Working our way through the Scouting Guidelines

 So we continue with our local learning community to complete the scouting guidelines and work toward tassels.  

This Fall Term 2020 we will work on the surveying guidelines.  We find that it's much more interesting to work on these together and less challenging when we have friends working on the same things!  

Let me know how these work out for you!  

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.

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

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

Scouting with Charlotte Mason

Last school year our learning community, Sursum Corda, worked towards completing some of the Scouting Goals from the Parent's Union School.  We had so much fun doing these together!  It added some laughs and ah-ha moments in the kids.  And it's been great to see them use these skills in the field.

Please feel free to adjust and use for your homeschool or learning community!
Scouting guidelines written for a 12 week term for General Efficiency I.



My children spend the first few days back to school with a quicksight exercise.  Have you tried this before?  Secretly collect 30-50 small items that would fit on a cookie sheet or tray.  Cover it.  Call your children to begin the learning lessons.  Talk to them about taking pictures with your mind.  (Same concept we use with teaching spelling and picture study!)  Tell them they must remember everything they see.  They can test themselves quickly by closing their eyes and trying to remember everything.  Now uncover the tray and set a timer for two minutes.  At the end of two minutes, recover the tray.  Let the children narrate back everything they saw.  If you have older forms, you may wish to have them write their narration or sketch it.  With younger forms you may wish to have them go around the circle and say three things.  For the consecutive days I let my children take turns preparing the tray and we all participate in the narrating.  I find it very mentally stimulating!

Enjoy these photos of our learning community working on knot tying!

Photo credit: Mo Watson

Bowditch was challenging! Mo Watson

Photo credit: Mo Watson

The following pictures are examples of the badges and tassels earned from meeting these guidelines.  I took these photos while at the Armit in Ambleside in May 2017.

                              

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...

Dry what? Brush drawing in the Charlotte Mason education Part 1

We've been finding our own way with brush drawing in this house for many years.  I continue to learn.  It gets flung around as "drybrushing" in some circles.  No matter what you call it, the idea of creating an image on paper as a narration of sorts using only a paint brush is called BRUSH DRAWING in the simplest way.

For the past 13+ years of homeschooling my children, we have been slowing trying to incorporate more and more brush drawing and sketching. 

Sketching is done with pencil. It allows for shading with one color OR with the modern invention of inexpensive colored pencils with many colors!  It is one of many ways children narrate in this house.

Brush drawing is done with a brush and one or many colors.  Usually we find watercolors to be the easiest way to have many colors.  If wanting to only use one color, a brush can also provide some depth of colors.  Both with layering more and more paint, or by diluting the color you've picked.

SO how do you begin with Brush drawing?

In the beginning, I don't offer my children expensive paints.  When they are learning to hold a brush and getting more confident, I use the lesser quality brushes.  I don't buy the $.99 kind, but I don't spend hundreds of dollars.  Somewhere in the middle in which the paint is quality and the brushes have to be taught how to be used.

If a child has only been working with crayons and pencils up to this point, the pressure they offer to a brush can easily ruin the tip.  It requires some basic first instructions and much follow up as they learn.   Much time must be spent helping them to have a light hand with a brush.  Encourage acknowledgement of the tip of the brush.

We have practiced touching the top of our hands with our paint brush.  This allows them to feel what the paper might feel.  It's a very gently stroke. Try it.  Take a simple paint brush and use it to brush with no water or paint on the top of your hand.  See if you can keep only the tip of the brush having contact with your hand.  Now try "dry painting" on your neighbors hand.  See if they notice when you push to hard or too light!

We also have experimented with only water in the beginning.  Rice paper allows a child to paint over and over with a wet brush until they see how gentle to be.  This Japanese painting set has been a way to slow a child down and increase their attention span.  The rice paper slowly dries to extinguish the painting.

Here's what we have learned.  Good quality paints are great.  If you are beginning a child on dry brush at age 6, perhaps you can begin with some acceptable paints.  I like to use this one.  Buy quality paper.  But cut it into smaller squares/rectangles.  Trying to brush draw a 8.5 x 11 page is overwhelming (even for this mother).  A 2 inch x 3 inch is much easier to begin.

 

Here are some Parents Review Articles that might help you:
Vol 2, pg 337+
Vol 3, pg 348+
Vol 14, pg. 21+
Vol 14, pg 277+

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!

Sunflower fields

Just down the road from us,

we can walk into a sunflower field.

So we smile at the farmer who wonders what we are doing in his field.

And we discover the birds and creatures that are attracted, like us, to this beautiful place.

(all photos credit to 13 year old)

Growing habits part 1

Charlotte Mason wrote "Habit is ten natures."  What ever did she mean by this?

It's in my nature to be lazy.  It's in my nature to put things off to the last minute.  It's in my nature to wait until it really must be done in order to finish the job.  I have lots of projects begun and then the steam has left my train.  It's not that I derail myself.  It's just that I don't finish quite as timely as I would dream of.

If perhaps I could create some habits that would subplant my nature...ah, what a joy my life might be. Oh, what a lot of friends I might find waiting to spend time with me.

