.

Tigers!

"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." Charlotte Mason Vol 1 pg 61

Our most recent nature walk took place at Tiger Creek, a local tiger refuge. We were invited there to celebrate the birthday of one of Georgi's friends from our homeschool group. We had an amazing day and Georgi took dozens of pictures.
Here are a few of my favorites.
(Click on the pictures to super-size them.)

Panting

My, what a tail!

One of their older tigers, with cataracts.

Just wanting a belly-rub.

White Siberian

Beautiful Flowers!

The bees were busy pollinating!

Dewdrops

ContemplationLovely goldfish pond

Radius and Diameter - the Relationship

"They learn what to observe, and make discoveries for themselves, original so far as they are concerned." ~ Charlotte Mason Vol 3 pg 238

Of all subjects I have found mathematics to be the most difficult to apply Miss Mason's principles to. Last week the concepts of radius and diameter were introduced to Georgi in our math text Life of Fred - Fractions.
I thought she grasped the concept pretty well, but today, she was at a total loss as to how to figure out the diameter of a circle whose radius was 32.
After numerous attempts to prod her memory I finally thought about Miss Mason's emphasis on children discovering ideas for themselves, owning the information. I thought, "What's the CM way to teach this" then I used a compass to draw several circles on a piece of paper, told her to draw a line and measure the radius, then the diameter and figure out what the relationship is between them.

After four circles she told me the radius is half the diameter and the diameter is two times the radius. Yes! Now the really neat part is that late this evening, eight hours after she made this discovery, out of the blue, I asked her to tell me the relationship between the radius and diameter of a circle. She didn't hesitate as she rattled off the answer. She discovered it. She remembers it. It is hers.