The worst part about Charlotte Mason education

Search anywhere on the web and you will find all sorts of lists about the benefits of a Charlotte Mason education.  I could be one of those persons who may have encouraged you to consider it!

Oh the benefits...do they outweigh the disadvantages?

But wouldn't it be good to know the worst parts of using a Charlotte Mason philosophy and methodology?  Just in case you want to sway yourself to try a different philosophy?

Here are just a few of the awful-ist most worst parts of choosing to use a CM Education:

It creates children who are addicted to nature.  They want to spend all their days out of doors.  You must beg them to return indoors to their studies, but then again you also are outside.  They see the beauty in God's creation and see no distinction between the spiritual and natural worlds.

A Charlotte Mason education is very inefficient.  It slows your life down.  Everything has time to be seen and to be known.  The amount of truth and beauty in the world can never be completely seen so you try hard, but there isn't enough time.  That doesn't stop you from trying!

Your book shelves are sorely inadequate.  Every time you buy a new bookshelf it's instantly filled.   You are always in search of the best old book you can find.  Your travels always include looking up the libraries and used book stores in the area.

You make friends that live all over the world and across time.  You spend your dreamtime considering how you might be with them.  Your children know that kindred spirits communing on earth is a glimpse of heaven.

As a parent in a Charlotte Mason philosophy paradigm, you want to go back to school for yourself, so you do.  You read the volumes again and again.  You even pay people to study the volumes with you.

Your children are the experts on music and art.  They tell you the artist that you studied in the past when you can't remember because you didn't narrate well enough.  Most of the time our children hear way more than we think.

Your children find creative ways to learn and have an interest in everything.  They develop deep relationships with all sorts of people they meet and can speak to them about many things.  They don't know a stranger.  They have a simple knowledge of a diversity of many things and can speak to someone about the interests they have.

Your children know geography so well that they can tell you where a obscure country is on the map when it's mentioned in the news.  They also want to travel there and can tell you what trains, planes and cars are required to get there.  

Because of your interest in seeing all persons as images of God, your children do too.  They see the homeless man on the street and want to help him.  They find simple ways of encouraging you to buy extra mittens, extra gift cards, extra socks so that they can make gift bags to keep in the car.  They beg you to pull over so that they can give these things to the begging man on the street.


How about you?  Can you think of some disadvantages to a Charlotte Mason education?

{This is obviously a satire style of post.  Don't misread me.  I see these worst parts as a wonderful blessing.}

Charlotte Mason Family Camp 2021

 Hooray!  It’s time to be thinking about warmer days and fun times with your family!  

Registration for the Charlotte Mason Family Camp opens on March 15!  Join other families who embrace the Charlotte Mason philosophy for five days and four nights at MennoHaven campground in Tiskilwa, Illinois.  

This unique camp gives you ample opportunity to nourish friendships with other families, spend time with your own family, be outside in Gods wonderful nature, and rest away from your regular daily duties.  

Each day begins with an opportunity for prayer.   Morning sessions for moms and dads as well as presentations for kids and nature walks fill the first half of the day. The lake and pool are open daily for splashing with your children.  Afternoon occupations include options for handicrafts, science learning, and much more.  All meals are provided.  Days end with bonfires, teen games, star gazing and more.  

Won’t you join us on the prairie?  Enjoy this video about our upcoming camp for 2021 with photos from last year!  

Walking the Camino

Since 2018 I have been dreaming about walking the Camino in Spain.  So many things have kept me from going.  This year (2020) I was most disappointed and decided to begin watching and reading everything I could find available to me to read and watch.  Here is my list I have been working through.  

In July 2020, I chose to walk, very socially distant, camino at home. I decided if I walked 10 miles a day, I could walk nearly the whole way through Spain to St. James grave in one month.  I began with great gusto.  But then realized how much time 10 miles took me away from my duties as a family- nearly four hours.  So I modified it to 5-6 miles.  And some days I rode my bike which reduced my time by half.  

Over all I was able to walk or ride nearly 180 miles in 30 days.  I felt very encouraged to continue and have walked 4-6 miles at least four days a week since.  I'm hoping that my body will be closer to being ready when the border is open for me to travel to Spain one day.  

Here is one day I convinced my children to join me on a long walk.  We came across a wheat field.  Think I will see wheat in Spain?

How about you?  Have you been encouraged or inspired to make something happen (even if it's in your imagination) during this time of COVID?

Here's my epic list.

Anne Carson, "Kinds of Water" (1987). A prose poem that traces the narrator's journey, focusing on the philosophical questions it raises, especially with regards to the nature and desire of the pilgrim. The piece can be found in the anthology of Carson's essays, Plainwater (1995).

Paulo Coelho, The Pilgrimage (1987)

Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926). Jake's journey from France to the fiesta of San Fermin is an undertaking of the pilgrimage of Santiago de Compostela.

Jack Hitt, Off the Road: A Modern-Day Walk Down the Pilgrim’s Route into Spain (1994)

Hape Kerkeling, I'm Off Then: Losing and Finding Myself on the Camino de Santiago (2009), on his 2001 voyage. It is the best-selling German-language non-fiction book since Gods, Graves and Scholars (1949).

David Lodge, Therapy (1995)

Shirley MacLaine, The Camino: A Journey of the Spirit (2001)

James Michener, Iberia (1968), contains one chapter about the Camino de Santiago.

Cees Nooteboom, Roads to Santiago (1996, English edition)

Conrad Rudolph, Pilgrimage to the End of the World: The Road to Santiago de Compostela (2004)

• Walter Starkie, The Road to Santiago (1957) John Murray, reprinted 2003.