But I continue to learn on how to be the best of myself.  And, thank you, LORD, for sending the Holy Spirit who continues to work on me even in spite of myself.

So WHAT does Charlotte mean when she writes "Habit is 10 natures"?

If we had to break it apart we could ask, What is Habit?  What is Nature?

In the preface of Charlotte’s first volume, she gives a wide view of her philosophy in what she calls her "principles of education".  The #7 principal says Education is a discipline- the discipline of habits formed definitely and thoughtfully whether habits of mind or body.

  Nature is what God designed you to be. The characteristics of you.

Natural law is the philosophy of law determined by nature.  It refers to the use of reason to analyze  human nature and how binding rules of moral behavior flow from it.  Thomas Aquinas taught Natural Law.  He was fairly prolific in his writings about it!

Since the will of a child (and of the adult!!) is feeble, it requires some diligence to train it.  As an educator who sees children as persons, we must give the child control over his own nature.  Habits are 10 times stronger and it can work both ways.  Either positively or negatively.  When we begin to create a habit, it can over take nature.  A selfish child will learn a habit of keeping, while a good natured child will learn the habit of giving. 

Our bodily habits of movement train our body to move in certain ways.  Growth and adaptation happen the most in youth.  Don't we marvel at watching a child learn to roll over the first time.  Hey! we even just exclaim our joy the first time they smile!

Training our own self is one reason CM recommends lots of running, jumping and outdoor time from the youngest age.  CM says its as if a TRAIN creates a rut in our nervous system and without much effort it returns to that rut.  It is only an effort of the will that change our natural inclination out of this rut.

Our thoughts, also, are habits that we share with our children.  What we say about things or ourselves aloud become habits of thought in our children.  When we belittle ourselves or our own habits, we teach our children to think similarly about themselves.  If we could remember to say positive things about ourselves, we could teach children to think more highly of themselves.  Perhaps an emotion or traumatic event can help cement the "train rut" even stronger.

But thanks be to God, new brain tissue is always being built.  I can (perhaps less slowly today, than when I was young) grow new habits of thought and body.  But I must feed my brain well.  Of your consumption of calories each day about 20% is used by the brain…this is about 300 calories per day. So eat great foods to grow good habits!

Aristotle says “We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence then is not an act, but a habit."
 
Pop science says that it takes only 21 days to make a habit, but current scientific research says habits can be formed in 18-260 days.  

What effects a habit?  Motivation.  This is most important to have reasons.  Make clear goals that are reachable.  (We’ve all made those vague goals around New years….that never fly past January)  The motivators that are most effective long there are intrinsic ones.  We usually need some kind of visualization.  Seeing ourselves doing the steps that it takes to make a habit into a normal activity.  It’s important to include the different learning styles when encouraging a habit.  Seem of us only need to be told—we are the audio learners, we learn to hang up our coat after only being told.  Some need a visual—a  coat handed to us, a point to the hook. And then the kinetic learners…they require the parent to walk with the child and help them hang the coat on the rack for the first 18-200 times.

Let's keep this conversation going...more next time.
(This is part of a talk I gave at LER this past July.)

Nature Walks and Natural History Clubs

Many years ago I started a Nature Walk Club (with another mom), but (because I was new to Charlotte Mason) it didn't look very Mason like at all.  I did a lot of work ahead of time and we had many kids join that had no experience with caring for nature.   It was fun.

I always left tired.  It wasn't long before it fizzled out.  I blamed it on the weather.

Now I've taken a few years and read more and feel refreshed.

In early June,  I encouraged a few moms who have been practicing and learning about Charlotte Mason to join me and my kids on a little hike.  Then after we could journal and our kids could discover and learn with no boundaries.

There was a huge turnout.

And so we've done it again.

And we will do it again.

And with that a Natural History Club has been born.

I encourage/inspire the moms and kids to bring nature journals and everything they might need to spend lots of time in nature.  We walk together (mostly) and find interesting things to identify.  And then we spend time drawing in our nature journals (MOMS AND KIDS!).  And slow down our lives to just be present to the day.  to the nature around us.  to each other.

Have you ever been part of a nature walk/natural history club?

simple things

What a simple thing to enjoy some time with a friend on a bale of hay.  The little boys were sleeping and I kept hearing laughter from the pasture.  This is what I found when I went out to attend to them.

Summer thoughts...

So there has been a few stollen moments in the hammock this summer.  

Beauty in the choices a daughter puts together for the dining room table...see the corn leaves?

Water time at the lake.

Kayaking and swimming.

Jumping 

And watching.

Heritage Lily from an Aunt.  

Last kitty to go to a good home.  (He loved the fountain!)

The lily that just kept on blooming!!

Black raspberries foraged from the sides of the pasture.

Very busy garden growth

visit to nature center

Enjoying the wet lands.

looking for fish and other living creatures.

Thankful for the beauty.  And the slower pace of summer.  

grow

July 2013

June 2014

Last year we moved into this house in June.  By July we had a nice little garden and had tidy-d up the flower garden that had been overgrown.  

This year we have a much larger garden and things are really starting to look nice!