I love feeding them greens.  Something to love.  Charlotte Mason . . . → Read More: Grass, Please.]]> Three little males, varied shades of brown, searching intently with their large dark eyes for anything green.

I love feeding them greens.  Something to love.  Charlotte Mason would approve.

One of the . . . → Read More: Something To Love]]> Charlotte Mason says that every day children need to have something to do, something to love. For my Michaela, there are bunnies; Annie, THE beagle; and, Oreo our sweet kitty who was hit by a car and now lives inside — a bit less than her old self, but just as sweet as ever.

One of the daily chores around here is to gather greens for the bunnies. They do get some pellets too and we always make sure they have fresh water, but I have loved the results of having Michaela search for their greens.

Bunnies cannot eat just anything, and domesticated rabbits have lost some of their ability to know what to eat and what not to eat. I have found that Michaela’s knowledge of what she is picking has greatly increased because of the responsibility of feeding it to these baby bunnies!  The names of plaintain, dandelion, chickweed, clover, etc., used to go right into one ear and out the other, but with something to love, the names are sticking. 

Last night I was looking through old photographs and postcards that I’ve collected through the years.  I dearly love this little picture.  A sweet baby, haltingly reaching out to pet a bunny.  I figure there’s someone behind the camera saying, “pet the bunny.”  Makes me smile every time.  There’s trust in this picture.  I’m trusting you that this bunny’s not going to bite my fingers off. 

I think Charlotte Mason might have smiled at this picture too.

There were buttercups, purple vetch, oxeye daisies, white yarrow, yellow and orange hawkweed, honeysuckle, and yellow mustard.  A spittlebug was hiding in its lump of bubbles along the stem of the hawkweed.  I picked off a leaf and rolled it up to poke at . . . → Read More: Strictly Wildflowers]]> Strictly Wildflowers. One of my favorite chapters in Karen Andreola’s Pocketful of Pinecones.

There were buttercups, purple vetch, oxeye daisies, white yarrow, yellow and orange hawkweed, honeysuckle, and yellow mustard.  A spittlebug was hiding in its lump of bubbles along the stem of the hawkweed.  I picked off a leaf and rolled it up to poke at the bubbles, revealing to Don and Emily the shiny little bug inside it.  Don drew the spittlebug and Emily drew the daisies.

Currently in the garden, on the lavender and on other plants as well, we have the spittlebug.  Dishes, dust and dirty clothes call out to me.  My computer — and all the fun therein, calls to me, but the spittlebug’s call is louder.  Or, at least, it should be.

One of most vital requirements of a healthy homeschool is action.  I am convicted many days because of my habit of spending too much time on line or occupying myself with things that are not feeding Michaela’s mind or heart.  We’ll hearken more to the call of the spittlebug and the wasp and the gentle education that occurs with a notepad, a basket of colored pencils and nature.

Nature’s colors are real.  Her lessons are enduring.  There’s a time and a place for everything. 

See you in the garden.

I’m so sorry I never posted yesterday!  I was supposed to post about school stuff: where we are, how I am going to finish up the year…  Then yesterday went crazy, as work days are likely to do, and I never posted, though I was thinking about it. 

A reaping of that sown: greens to . . . → Read More: The Harvest]]> My Dear Readers,

I’m so sorry I never posted yesterday!  I was supposed to post about school stuff: where we are, how I am going to finish up the year…  Then yesterday went crazy, as work days are likely to do, and I never posted, though I was thinking about it. 

A reaping of that sown: greens to cook, greens for a fresh salad, greens for an infusion.

On Sunday evening I spent some time thinking about this school year:  about Ambleside Online, Five in a Row, how much time we’ve spent in co-ops and on fieldtrips, where we are in our Saxon math text, and where we are in our writing and grammar.  I say “we” because even thought it’s Michaela’s education, at this point I am totally responsible for putting her lessons together and making sure she follows through.

As I wondered about writing out yet more lessons, I could not get off my mind that, very simply, “you reap what you sow.” 

I had everything I needed right at my fingertips to do a full year of Ambleside and yet we have persisted in reading only a few of the selections on the year’s list of books.  We have focused on only one artist: Raphael.  But I’m not going to cry over things not accomplished. 

On the other hand, we have been 100% involved in our Five In A Row homeschool support group, including a co-op that split off to study Volume 4, and our lives have been so enriched with friendship, hands-on learning, review, and time outdoors and in others’ homes, the result has been beyond my expectations.  But I am not going to be over-confident regarding things we did accomplish. 