Scouting and badge making

Our learning community, Sursum Corda, has been working through the Scouting guidelines.

Last year it was appropriate that we get a little handicraft action and make the badges for our group.  Our group is hosted in Illinois and our state bird is the cardinal.  We thought it best to use this bird as our nature club figure. 

Each child was given a little piece of muslin and support to draw a head of a cardinal lightly in pencil.  Then using different colors of embroidery thread they stitched their bird and the words Sursum Corda.  Holding the muslin in an embroidery hoop while sewing helped to keep the stitches straight.



When the embroidery was done, each child was given two little rounds of wool for backing and a 1 inch pin back to sew on.  I used pinking shears to create the serrated edge. Need help starting Embroidery?




 
The children wore these proudly at our meetings and our final showcase in Spring 2019.

At our next Term (Fall 2019), we began to work more systematically through the guidelines and having the mothers check for real knowledge of the skills.  At the beginning of the Term, I asked each child to make a commitment to complete a certain guideline and make weekly efforts towards it.  They wrote down on a note card their goal.  Each time we met groups were organized around each kind of guidelines.  The children would review and work towards greater understanding.
The last time we met for the Term I asked each mother to determine which kind of tassel (or if no tassel) should be awarded for the work of the Term.

At our Family Showcase, I offered the tassels to each child (I had sewn them on for them at home) as I announced their completion of guideline. 

Need help making tassels?  Here is a tutorial. For single colored tassel, use one color.  For bi-colored tassel, I used two shades of the same color  For tri-colored tassel, I used three shades.  Pictured above is for Starcraft-Plain tassel.   I used 10 strands for each tassel.  

This is a picture of all the badges with tassels attached waiting to be handed out at the Family Showcase night.



Have you tried your hand at badge making?  At Embroidery and tassel making? 

Natural History Clubs and welcoming new members

It's important to get outside everyday.  And also to enjoy the out of doors with others.

I'm sharing this document I made years ago especially for families new to nature time and nature study.  If you are just staring a nature club or you have families that are joining your existing club that are new to nature experience and journaling, you might find this helpful.

We all move forward from where we are. Welcome and keep going.  You are doing great.

Charlotte Mason Family Camp 2019 Plenary sessions revealed

Things are in full swing for the Charlotte Mason Family Camp!

Would you like to see what we have planned?

Wednesday Morning Plenary Carroll Smith on Dualism (via Skype)

Plato believed there were two worlds—the temporary material, earthly, visible world and the permanent, immaterial, heavenly, invisible world and that human fulfillment involved transcending this earthly, lesser physical realm to the real heavenly realm.  This unbiblical way of understanding reality has produced a dualism that has plagued Christianity throughout the ages with the idea that true spirituality involves transcending this physical world. Sadly, these dualistic ideas have also subtly crept into ways of understanding education, and we will explore in this session the impact of dualism in modern education.

Dr. Carroll Smith was introduced to Charlotte Mason many years ago through Mason’s book An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education. From there the seeds of ideas given by Mason in her various books have slowly taken hold and have grown year by year as Carroll worked as a middle school teacher, a principal and a college professor. He founded the educational nonprofit, The Charlotte Mason Institute, to promote the educational philosophy of Charlotte Mason and cherishes the relationships that have grown over the years through a collective camaraderie with people interested in seeing education from a very different paradigm.  He enjoys reading, gardening and discussing ideas with friends. He and his wife, Andra live in Roanoke, VA.

Thursday morning Plenary Kristen Orr “Seeing Beauty”

Charlotte Mason encourages us to have Eyes to See. In fact, in Home Education and other volumes she gives us parents the tools to help our children observe what is around them and capture it with their words. We see this practice in picture study, narration, and outdoor play. However, sometimes what our eyes see is not always pleasant. This is why Paul gives us the words in Philippians 4:8 to “think about these things” regarding that which is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely or commendable. If we bring together Paul’s words and Charlotte Mason’s we can be encouraged to See Beauty no matter where we are just as our family has on our own journey.

Kristen and her husband, Andrew along with their six children (14-under a year) have traveled all over the United States but call Los Angeles area home. Their journey to arrive there has been an unusual one, but their call to stay has been undeniable. She has home-educated her children from the beginning (9 years now) but it has metamorphosed as she began to understand and use Charlotte’s principles. She currently assists in leading an Idyll Challenge book group, joins in local book groups, and has plans for building a community in Southern California. Her family enjoys camping and nature walks, but you can usually find Kristen carrying a bag full of books, dancing her way to the next place, all while holding one of her babies with a cup of chai tea in her hands.

Friday morning plenary Habits for Life Art Middlekauff
In 1890, Charlotte Mason wrote, “Is not physiology hurrying up with the announcement that to every man it is permitted to mould and modify his own brain?” By 1894, Mason clearly saw the implications: “Within our own time the science of Education has been absolutely revolutionized, not by educationalists, but by Physiologists, who have made the brain their specialty.” Why was physiology so impactful to education? Because, Mason explains, “this business of laying down lines towards the unexplored country of the child’s future is a very serious and responsible one for the parent. It rests with him to consider well the tracks over which the child should travel with profit and pleasure.” Are the discoveries of 19th-century physiologists still relevant today? Can the parent really lay down lines of travel for the child’s future? In this session we will explore these questions as we consider the promise of “Habits for Life.”

