New Graduate

It's been a different kind of time with a graduate during a time of staying home.  2020 will live down as a time of lots of changes in the way we see our world.  

Our second graduate from highschool occurred during this time.  All of her senior things were cancelled from final concerts, to graduation parties, to performances.  

We were able to reschedule her personal senior recital.  You can watch it here.  It was a delightful day despite a gentle rain which isn't ideal for instruments!

My husband made a little speech for her graduation and gave it at home.    

I'm actually all done wondering why this crisis had to come this year.  I'm just looking forward to more semblance of normal around here in the coming school year.  

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!  

Charlotte Mason Family Camp 2020 Speakers

Our theme of Family Camp this year is Wonder.  Reflect.  Imagine.  Experience.  Each of the speakers/morning sessions will consider a part of this theme.  

On Thursday morning we will have Jason Barney speak on Narration.   

Jason Barney serves as the Academic Dean at Clapham School, a classical Christian school in

Wheaton, IL. In 2012 he was awarded the Henry Salvatori Prize for Excellence in Teaching from

Hillsdale College. He completed his MA in Biblical Exegesis at Wheaton College, where he received The Tenney Award in New Testament Studies. In addition to his administrative responsibilities in vision, philosophy and faculty training, Jason has taught courses in Latin, Humanities, and Senior Thesis from 3rd -12th grades. He regularly speaks at events and conferences, including SCL, ACCS, and nearer home at Clapham School Curriculum Nights and Benefits. He has trained the Lower School

faculty of the Geneva School in Charlotte Mason’s practice of narration in August 2019 and the faculty

of the Ecclesial Schools Institute in August 2020.  Jason blogs regularly on ancient wisdom for the

modern era at www.educationalrenaissance.com, where he has also made available a free eBook on implementing the practice of narration in the classical classroom.

Jason will present:

Cultivating Wonder Through Narration: The What, Why and How of Narration

This practical session will inspire parents to embrace the tool of narration in home education.

First, we will explore what narration is as a learning approach that cultivates students’ wonder,

reflection, imagination and full experience of what they learn. Second, we will delve into some of

the philosophy and modern learning science behind why narration is so effective. Lastly, we will

explore practical tips for implementing narration in the home, like how to set up expectations

well, the varieties of narration, the narration lesson structure, and making the wonder of

narration a way of life. Come ready with your questions about narration, and let’s explore

together the beauty of how our Story-telling God has made us in his image!

Celebrating Easter Vigil at home 2020

In these interesting times of being at home and not able to get out to church, I thought it might be helpful for others to see how to conduct a Liturgy of Light in your home.  This is similar to what happens in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.  The Easter Vigil in many churches includes introducing a new candle at the evening service.  You can have your own home liturgy similar to that which happens in the Church.

You need to prepare a candle to use.  Find a pillar candle that you can paint.  Acrylic paints seem to be the best.  Consider how you would like to paint it.  The decorations need to be a cross.  Also you need to include the year "2020" and the symbols for Alpha and Omega.   Here are some pictures to see how we have done it in past years.

You can also look up #domesticeastercandle on Instagram for more photos.  

And please share your photos with this hashtag!  

The Liturgy is here.  You can print a copy for each family member, or read from your phone or computer.  Feel free to adapt to your needs!  I wish you a very happy Easter Triduum.

Claywork and Unwin Methods

For our Term 2 of this year, it was my goal to begin a weekly work of clay modeling.

I had previously downloaded and made a copy of the book by Mary Louisa Unwin.  This was one book that had been referenced in Charlotte Mason writings and used in schools. Download your own copy here from Hathitrust.

We began by making our modeling boards and attaching an armature as instructed in the book.  This was a fun day when Pop Pop brought over his skills and helped in our wood shop.  One board was made for each student and one for the teacher too.









These are the tools that I ordered.  The kit contained everything that was recommended in the book and more.




The clay I purchased was Sarget Art's Plastilina Modeling Clay.  It comes in a 5 pound block.  We have used it for eight weeks now and it's still going strong with five kids and one parent learner. 

Each Wednesday is a scheduled learning time.  I move to the next Model in the book.  We began with an orange like directed.  Second week we accomplished apples.  The third week plums were the model, but it's winter here so we used dried dates.  Models 4, 5 and 6 were pear, rock and lemon respectively.  For week 7 we were unable to do pea pod, so just skipped to acorn.   Model 9 is a Laurel leaf and I plan to use eucalyptus instead as we have some left over from Christmas! 

The children and I have a designated a 30 minute slot right after lunch once a week.  They are welcome to continue their work with the clay or move into other objects as they wish.  My high school son has been working on a duck decoy.  The younger boys are happy to make dragons and men as we have been reading some Tolkien folk tales which included some dragons.   I could see us using clay for some other narrations in the future! 