The summation of this is that we are not yet where I had hoped we’d be in the math book and yet we are still inspired to learn, and here it is May!  I think it has been a successful year. 

It is clear to me that we are reaping what we have sown through the year.  There’s a harvest to everything.  Perhaps we’ve a table covered in too many sweet fruits and not enough vitamin-rich vegetables, and yet, at least for now, we are doing well with what we’ve harvested.   It’s clear to me though that there are some lessons I need to take from this and that we need to be wise with the time left in this school year and even this summer.

We have three more outings with our homeschool group and the year will be done in that sense.  Otherwise, we are focusing only on math and writing during our days, and our evening/bedtime/independent reading will be purely the bible and the few books from Ambleside Year 5 that we want to finish but have not yet.  Michaela will be required to name all of the paintings by Raphael that we have studied.  Her end-of-year testing is already set up to be done with an indepedent testing service in the second half of June.  Then we’ll break, except for math.

I feel like I’m tying up loose ends and that I have learned so much.  As far as I know, next year we will be using Ambleside Year 6, Beyond Five In A Row, our Saxon math, and other things yet to be determined.  (Must wait until after the NC Homeschool Conference!)

While we’re at it, do expect a final Ambleside post before the school year is out.

I’ll leave you with a bunny picture.  Trying to crawl up out of my hand and look at the world, this little bunny does have ears!  If you’ll remember, Coco sometimes looked like she had no ears, or only one ear.  Like mama, like baby.

A good reminder:  You reap what you sow.

After a large Thanksgiving meal, for which we were duly thankful, my mother, my sister, my sweet husband, my son Joseph and I set out on a slow, easy walk around the pond.

The beauty of the woods enticed me to think on happy . . . → Read More: The Walk]]> “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”  Psalms 8:1

After a large Thanksgiving meal, for which we were duly thankful, my mother, my sister, my sweet husband, my son Joseph and I set out on a slow, easy walk around the pond.

The beauty of the woods enticed me to think on happy things.  My mind was renewed as my thoughts flew to getting back into school after a week of cooking, eating, and relaxing.  We have the marvelous AO Year 5 books to devour.  This season offers the chance to study some of the greatest music of all time.  Handel’s Messiah comes to mind.  Music appreciation should flow almost without effort. 

In my Charlotte Mason reading this morning, exercising the mind was the subject of her writing.

Most of us have met with a few eccentric and a good many silly persons, concerning whom the question forces itself, Were these people born with less brain power than others?  Probably not; but if they were allowed to grow up without the daily habit of appropriate moral and mental work, if they were allowed to dawdle through youth without regular and sustained efforts of thought or will, the result would be the same, and the brain which should have been invigorated by daily exercise has become flabby and feeble as a healthy arm would be after carried for years in a sling.”

Oh what encouragement to push ever onward in the coming week! And though it might sometimes seem an inconveniece to my child to forgo mindless (insert name of modern pop star who most gets on your nerves) videos on YouTube, in favor of a more noble pursuit:

Do not let the children pass a day without distinct efforts, intellectual, moral, volitional; let them brace themselves to understand; let them compel themselves to do and to bear; and let them do right at the sacrifice of ease and pleasure… 

I find that we are not without things to work on.

Wishing you a beautiful and productive Saturday,
Lynn

Well, one thing led to another and we pulled our plastic card table out into the veggie . . . → Read More: Brain Food]]> Having in mind Charlotte Mason’s encouragment to get children into the fresh air, we pulled a plastic chair into the veggie garden for Michaela.  I turned over a bucket to sit on so we could read together.  The fresh air felt so good.

Well, one thing led to another and we pulled our plastic card table out into the veggie garden and placed a couple of chairs.   It looked like a cozy little kitchen corner, minus the walls and ceiling. 

We began reading about outdoor survival as part of our school lessons and we thought it’d be fun to really build a fire.  Actually Michaela thought it would be fun and I’m easily manipulated into things like that. 

This led to pulling our little chiminea into the garden and gathering up dried grass and sticks.   Our cute little outside kitchen was getting cuter and cuter.

If I have learned anything at all about home education, it’s that one thing leads to another and another and another.  And also we badly needed some brain food.

So we dragged out an iron skillet and some cooking utensils, paper plates, drinks, napkins, and hot dogs.  You have no idea how good hot dogs are when they are cut into little pieces and cooked in an iron skillet while you are reading about outdoor survival. 