Art and his wife Barbara have been home educating their three children for more than a decade. Over this time, he has been studying Charlotte Mason’s writings and applying her living ideas to his family’s homeschool. He tells the story of how his discovery of Charlotte Mason led to a personal transformation. Art has written several essays about Charlotte Mason’s theology and philosophy which have been published in the two volumes of Essays on the Life and Work of Charlotte Mason, published by Riverbend Press.
He has also produced a video about Charlotte Mason’s twenty principles which may be obtained from A Delectable Education. Art walks in Mason’s theological tradition as a member of an Anglican church near Detroit, Michigan.

Scouting Guidelines: IX Starcraft

As my local learning community makes their way through the scouting guidelines, I've been considering how we might make this Terms "Starcraft" extra fun.  Have you looked at the Guidelines and considered using them as you study with your children?

Enjoy using this to help you discover ways to get science, nature study, handwriting, composition, expressions of personality and knowledge recorded in a fun way!

Starcraft Guidelines help

Announcing, announcing

Family Camp plans for August 20-24, 2019  To see anew: removing the film of familiarity

Thinking about joining us for Family Camp?

Spend four days and four nights on retreat with your family. Rest. Renew. Refresh.

See how education is a life.

But why would you want to bring your family to the heart of Illinois?

Let me give you three great reasons to put CM Family Camp on your calendar!

1.  To get away from the distractions of life.  At family camp you only have nature, your children, and your husband/wife.  The loud voices of the world are gone.  Strip away the film of familiarity and enjoy the family you love. Cultivate your capacity to see all things with new eyes.

2.  To meet and encounter families from around the nation.  Connect with parents and children who embrace the Charlotte Mason vision and lifestyle.  Enjoy the chance to share your stories and see how others live the atmosphere, discipline and life.  Enable your children to develop deep friendships with other families who are just like them.

3.  To see and appreciate anew your goals.  We seek to explore new ideas and foster deeper convictions to keep moving towards what God is calling your family toward.  Pause for a chance to remind the hopes for your family life.  Give your whole family a chance to see again what are your reasons for this lifestyle.

**bonus- Meet the Illinois prairie with it's hills and flora and fauna.  It's waiting for you!

What should you do next?  Print out this registration form.  And mail it in soon!

We have room for 16 families total.  We would love to spend these days with you!

Won't you join us?

Keeping a Nature notebook

Are you in the habit of keeping a nature notebook for yourself?  Why not?  If you are spending time out of doors I am sure you are making some amazing observations.  Keeping track of when and what you've discovered can be a treasure for a rainy day.  I love looking back over what I found interesting a few years ago.  I see that more than 10 years ago I was keeping Monarch Caterpillars on my kitchen table from the dill they were found on in the back yard.  Today I am adding touches of the prairie plants I've seen this week.

Enjoy this Nature Notebook from a student at the House of Education.  It's such a treasure to be able to see these without having to travel all the way to England!  Link here

A small helpful page for New to Nature Study families and moms

Here's a simple document to help you get started on Nature Study!   And a recent picture of the Natural History Club from Peoria! 

What's in Ambleside, England?

Why would a midwestern mom of six kids want with a small town in the middle of the Lake District of England?

Lots!

Charlotte Mason, the educational philosopher and college director, lived her most famous years in Ambleside.  She, on the shoulders of those philosophers before her, challenged the teachers of her day to consider a new way of teaching.

She chose a very remote, beautiful area of England to start her school.  Perhaps her connections to the area, or her fondness of Wordsworth, or her ability to find nature just out her door helped her to find this place which would be the head quarters and remaining foot hold of her philosophy until today.

In May 2017, my first graduate from our Charlotte Mason homeschool and I traveled to the Lake District.  It takes a a good half of a day to travel from London to Ambleside currently.  The travel we took included a fast train, a bus ride and foot path walking.  I can only imagine what it must have been like to travel in a carriage pulled by a horse!

Here are a few looks at our favorite spots.

Charlotte Mason's grave and the small headstone for her secretary extraordinaire, Elsie Kitching.

Charlotte Mason's desk, currently on display in the Armitt Museum

Some nature lists found in the Archives of the Armitt Museum

A country neighbors home, William Wordsworth

Looking out from Wordsworths home onto his garden

Beatrix Potters home, another country neighbor!

Coniston Lake being sung to by a robin on a gate

The beehive at what was Charlotte Masons college

Scale How looking amazingly large from the lower parking lot

Walking the Sweden Bridge trail above Ambleside.  This is a hike Charlotte would have taken her students on from time to time.  

Dry what? Brush drawing in a Charlotte Mason Education part 2

Put in the Time.
I did a quick search of my own blog to see how I've improved in my own brush drawing over the years.  I found a post about my first foray into intentional nature notebooking.  My own habit of keeping up with journaling has waxed and wained over the years.

People ask me how often they should include brush drawing in their weekly schedule.  I usually respond with a question myself.  How soon would you like to feel comfortable drawing with a brush?  Would you like to slowly learn over 10 years?  Would you like to have a noticeable increase in confidence at the beginning?  Let that help you decide how often to pick up your brush. 

If you were in art school, you might be painting everyday.  You might be looking at putting in several hours everyday to become great at something.  So if you wanted to be mediocre,  perhaps you would only put in an hour a week? 

If you haven't read Outliers already, I highly recommend it.  I have decided that I can now call myself a professional reader.  I have put in the 10,000 hours reading aloud by now.  That doesn't stop me from continuing to improve!  Consider this when nature journaling or brush drawing.  Be willing to put in the time and you will see great results! 

