It's a Favorite time of the Year!

It's hard to believe that 8 weeks have already passed since we started school. I know some people are just starting but we're almost ready for a Fall break! Oh, Fall! I love Fall! It's my very favorite time of the year. The crisp chill in the air (which has yet to reach us, I might add), the beautiful colors of the leaves falling to the ground, the football games and candy apples! Oh, so many wonderful experiences to enjoy for us all.

I try to point out these changes in weather and nature to my children as much as I can. This is for their benefit as well as my own. I find that so many times I can rush through life and find that I've missed so much of life. I love our school days and I'm trying to make them less stressful for us all. I'm trying to have fun, do wonderful nature projects, and just enjoy the art of learning. Miss Mason has been teaching me this and I'm trying to put in into practical applications. I'll let you know how I do!

But I urge you, as you venture into this new season, look for the things and experiences that make Fall different from any other time. Explore those and come up with some of your favorite fall activities or observations. This will make your children, as well as yourself, take time to explore all that God has created and be appreciative! Happy Fall!

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival!

I am so excited! I am in my very first CM blog carnival this week! What is a CM blog carnival? It's a place where anyone can visit to find lots of different CM articles and blog entries to read. I often try to find new blogs that are using the CM style of education, yet it's hard just doing a blind search. Now all of the work is done for me and I can just go from one blog entry to the next learning all different kinds of wonderful CM wisdom. This week's CM Blog Carnival is hosted by Rose Cottage. Check it out...I know I will. And thank you to Blessed Mommy who suggested that I enter my post for the carnival. I love making new friends!

Jill

Scripture Memory and Copywork

Scripture memory and copywork have been going together hand in hand recently in our homeschool. I have learned that sometimes it's easier to have dd7 copy something that she's already learning. The way we learn scripture is by printing off a Bible verse and placing it inside a plastic sheet in a 3 ring binder. I have certain days that I go over different verses but we always recited at least 10 verses a day. I've even noticed ds5 memorizing a lot of scripture this way, without our even asking him too. For copywork I have dd7 write parts of the poem we're currently learning (right now it's Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken) or she copies different verses from our scripture notebook. She is really getting great with her handwriting and her memorization always continues to amaze me!

Astronomy Notebook

We've been doing Jeanie Fulbright's Exploring Creation through Astronomy this year and we're really enjoying this wonderful book. I love how CM it is! She tells her lessons from a scientific, yet Biblical, viewpoint and even has places for you to ask for narration and notebook lessons. It's been a perfect addition to our homeschool and I wanted to share a few of our most recent pictures with you.

The first project Jeanie has you do is create a cover for your Astronomy notebook. Dd7 decided to draw a picture of the Earth with a satellite above it. We've been studying satellites and what they are. I had no idea that the Earth is actually a satellite of the sun, as are all of the planets. A satellite is anything that rotates around another object in space. Some satellites are man-made but some are natural satellites! See, I'm learning new things everyday. The other night my ds5 looked up at the moon in the night sky and said, "look Mom! It's a satellite!"

The next picture is a picture dd7 drew of the sun. Our first lesson is all about the sun and it's amazing qualities. We've learned just how big the sun actually is. Thousands of Earths can fit inside our sun. She's reading a book about the solar system right now and she pointed out a picture to me inside the book. She said, "Mom, this picture is not right." At first I didn't understand what she was talking about. She then pointed out that the sun was not drawn to scale. This book only shows the sun as about four times the size of Earth. Smart child! This picture below is a picture of the sun complete with sun spots and a sun flare. I didn't ask her to draw the specific items in her pictures. I simply asked her to draw a picture based on what we've been learning. I then asked her to write a few sentences about the sun as a narration for her picture. That picture is below as well.

Next week we'll be studying Mercury. She's already devouring the library books we checked out yesterday on this subject. I have a feeling she'll know more about Mercury than I will by the time we get to it!

Jill

Catching up!

We had a wonderful homeschooling week this past week. Since Monday was a holiday and Friday my dd7 goes to an enrichment school I really only had three days of school this week. I knew we wouldn't be able to get through with an entire AO week so I took the opportunity to play catch-up. Can I tell you how wonderful it was??!! I decided to do some of the activities that get put to the side when we run out of time. We had wonderful nature studies (lots of them!) and we did lots of "extra" reading about topics that interest us. We did do Math and Bible each day but other than that we just had fun and played. The kids and I both got so much out of this past week. I know that this is how Charlotte Mason really wants a school run. I know that this week I got a glimpse of her vision. It's a beautiful school once all of the elements come together and the kids are learning and growing on their own time!

For nature study (see previous post for more about this) what I had the children do was explore, have fun, point out new and interesting things. We found spider webs with spiders waiting for their prey, acorns, pecans that haven't rippened yet, vines growing up trees, deer tracks, and so much more. Dd7 brought a few things inside for a type of show and tell. I didn't ask her to do this, she suggested it on her own. We then drew pictures of their favorite parts of the walk. Ds5 drew a picture of a neat stick that he found (such a boy!). And dd7 drew many many drawings on her sheet. She even made a cover art for our nature study notebook. They are loving this new part of school and I promise that this will not be pushed aside any longer. To see my children notice and appreciate all of God's creation is such a joy to my heart. They point out things to me that I would just walk right by. I almost stepped on a mushroom on the ground before they yelled and told me to be careful. We then got down low to the ground exploring this mushroom. God made all things in heaven and earth to proclaim His glory and I don't want to take that for granted anymore.

