There’s a gentle rain falling here this morning. I just spoke with Thomas on the phone and he’s happy about the rain. “It’ll fill up the rain barrels and I won’t have to water the garden today,” he said.
He does a lot for us. He works all day and usually comes home and starts working on something here. Helping me water the garden is one of those things. Our rain barrels were nearly empty, so this rain is delightful!
Bronze fennel begins to bloom.
I’ve had a wonderful hour of quiet time this morning. The house is quiet. I know I need to get to my work desk soon, but I’ve been ruminating for days at least a week now over some words in Nehemiah, and that combined with some reading in Pocketful of Pinecones kept me in my purple chair for longer than I intended.
You must know that I’m still thinking about curriculum. I love the Charlotte Mason philosophy and have read and read again Karen Andreola’s books. I know that whatever I do, it’ll be done in the CM style. I am leaning towards a complete and total surrender to CM this year to see how that works for us. Ambleside Online would play a large part.
Little winged creature enjoying bronze fennel bloom.
Looking at the facts then,
- I love the gentle but steady style of a Charlotte Mason education.
- I love pulling my own curriculum together.
- I have to work.
- I need to have each week clearly planned out so that Michaela has plenty of good and educational things to do.
I think the thing I need to make sure we do is plan and follow-through, and that is going to be the case no matter what. Maybe therein lies my whole battle. Maybe planning is at the heart of what I need to tackle. Do I want someone else’s plans or my own? Do I want a mix?
I’ve had some strong thoughts on my mind about our home and what we allow into our home and what we do with our time. It has impressed my heart so much that Nehemiah wept over the condition of Jerusalem. After he wept, he prayed earnestly and with humility. After that he had confidence.
I love that.
And I love what he said to those who laughed him to scorn in his plans to build.
The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.”
To me, educating my children is so much more than curriculum. It’s being careful daily with our homelife. Lately it’s been on my heart that I need a lot of help in deciding what has “no portion, nor right, nor memorial” in my home. I don’t necessarily mean that in regard to any curriculum per se, but to what we choose to look at and spend our time on. That said, though, I think the way we teach our children impacts greatly how they turn out and what they pursue in life. I’ll be the first to admit that I need help with all of this!
The closer you get, the clearer the creature becomes. The closer I look at my options, the more important details I see.
I’ll be spending the next few weeks thinking about how I want our school year to flow. The goal is for the year to gently flow. The goal is also to produce a daughter who is a little more capable, a stronger reader, more concerned with her faith, and excited about learning. I also want a more definite routine this year. What I choose will be important. I don’t want to choose in a panic or in a rush. For the next few weeks, I’ll be gently thinking on these things.
Happy Monday!
Lynn
for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
Dear Lynn,
How wonderful that you are putting so much thought into this~it’s not just about now, it’s about eternity, so it makes sense to ponder and pray over it.
I’m glad you’ve had rain. We had three thunderstorms yesterday, and wished we had rain barrels to fill up!
Love,
Marqueta
Now I don’t mind having someone else plan out all of my lessons.. in fact that would be my preference, lol. But I do love the idea of having a CM style homeschool… I just have never been able to figure out how to make it work practically speaking. I’ll have to check out that link you shared. It sounds like you and I have many of the same goals and needs for our families/homes/schooling. Maybe we should do some chatting about all of this sometime! I’m sure I could learn a lot from you, dear♥
Happy Monday Lynn,
We have just arrived home from a wonderful trip to Wisconsin. we visited with family and friends from one side of the state to the other. We traveled only secondary roads (no interstates) and discovered so many beautiful little towns and contryside we’d never experienced before. It was such a treat!
I took some time to visit your site and have enjoyed reading about the many projects and adventures. The bunnies are precious, the garden looks inviting, and the dolls you adopted are so unique. As for possible names I love the idea of using the characters from “Little Women” as well.
I was able to do some thrift shopping along our journey and came home with a few treasures. The most exciting find is a cardboard bucket that held chocolates for use in a 1920′s ice cream shop. ($5.00!)
As with any vacation it’s also good to be home.
Take care and I visit again soon,
Diane
praying God’s wisdom for you…
Lynn, We too like CM style. We use mostly older books and Robinson Curriculum. the bible and reading, reading , reading. I know lots of writing is crucial to a good education and we can never do enough of this! You are always so creative in your schooling…
I just love you photos of your flowers! You really have a good eye for photography.
Paticia
Oh! Tell Princess our doe kindled a litter last night and we now have 10 more bunnies…. eeeee
Patricia
I am really glad there are people out there who think this way. This post was a very good reminder to me consider not only the education I provide to my children, but also what our home should (and should not) be.
Marqueta, I wish you had a rain barrel too! You will. It took me awhile to get one. I’d like one or two more, but I have to be patient and be thankful for what I have.
Diane, I don’t mind lessons be done for me either. I love the Five in a Row lessons and all the support there, and I love thinking that there’s a booklist already made out for me at Ambleside. I’m just afraid if I go with a big box where SO much is already planned, I’ll feel even more overwhelmed than I do when I underplan sometimes.
Diane M, thank you for coming by! I’m glad you had a nice trip. Your 5$ find sounds perfect! I love things like that. When I went to Yorktown we took a more secondary route, and we loved the country scenery.
Tonya, thank you.
Patricia, our weakness this past year wsa writing and reading and I know my work has something to do with that. Well, not even my work as much as my way of thinking — sort of an all or none, like I need to be with her all through the day or we don’t get anything done. I need to do better at writing out plans, assigning and then expecting.
I love all your ideas. And I told Michaela about the bunnies. She had big eyes!!
Ken, you all are a constant source of inspiration and encouragement to me. I feel so needy in the area of homelife. I love computers and my children love electronics and I really have a battle keeping things under control. We don’t have TV as in cable or anything like that. So no public television, but the DVDs, the game systems, the on-line social networking, the websites! Aack. Add to the mix four children, different ages, two now 18 years of age and older who contribute to our home and have an adult status — it’s hard to find safe limits, and I’m not sure a total ban is the right thing, though it does cross my mind!
I try desperately every day to help them set limits. That may not even be what you were thinking of, but it sure has been on my mind lately.
Lynn
Lynn –
I just started perusing your site and love it! Hopefully the workboxes will help keep you on track and provide some fun as well (I think that’s how I found you).
We, too, are embarking on a “gentler” year r/t slamming through everything. I’m trying to give the kids more space and freedom, though some will be structured or directed. I am a former Type A person with a checkbox personality, so I have to cool down, slow down and smell the roses a bit more.
I just yanked cable, though have held on to the TV and am mindful too of what enters our house in all aspects.
I look forward to your ideas and inspirations.
God bless!
Heather, thank you so much for visiting and for your comment! You probably did find me with the workbox post.
As far as CM, I’ll definitely be posting about what we do and how we do it. I was reading more at the Ambleside site last night and I am heavily leaning that way.
Lynn