My children have improved much quicker than I in brush drawing.  Why?  I wonder if it's because they don't have mental distractions to complete other tasks?  Or is it because it's on their weekly schedule several times a week.  There's my hint.  Schedule the time to do dry brushing. 

more to come...

Keeping a Nature Journal in a narrative style

This is a post in response to "Can you give some examples of narrative style of Nature Journaling?"

Here is a nice two page spread of a student from Scale How.  I took these photos in May 2017 when I visited Ambleside.



Here is is transcribed.
We went up Loughrigg on (May 22nd) Tuesday.  It was a very hot and it was very hard climbing, so we rested half way up and enjoyed the view of the Lake.  
There was a boat in the Brathay river under the Brathay rocks which looked very cool.  We all thought we would liked to of been there.  
When we got to the top there was such a nice cool breeze that we all felt glad we had climbed up instead of returning.  
We found Phlox, milkwort, campion, Birds-foot trefoil, Jugnut, sundew, Iris, Good-King-All, Meadows Cranes Bile, Yellow Pimpernel, Stitch wort and Bog Bear.  We came back by Canon Bells and up stony lane.  We found a great many new flowers which we were very pleased with and we all enjoyed our walk very much and we also hope to again shortly when the mountain primrose are out in full bloom.  

The next page has a brush drawing in color that seems to be from a month earlier!  But it seems the painting was pasted in.  This is very common in the archives to see a narrative of what they did supported by the drawing/sketch/brush drawing.

Here is another and it's transcription.

June 6th
I saw a dragon-fly flying near Rydal today.  It was the first one that I had seen this year.  It had very transparent wings, which looked very much as though they were made of cellophane paper.  
June 9th.
I saw a peculiar animals running into the rushes at Bletham turn.  It was mouse colored and about the size of (a pheasant)?, it had a humped back and a fairly small head, it's tail was long, flat and hairy and it had fairly short legs and seemed to run smoothly, we looked for it in the rushes but couldn't find it.  There was only one Great-crested grebe to be seen today, I suppose the other one was sitting on the nest, the one we saw came out from the rushes at the far end of the tarn.  

I think maybe she saw a muskrat--What do you think?
You can see that she drew a bug and a flower she saw on each of these dates, but didn't really elaborate about them.

Here are a few examples from my children and myself:




Here are two examples of bookmarks we use to help find the next page in our nature journals.  Is it just my pet peeve that my kids have just opened their nature journals anywhere to start a new entry?

Print your own copies of bookmarks here.  Or fold your own sloyd corner paper bookmark with instructions here. 

a Natural History Club reviewed

Taking a walk with other homeschoolers can be a joyful journey.  It can also be lots of kids running in opposite directions, breaking limbs and ruining the time for other children.  Have you tried to facilitate a Natural History Club?  Take a deep breath.

What might be the benefit to a homeschooling family using a Charlotte Mason approach to being in nature with other like minded families?  A shared learning.  The ability to see other children and mothers interacting.  Deep encouragement to keep doing nature study on a daily basis.  Exciting discoveries together.

I have been facilitating Natural History Clubs in different forms for more than 10 years.  Each year I try to deepen my understanding of the clubs in England during the early 1900's.  Last May, I went to Ambleside to get my hands on some of the nature journals that the students at Scale How kept.  I was very impressed.  I wanted to bring some of this same depth to shared clubs and nature journaling to my group!

I'll keep you updated on how these new implementations work out...but here's what I've learned from the past experience of facilitating a Natural History Club that welcomes a variety of ages and understanding levels in Charlotte Mason families:

Patience.  Not every child has been taught how to be in nature.  Some children have lost their wonder.  Some mothers have fear of outdoor environments.  A "perfect" Natural History Club would have all mothers and children comfortable in outdoors.   I've learned patience after experiencing children who threw rocks at various things and people!  (Be careful if you ask God to teach you patience.)  Keep showing the way and giving grace as we all learn.  And most of all be patient with yourself.  This is a process of becoming who you are...

Keep an eye on the youngest learner and the oldest learner in your group.  When the youngest learner has glazed eyes and frowning face, it's time to wrap up the lesson.  If the learners of a younger sibling is crying or asking for food, it might also be a time to stop the walk/lesson/ramble.  Look for ways to have the oldest child in the group share some of the teaching.  These children are often full of great ideas and just need a little encouragement to share their wealth of knowledge.

Set some basic guidelines.  I like to send a framework of our focus to the parents ahead of time via email.  It's ideal if the children have had some understanding of not hurting nature and how to conduct themselves during a walk.  Giving some basic instruction of how to look and how to care for the natural world is necessary.  Encourage the mothers to read Home Education Volume 1 Part 2 pages 42-71 on the Outdoor Life for the Children.  I also like to reference the first chapter of Anna Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study.  It gives a nice overview of nature study!  I open my Natural History Club to members of our Charlotte Mason book study group only.  It can be overwhelming for a new family to find their way.  Give some simple guidelines about times, how to observe and how to use a nature journal.

Encouragement.  Be a simple presence.  Each family and member has a starting point.  Let them share what they learn and applaud their movement forward in being more comfortable with their learning pace and discovery.