I think we'll do a catch-up week every six weeks or so from now on. It's a wonderful time to have fun, do some of the things you've missed, and take a little break from the monotony. I can't wait for this week to begin. There is so much in store for us all!

Nature Study 2nd week/ Charlotte Mason lessons

I'm having a lot of fun with this nature study we've started doing. My previous post about the "jewels in our backyard" reminded me that we have even more to explore in our backyard (our very own backyard). We have a large "free space" of land behind our fence that has woods and deer in it. We built a gate into our fence some time ago so that we could access this space however, we rarely do. Yesterday we opened up the gate and the children had so much fun exploring and discovering our very own backyard.

Charlotte Mason says in Part II of her Home Education book that "every hour spent in the open is a clear gain, tending to the increase of brain power and bodily rigour, and to the lengthening of life itself. (pg. 42)" She goes on to say that we should "never be within doors when you can rightly be without". (pg. 42) I love this quote! I need to use that one on my children.

Miss Mason has some excellent examples of simple nature studies that she shares with her readers. Her philosophy of nature study stems from this quote of hers: "They must be let alone, left to themselves a great deal, to take in what they can of the beauty of earth and heavens; for of the evils of modern education few are worse than this- that the perpetual cackle of his elders leaves the poor child not a moment of time, nor an inch of space, wherein to wonder- and grow. At the same time, here is the mother's opportunity to train the seeing eye, the hearing ear, and to drop seeds of truth into the open soul of the child, which shall germinate, blossom, and bear fruit, without further help or knowledge of hers." (pg. 44)

This is powerful and we all need to take note! Miss Mason is basically taking most of the responsibility for leading the lesson away from us. We don't have to know everything to guide our children in their studies. We just have to present them with time and opportunity to be children. Their exploring and curious minds will take it from there. So often we are scared that we can't teach a particular subject or we're upset that we don't know all of the answers. Our precious children don't expect us too. But we must allow them to explore and discover, and be willing to learn along with them.

The next page talks about the parents who feel that they have to constantly have something planned for their children to do. She says "no". Don't always have stories to read to them, tell jokes, recite tales, etc. Just simply enjoy and don't always try to entertain them. This is a very important lesson for the OCD moms and the "overplanners". I tend to fall into one of those categories myself. I feel guilty that I don't have planned activities to fill their days with. Miss Mason says that that's just allowing the children time to be children. It's wonderful the ideas and creations our children come up with when their imaginations are allowed to take flight!

I'll end with this final though from Miss Mason for today. "In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mother's first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it spent for the most part out in the fresh air. And this, not for the gain in bodily health alone- body and soul, heart and mind, are nourished with food convenient for them when the children are let alone, let to live without friction and without stimulus amongst happy influences which incline them to be good." (pg 43)

Isn't it amazing that this woman lived over 100 years ago and it seems as if she's telling us exactly what is needed for mothers today. Remember to let your school be pleasurable, calm, and have much room for exploring the world around us. "All the time, too, the children are storing up memories of a happy childhood". (pg 43) Isn't that what it's all about?

Jill

The Jewels in our own Backyard!

As a child I lived in many beautiful and exotic places within our country. I realized quickly that when people came to visit I was able to see more of those places than I did on a daily basis. For example, could you imagine someone from Oahu, Hawaii never having been to the Pearl Harbor exibit? Or what about someone from L.A. never having walked down Hollywood Blvd? So often we don't take the time to act like tourists and explore the town, city, State that we live in. Today, I took some time to do just that!

Just barely two miles from my house (I pass right by it everyday)is a wonderful community nature center. I remember my friend Dee Dee and I taking our children when they were younger and I loved it then. But sadly, I've never been back. Why? Oh, I guess I just let life get in the way. Plus, that was before I knew I'd be homeschooling and before I'd had my Charlotte Mason Education! ;) Today, my husband had a rare day off and we decided to try it out again. Sadly, this was the one day of the week that my dd7 was in Enrichment School, but ds5 and dd2 loved the experience. There are over 33 acres of trails behind this wonderful center! And over 300 trees are labeled with signs telling you what they are! I mean, all of the work was done for me! We saw deer, squirrels, butterflies, spider webs, and even a King Snake. My son picked up a bird feather at the beginning of the walk and thus, our nature journal has begun! I plan to research and identify this bird feather with the kids and tape it into our nature journal this weekend. How do you make a nature journal? I don't know! But it will start with a feather taped to a piece of paper and hopefully a name of the bird and a little about that bird written underneath. Nothing fancy here! But it's a start!

Hidden amongst the many Oak, Pine, and Poplar trees (and among the vast amounts of poison ivy!) was even an old wagon and "lean too". I'm not sure what the "lean too" is actually called but it's a type of shelter that travelers along the Natches Trace used to stay under when it got late at night. Yes, this nature center has tons of history surrounding it as well. If I'm not mistaken (I need to really research this more before I post this but oh, well...)Teddy Roosevelt used to travel the Trace on his hunting expeditions in this part of Mississippi--hunting for bear! This is where we get the word, "Teddy Bear"! What a wealth of history and nature studies we have right here in our own backyard. And do you know the best part, the nature center is free. They run on donations! I promise you this, the next time we're there we're buying a family membership! We'll definitely be using this little jewel again.

Jill