I could think so much better after this.  Oh yeah, we brought out the peanut butter to put on our ginger snaps.

Actually, after the fired burned out and we had eaten an entire package of hot dogs, we tried building a fire using different types of tinder we found in the yard.  It was an educational science lesson, though I will put a disclaimer right here about being careful with fire.  Michaela is 11 and I was there supervising the whole time.    And yes, I made Michaela pull her hair back because I did not like the looks of it swinging down near the door of the chiminea.

We invited Joseph to come out and eat with us and he seemed happy to oblige.  At some point Joseph and Michaela transitioned to the more open end of our outdoor kitchen and started sword fighting with two heavy wooden garden stakes.  Another disclaimer:  Insert here whatever injury you think might occur from this type of behavior.

He’s basically letting her do all the hitting.

Get ‘im!

Ger ‘er!

Get ‘im!!

Get ‘im again!

Get ‘er!

Oh, look, a tie!  Let’s stop now before someone ends up minus an eye or something.

By the way, we did squeeze in lots of Saxon math and some good mommy daughter talks and some great review of recent co-op and fieldtrip events.

Lynn

When I was a teenager we had a friend visiting from the mountains.  In driving around our county I was commenting on the beauty of it all.  My mother seemed a bit embarassed and noted that our friend, having come from the . . . → Read More: The Wonders of Nature]]> ‘The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork. ”  Psalm 19:1

When I was a teenager we had a friend visiting from the mountains.  In driving around our county I was commenting on the beauty of it all.  My mother seemed a bit embarassed and noted that our friend, having come from the mountains, was from a place where the land really was beautiful.  While I did see her point, I didn’t agree at all that the mountains were any more beautiful than the sandy soil, scrubby oaks, pine trees, and blue skies where I had grown up.

I used to kneel down in the woods behind our house and marvel at the soldier moss growing at the foot of one of our oaks.  The sandy trail that cut through our woods looked like a secret path to me, and I often saw snakes and birds sitting in the trees, looking at me as I walked on tip-toe trying to be really quiet like the Indians would have been.  We had a montrous tangle of blackbeery bushes that offered up many blackberry cobblers through the years.  I felt rich.

It is humbling to think of the beauty God has put around us to enjoy.  I went outside this morning and sat in the morning sun with a cup of water infused with a few drops of Ashwagandha.  (I think my adrenals are struggling, but that’s another post for another day.)

The sun on my face felt so wonderful and Annie enjoyed running around in the garden.  Over the weekend I went on a foraging walk and gathered many rosehips for winter teas.  They are currently drying in a sunny, upstairs window. 

I woke up this morning so renewed and encouraged that Nature Study is a vital and easy thing to undertake.  Michaela’s first lesson today will be outside.  I may even have her continue there, but it’s cold.  We’ll see how warm it gets.  She’s been admiring the art in a new picture book here and I think I’ll have her experiment with the method of illustration done in the book.  It appears to be black outlining filled in with colored pencils.  I am hopeful that it will make a lovely start to Michaela’s Monday.  Surrounded by the beauty of falling yellow leaves, purple poke berries and bright nasturtium flowers, I don’t see how a bit of nature can escape from ending up in her drawing.

I thought you  might enjoy Charlotte Mason’s thoughts on sunshine, from Vol 1.  of Home Education, pp 34-35:

But it is not only air, and pure air, the children must have if their blood is to be of the ‘finest quality,’ as the advertisements have it.  Quite healthy blood is exceedingly rich in minute, red disc-like bodies, known as red corpuscles, which in favourable circumstances are produced freely in the blood itself.  Now, it is observed that people who live much in the sunshine are of a ruddy countenance–that is, a great many of these red corpuscles are present in their blood; while the poor souls who live in cellars and sunless alleys have skins the colour of whity-brown paper.  Therefore, it is concluded that light and sunshine are favourable to the production of red corpuscles in the blood; and, therefore–to this next ‘therefore’ is but a step for the mother–the children’s rooms should be on the sunny side of the house, with a south aspect if possible.  Indeed, the whole house should be kept light and bright for their sakes; trees and outbuildings that obstruct the sunshine and make the chidlren’s rooms dull should be removed without hesitation. 

With curtains open and rosehips drying in the windowsill, I’m busy working today and handing out school lessons from my work desk. The tea kettle is whistling. Enjoy this day.