Provide resources.  Most states provide an online Natural Resources website.  This is a good place to start in identifying the flora, fauna, mammal and bird life that exists in your area.  Larger metropolis' have Nature Centers which may be a good resource for books/classes/hands on displays.  I enjoy seeing what books are offered for sale in our Nature Center to consider for our own home use.  Almost every area of science has a club.  Consider searching the web for clubs that would welcome your kids when you are studying their subject.  Be the parent who does some extra mother learning and attend a club by yourself!  Often the volunteers with these groups are highly educated about their hobby.  They are great places to find special speakers for your club!  If you are focused on geology, check out the local geology club or call a local college to see if they have someone knowledgeable in this area!

Carefully consider special speakers.  I have taken my kids to Nature Centers and parks.  We have had some great learning classes, but the persons who they have connected with the most have been regular persons who have found a hobby that interests them.  For example, we recently studied birds.  I found a man who had retired from an engineering field, but had found bluebirds to be interesting.  He began building bluebird boxes and was very enthusiastic about it.  When I approached him about speaking to our Natural History Club he was a little intiminated. After explaining the philosophy of Charlotte Mason to him (in 5 minutes), I encouraged him to be brief (20 minutes) on his talk.  We coordinated to visit some of the bluebird boxes he had set up at a local park.  He was fantastic.

Encourage sharing.  Many children have a gift at narrating what they have seen.  Others need some support!  I spend our last bit of scheduled time together at a sitting area.  The children and parents take time to give a written narration and or drawing (brush or pencils) to their nature journals.  This  time of quiet also allows for digestion of ideas they have discovered on the walk.  After a period of time, (perhaps 10 minutes?) I invite those that wish to share their journal entries.  Some children are shy about showing their drawings, but most children are willing to tell their story.

Have you started a Natural History Club in your area?  What things are you learning alongside those small naturalists?

New beginnings

This past month I helped my daughter move into her college dorm.  It's quite a transition from going from a Charlotte Mason homeschool setting to a public conservatory/university.  She had learned the habit of sharing (with five younger siblings) so the prospect of sharing a room with only one person seemed easy!

Homeschooling affords some opportunities of sheltering our children.  I took those opportunities.  I watched over those early years of influence.  We were careful about protecting our eyes and ears from seeing and watching things that would hinder our growth both in the spiritual and physical realms.
I gently helped create boundaries to allow for silence in her life.  I fostered chances to volunteer and to rest.  I wondered if this would be enough.  Would she have internalized the hopes we had for her?  Would she find the habit of silence and nature and beauty for herself?

As my children have grown, we have allowed them more and more freedom to learn about the harshness of the world and the realities that exist. But going from a safe Christian environment both in home and school and circles of friends, to not having any of those things that are familiar is quite a shock.  I prayed that the Holy Spirit would continue to be heard by her.  That she would take advantage of the opportunities of new experiences and choose well.  And I continue to pray.

I talk to my college aged daughter everyday right now.  I ask her what things fill her time.  I was delighted to hear of her need for continuing those things that brought life into our home and homeschool. There is a botanical garden across the street from her dorm.  She's so well known by the front check in person that she no longer has to show her ID.  We share photo texts of plants we find interesting.  I love seeing the flora and fauna that catch her eye these days.  I hope she likes seeing things from back home.

She's been fostering friendships outside of her college as well.  Just in the first month she has spent weekends with Charlotte Mason families, couples who no longer have children at home and families who don't homeschool.  She has a desire to volunteer at a local church.  It makes my heart glad and helps to balance my tears to know that she is finding her way.

Have you found new beginnings to be both stretching and balancing?

Making Nature Observations a daily habit

This summer I gave an immersion at the Charlotte Mason Institute East conference at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky.  I spent a few hours in the morning explaining the importance of having many hours out of doors with young children.  And tried to convey the need for observation skills beginning with the young.

It's ALL ABOUT observing.  It's not about the nature journal.

To learn about nature observation, you have to do it.  It's a habit.  It doesn't come naturally for the adult.  Perhaps we have unlearned our ability to observe nature.

Take any 2 year old on a walk and you will find every pebble along the way catches their attention.  And perhaps catches their attention so much that they are mesmerized.  It's the child's whole focus.  When we are hurried as a parent, we rob the child (and ourselves) the chance of good observation.  Of wonder.  Of being able to see with new eyes.

So how about you?  Are you modeling nature observation?

Maybe?

What does nature observation look like in the adult?  Just like what a child does.  Let a child teach you! Get slow.  Don't hurry.  Carve out a moment (10 minutes) to just be.  Be in nature and let nature be in touch with you.  Make this a habit.  DAILY.

Perhaps you want to bring focus to your observations?  Ask yourself what do you notice?  (or what do you notice new?)

Look up.  Look down.  Look closely.  Come close to what has caught your attention.  Now far away.  Step way back to get a bigger view.

Get in touch with your senses just like a child.  

What do you hear?  Can you hear anything close?  Far away?
What do you smell?  Get close enough to smell!  {Have you smelled the inside of a broken twig from a choke cherry?}
What do you feel?  Is the object of your observation smooth, rough, hot, cold, etc?
What do you taste?  Most things in nature can be tasted.  It's probably not wise to eat a whole mushroom unless you are knowledgable about mushrooms!  But so many things can be tasted in little bits.  {Have you tasted a dandelion leaf? How about a blade of grass?}

Let your mind wander with these observations.  Does your mind find past memories that link to these new observations you have?  Where does your mind take you?  Do you find yourself in the past?  Have you remembered a place you visited before in which this same specimen was present?

What do you notice?
What do you wonder about?  
What does it remind you of?