We do not keep these creations.  They are just practice work and perhaps we look at them for part of one day.  Then we return them to a plastic bag for our next clay time. 

Have you been able to include clay modeling work as part of you homeschooling experience?

 

Charlotte Mason Family Camp 2020

Our Family Camp is approaching! 
Have you had an interest in the Charlotte Mason Family camp? 
Are you making your summer plans? 

Watch this short video about Charlotte Mason Family Camp 2020.  We are looking forward to hosting you!

You can see past information here.  

REGISTRATION FORM HERE

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? 

Knowledge of the Universe: Handicrafts for Boys (and girls) -Needle and Thread

I think it's pretty easy for moms and dads to think of handicrafts for girls.  Sewing, knitting, flower arranging, cooking, etc.  These all seem normal for girls.  But boys need to know these too!

Do you teach simple sewing exercises for boys?  I start with teaching sewing on buttons for age 4.  Just learning to thread a needle is a good thing.  I use small embroidery hoops with simple cotton fabric swatches.  Larger needles and very large buttons make the sewing process simpler.
Then progressing to projects that are useful.

I have also purchased a lap loom for the boys in this home.  It helps their body find rest as they begin to use their minds and hands.  Finger weaving is also fun, although less liked by the boys in this house.  I haven't found lots of ways to use finger weaving, but we did have one Christmas that we used it as garlands on the tree!

You might wish to see my Industry program for kids 10 and up here.

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.

Parents are Peacemakers

At the Charlotte Mason Institute Eastern 2018 conference, I was pleased to purchase several copies of Parents Are Peacemakers reprint.  This booklet was discussion notes to be used for six group meetings on Peace.  I found the notes to be very eye opening and began to think how they could be used in my local group.

At our November 2018 book meeting, I mentioned that I had read and taken notes from this booklet and was considering a parent group to meet and discuss these topics.  There was an enthusiastic response.  I had already partnered with one couple to beginning meeting in January.  Now we had six more couples that would join us.

I have felt a disconnect for many of the dads in my local CM community.  They seem to shy away from discussions about Charlotte Mason.  I wanted them to feel just as confident as dads who have been reading the Volumes for years.  I wanted them to embrace the ideas in her books and share their hopes and wishes in making this philosophy a pillar of their lifestyle.

Would couples learning and reading provide a jumping off place them?  We have a local book group of 20-40 ladies who read the volumes together.  My husband seems to be the only dad who attends on occasion. There are a few other dads that show up from time to time.  It's difficult to get a babysitter for both parents, but what if that could happen what a lively sharing there could be.

Getting away when you have little children is difficult.  Being able to have the flexibility to join in book reading and discussions takes a lot of time. Would the benefits outweigh the burden of finding childcare?

How could we achieve a discussion group with dads involved? 
Here were my hopes:
Having a designated beginning and ending of the discussions seemed to make it more achievable.  Six sessions.  Once every three weeks.  Accomplished in a little over three months.

We kept fairly well to a time schedule so as to respect babysitters and time commitments.  We structured it to begin right after dinner on Friday nights. This allowed couples to have a date night before if possible and still arrive home at a timely hour.

Picture of one night of discussions

What was the outcome?  8 couples agreed to the meetings.  We tended to have six as the average attendance.  It was light hearted.  We laughed a lot.  We also had some great times at realizing our areas of change and what we needed to accomplish for growth.  Our hearts of caring for our children were enlarged. The encouragement shared between husbands was so comforting.  I think the pressure on dads is greater than we realize.  Our discussions were held at one of two homes.   It warmed the hearts during the cold Illinois winter months.

Think your community would like to host these discussions?  Here are some notes I made from the sessions.  I included a picture study each time.  It was my hope that the families would hang the picture in a place as a reminder of the goals and discussion that had followed the reading.  We usually began with a volunteer to begin our time with prayer.  I had a formal prayer or Bible verse to end our time together.

You are most welcome to use these notes to accomplish a couples or mother discussion in your area. If your community completes this, please let me know about your success!

Teaching Dante in your Charlotte Mason homeschool

Last year I found several references to Dante’s Divine Comedy being taught in Charlotte Masons schools.  I decided to create some coursework plans to help my children and I to complete a study of the Divine Comedy -all three parts.  You can find my plans here.  Twelve week plans for Dante. 

Feel free to adapt and use as you wish.

I made a collection of the articles or references to Dante from the Parent's Review Articles. 
Dante
On Dante
Punishment
Hero Worship

His Will is our Peace.