When you have spent plenty of time making observations, then, and only then, take your nature notebook out of your bag. If you are a talker, you might wish to share in a narrative style by oral transmission to those you know everything you saw today.  This can give you a starting point of what you will record.  If you are someone who needs to work on your composition, then you definitely should give yourself another 10-20 minutes to write down all you saw/felt/tasted in your nature journal.  Try to narrate in a way that will bring you back to this moment of time.  Collect all of your observations into a essay of sorts.

 If needed, add some dry brushing to illustrate your narrative.

These wondering questions are inspired by John Muir Laws.  Enjoy these prompt question bookmarks I made for use in our nature journals.  And please share your successes with me!  I love to hear about moms (and kids) that are enjoying the natural world that God gave us!

Graduating your first child from your homeschool

How can a parents pride of the accomplishments of child and the hopes for their future mingle?  It's a swirling water place.  Perhaps because the water isn't clear all the way to the bottom.  Or the swiftness of the movement of the water.  You ride along almost weightless.
I'm finding it important to carve our moments to savor the view and not always be carried on by the quickness of the flow.

I mentioned to a friend recently that this senior year of highschool went too fast for me.  I'm not sure if it was me holding my breath which made it so breathless or if the view was just so quickly moving.  I have watched other homeschooling mothers and fathers as they send that first child off to school.  I have a dim understanding from an outsiders point of view.  In just a few short weeks, I will begin to understand what it means to have a child leave the nest of safety we have made.

Both my husband and I did the gentle transition to college.  We went to a junior college and lived at home for the first two years.  Even in those first two years of college we both made changes in our life choices.  We didn't finish the initial dreams we had for ourselves.  I'm happy with the journey that our lives have taken us on and brought us to today.  I think that the bumps of life up to this place created resilience in us.

So as I process my own journey forward, I asked my daughter to write a reflection on her years of being homeschooled with a Charlotte Mason approach.  Soon after my request, she was invited to share at a homeschool conference.

Here are her words in essay form that she was willing to share with the public:

How A Charlotte Mason Education Influenced My Life

As a Charlotte Mason child, my education truly began at birth. Atmosphere is certainly so incredibly influential. As I look back upon the almost 18 years of my existence, I am overwhelmed with the amount of blessings and opportunities I have been given through a Charlotte Mason education. Today I will share a few ways in which I feel my CM education has truly influenced where I am today. 

This fall I will make the trek out to Cleveland, Ohio where I will begin my studies in viola performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music. This is, and had been no small feat, and I will be forever grateful to my parents, family, and close friends that have been wonderfully supportive with their help and prayers. Although in addition to this great support, I believe my education has really fostered and encouraged the musician I am today. I can only imagine how a young momma can feel somedays as she’s plodding through the weekly composer study. But yet, composer study is one of the many things that has always been close to my heart and now I’m finding how nice it is to know so much about composers! Most of my fellow music majors don’t have the knowledge, or even the desire to learn more about the composers they plan to spend their lives playing. It’s also super nice to go to an orchestra concert, hear the music playing and be able to say, hey! I know who wrote this! This is the guy that started piano at age 5 and his hands had a span of a whole twelve inches! (I always love the little smirk-smile that fills Mom’s face after one of us kids has a little ahah moment.) And naturally, to my family’s great joy and delight, by being homeschooled I was given the flexibility to spend a whole lot more time practicing then some of my friends.

Another subject I have always loved is, well, I suppose you could call it English? As soon as little me could read, I read. A lot. And reading is still one of my favorite things to do. This past semester I took a composition class at the community college in Peoria, IL. I can still remember the look on my teacher’s face on the first day of class when she asked us all to share with the rest of the class the last book we had read, and why we had read it. I shared that I had just finished the Brothers Karamozov and it was entirely by my selection. Her face was simply priceless. I cannot say that I only read books of the thickness and intensity of Dostoyevsky. However, I can say that I am very thankful that I even possess the ability to read it. I found myself surprised how many of my classmates at this community college didn’t read. In our “normal” American culture it isn’t even “normal” to read. How incredibly sad is that? I will now proceed to thank you for investing in your child’s future by simply reading to them. It is something they will treasure forever. 

Now, when asked to write this I was encouraged to include both the pleasant, as well as the less pleasant aspects of my Charlotte Mason education. Honestly I had to think a little bit when it came to the bad. Honestly I cannot say that anything about my education was truly bad. However I can say that there was at least one part of my CM education in particular that gave me cause to use both the virtues of patience as well as perseverance. This would most certainly be Nature Journaling. (I love the outdoors, don’t get me wrong.) However, as much as I enjoy hiking, observing nature and all that fun stuff, I’ve never been super keen on the artistic part of it. Drawing, painting, sketching and the like, have always been a genuine struggle for me. Although I have spent most of my life being strongly encouraged to put something in my nature journal every day, I’m still working on choosing to enjoy it. I have the years ahead of me to continue growing this lovely skill. 

Therefore, in essence, I want to thank you for choosing to invest in your children’s futures in such a rich and beautiful way. I am forever grateful and I hope to continue this growth of observing the truth, beauty, and goodness in this world and I hope to one day share it with my own kiddos.

So you want to visit Ambleside...

After many years of speaking about Charlotte Mason and reading her volumes (and other writings), my children are wildly familiar with her.  I started a tradition this year of taking our graduating senior on a trip of her choice.  My dear daughter decided England would be a good choice.  And Ambleside was on our list.

Off we go!

We packed very light.  One back pack each.  We wanted to be able to move quickly and light was the way to go.
We each purchased heavy duty hiking WATERPROOF boots.  I purchased Merrell ventilator womens boots with ankle support and my daughter got Oboz.  Our feet were dry and happy!

It's good to also purchase water proof jackets to keep out the rain.  I did bring along an umbrella, but a water proof hat would have been fine on it's own.  North Face and Columbia are great options.
(Think fishermans hats-Outdoor Research or Under Armour might be good choices)  If all else fails, there are MANY hiking clothes shops in Ambleside that are open.  It would have been easy to spend lots of money!  And then you have a great souvenir with a European brand!

My pack with some of our pre-reading materials.

Getting to England is just one or two plane rides away.  We found the best time to visit for us was Spring.  We could avoid bringing a warmer jacket and perhaps avoid much of the rainy times.  

We chose to fly out of Chicago and right into London.  We also had some other sightseeing to do.  

Next time we will fly into Manchester which is much closer to the Lake District.  Buy your plane ticket about 45 days ahead or set up a reminder to let you know when prices drop.

Good bye Chicago

Traveling was very easy in England.  No need to rent a car.  Public transportation (although sometimes requires waiting) is very easy to follow and accessible.  We rode a bus or walked everywhere.  In London buy an Oyster reloadable card to access both the underground trains or the above ground buses.  Cards are purchased in the underground terminals.  London is broken up into zones and prices are based on how many zones you pass through.  Passing 11 miles or so is around $5.  Many days we walked more than 8 miles and also rode the bus!  

Top of a double decker bus

The fast train from London to the Lake District (Windermere) was less than 3 hours.  We were able to leave in the morning and get to the Ambleside around lunch time.  Buying your ticket online ahead of time, perhaps two weeks ahead, allows you to get a better price.  I downloaded the app for the Virgin Trains and my ticket was completely digital.  Easy!

Fast train

Giving the information about our travel from the app

We found people to be VERY kind.  When we looked lost, someone offered us help.  Other times we asked people as we went along.  

Outside toilet in Ambleside

This was one of the public bathrooms.  This was about 25 cents and worth about that much.  These were most often used by hikers.  Simple, but very usable.

Adding to my nature journal on the fast train with a scone for energy

In the Lake District, you can buy a 3 day or a 7 day bus pass.  This is extremely helpful. Most towns are close to each other (4 miles or so), but walking is through the country!  Roads are so narrow that it's not wise to walk the same roads as the trains and buses.  Most roads were built for horse and cart.  The bus stops carry the name of the buses that pass through there and where they are going.  Usually a meter maid is lingering around selling tickets or you can purchase from the bus driver.  

calm travel on the fast train

Waiting for a train patiently with the one book she brought along, Emma.

We chose to stay at a Bed and Breakfast very close to the Armit in Ambleside.

Looking through the archives at the Armit

It was literally a block away.  Staying at local place allowed us to hear more about the local culture and habits of the people.  We got a great hearty breakfast made for us each morning and snacks in our rooms in the afternoon.  We were able to choose to eat at the local restaurants or get simple meal items at the local grocery store.

View from our room

The outlets require a three prong.  It is very wise to purchase an adapter IF you need them.  There are USB ports nearly everywhere which are useful for phone recharging.  Everywhere we stayed had a hairdryer so my adapter was only used for phone charging.  

the light switches from our cute little B&B

The outlets and switches are little different in the U.K.  The switches are down for on and up for off.  Just exactly the opposite of what we have in the U.S.  

the view from inside the Bridge House

One night we at a simple dinner and hiked for two hours until 9pm.  It was delightful to have so much fresh air.  Most of the walks we were on were very quiet of humans.  But noisy of animals!  They allow highland cattle and sheep to free range graze in the areas of public pathways.

Hiking around Rydal Water

Hopefully this helps you understand the getting to Ambleside.  I hope to share more of what we saw and learned there in the coming months!  

Busy as Bees: Alveary musings

My family used the Alveary this past school year.  We were part of the pilot program.  Did your family use it?  Are you considering it?

The surprise of being a beekeeper

You want to know my experience?

So let's get to it!


The Good.  The Bad.  And the Ugly. Let's hear all the BUZZ!

The bees in my top bar hive

Last summer I attended the CMI East Conference.  I heard a small 'commercial' about this new curriculum that they were piloting.  As I had been homeschooling with a Charlotte Mason philosophy for the past 11 years, I didn't think this curriculum would be very helpful to someone like me.  I dismissed my need of it within minutes.

My two hives.  One Langstroth and one top bar.  

But then I began to think more about what kind of help a new curriculum could provide for me.  I valued the research I knew had been done.  Research that wasn't available in the volumes alone.  Information that hadn't been available on the internet when I began my first Form 1 child 12 years ago.  I had great respect for those that were on the Board and those helping to create the curriculum.

This year I would have five students for the first time.  A Senior, a freshman, a seventh grader, a fourth grader and a first year student.  Whew.  The pilot would be covering the youngest three.  I still would need to put together something for the highschoolers.  It seemed counterintuitive to have someone help me with something I had already done well three to four times.  I can give a real response to what it's like to have been living and educating with Charlotte Mason and then jumping into this.

For the past seven years, I have been part of a study group of Charlotte Masons volumes.  I have gleaned so many gems from these books.  Each time I really understood a new part of this kind of philosophy and methodology I would begin to implement it.  Sometimes it was with ease.  Other times it just didn't work at all.  Could the Alveary help me fix my gaps?  

I had used Ambleside Online and Mater Amabilis as references for helping myself find books that could be useful in our home.  I also used other websites that provided living sources.  Our schooling was super full of goodness, truth and beauty.  This year was new in that I would have five students at one time.  I was poised to have a senior and a freshman in highschool as well as three kiddos in the Alveary. And a four year old.  So life was going to increase a little this year.  

What was the GOOD that the Alveary added to our homeschooling?  

The lessons were all planned out for me.  Each week and each day I could easily access the links to places of interest on the internet, the pictures and music and each time consuming search was already done for me.  It gave me simplicity if I was willing to use it.

I especially enjoyed the Spanish lessons.  I was able to move my youngest children so much farther along with Spanish.  We picked up many poems and songs in Spanish.  It became a delight for the whole family.  A foreign language was smoother than it had ever been.  We used the resources suggested and developed a nice rhythm to our language lessons.

I looked closely at the amount of time the Alveary was going to take me each day.  And I realized I was cutting short our school day to benefit my own needs.  So this year I cut out many of the great things I did for myself (bible study in the morning, friends for lunch, day playdates, etc).  I added in more time at home.  Every morning was sacred time together with real focused learning.  I also took advantage of a better scheduling for the weekends.  Daddy was able to join us when I scheduled our rambles in nature for Sunday afternoon.  This forced us to find Sunday as a real day of rest.  Together.  It helped sooth the worry that soon one of our bees would be leaving our hive as she heads out into the world of her own.  The Alveary made me refocus on what I was doing.  Homeschooling first.

The pilot program had forums and a facebook page that I could ask questions on and hear ideas being shared.  Using the internet as a helpful part of our schooling rather than a source of feeling inadequate was healing for me.  My children loved being able to see pictures of other children's work on the same subjects.  Being part of something larger than our own home was exciting.

Each month two webinars were provided in a live setting.  These were experienced Charlotte Mason educators talking about both the philosophy and methodology as well as implementation of the HOW.  I had heard many of these in the past at live events, but it was great to have access to these people.  The webinars were also available to be watched in an archive format.  I really enjoyed this option!  

What was the BAD of using the Alveary for my family?  

There are many times that I got overwhelmed with the help.  There were some books that I didn't connect with and we stopped reading them.  I, at times, tried to do more than my family of six children could adjust to at a time.  It would have been helpful if someone would have told me to do three things well and then add one more slowly.  Around Christmas, after our first Term exams, I began to streamline more subjects.  I see that my weakness is trying to do everything as written.  And I had begun to do many things poorly.  This made me feel personally as if I was failing.  So I set a new goal at doing a few things excellent and letting perfection go.  When we had those things going well, then we added another and another.

As it was a pilot program, there were some times in which there was no clear answer for me.  Determining a better choice on a book, knowing how to choose a biography from the list of hundreds shared, considering how to balance a CM coop with the Alveary...these were questions that many had.  And I wasn't able to have a definitive answer.  Instead it had to be experienced.  And there were some bad feeling days on my part.

I found the amount of information on the web site available to Alveary members to be so expansive I couldn't listen or process it all.  I had to prioritize what I needed and use.  I wanted to be able to to listen to it ALL.  Right now.  But in reality, for me, it was good to listen to one thing, try to implement it and when that habit was well ingrained, THEN try to add a new thing.

If I had been brand new to homeschooling, I think it would have been imperative to access more of the philosophy of a Charlotte Mason education.  I wish the Alveary had put together some "first watching webinars" that would have shared the philosophy and methodology practiced a little better.  I have had mothers come and observe us in our learning at home to get a better understanding of the 'how'.   {There were also book groups reading through the volumes available for Alveary moms.  I did not take advantage of this as I already am in two different real life groups reading through the volumes.  If I lived in an area where I did not have access to them, I would have joined an online/skype book group with the Alveary.  It's imperative that you read and reread the volumes if you do this kind of education}

What was the UGLY?  

The ugly was all me.  I have so many ways I need to change.  So many ways I need to hold still and let the Holy Spirit change me.  As a homeschooler, each mother has to have a strong personality to be able to weather the emotional ups and downs of daily work.  She has to be malleable to the suggestions [snide remarks] that come from well meaning persons.  Sometimes this is detrimental to being a homeschooling mom.  

About one month after I signed up my children for the Alveary, I began to see the large undertaking I had agreed to.  I wanted to do everything that was suggested in the Alveary and according to what was suggested!  I was overwhelmed. I had a really good cry.  I considered throwing in the towel.  I met with one wiser homeschool graduate mom and she talked me down from the ledge.  Integrating my five children into the Alveary for our family was a much bigger worry for me than I realized.  I also began to see the bigger picture.  I could use the Alveary to help me accomplish the goals I had already set for our homeschool.  I could use the Alveary to it's fullest potential or I could use what would work for me.  

Now that we are rounding out our year, {we only have four weeks left} I have the hindsight to see where we have been and all that we have accomplished.

I considered the bees...did you know that one bee visits 50-100 flowers on one trip out of the hive?  And he's working his whole lifetime to make only about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey?  If I compare this to my one year of work with my children...the offerings of 50-100 flowers {books and things} I've given them.  Is there hope that we have made a little honey of their life? Have the habits of duty begun to be second nature for them?  Have they seen the perseverance in my life?

First harvest of honey in 2016

I've tried to have kindsight for myself.  Not just looking back, but being kind at all I've learned.  I'm so much more faithful with my Nature Journaling.  I'm singing in Spanish now.  I'm feeling a lightening of my load.  We have decided to continue with the Alveary for the coming year.  And with anticipation and joy I'm looking forward to how we will learn together.

And spring is here and the bees are flying.