Summer Term School Planning

My biggest project this month was planning our summer school term. I am playing a little bit of *catch-up still, but that is one reason why we are doing school this summer. My goals in planning were these: keep a lighter than normal schedule, finish Joel's and James' respective terms in 10 weeks to allow a slightly shorter Summer Term but also not rushing - thus defeating the purpose of the way we learn, add in definite times for Nature Study and art lessons (not Artist Study, which we already have covered). I hope and pray that these goals are achievable in real life and not just on paper.

Here's what it looks like on paper. Basically. Monday-Thursday lessons. No Friday lessons!!!! I am saving Nature Study and art lessons for Fridays. More on that later. Morning Time and math in the mornings, read alouds afterwards.

I ended up having $0 for books, but was able to find all 5 books I needed at the Library. Yea! I grabbed Good Queen Bess even though I also had grabbed Shakespeare's biography. She was just a favorite of Joel's last term and thought he would enjoy reading it on his own. He read it already. That and a few other factors have led me to decide to let him read The Children of the New Forest on his own this term. I have been listening to it on Librivox, and I really don't like most of the readers, and I really just don't have the time to devote to it 3x week. So this will be interesting and hopefully really great, too.

We will be studying trees in Nature Study. Very exciting. There are more varieties of trees here than anywhere we've lived in awhile. We will also do a mosquito study, and a bird count.

I really had to put art lessons in, and make them a priority because the boys simply love it. It has taken a year and a half, but we finally have pastels, pastel paper, and You Can Paint Pastels by Marie Blake. I will do a 15-30 minute art lesson with them (all three boys) quasi 1-on-1 each week. I think it is very doable, and I am excited to see what we make. I think it helps to simplify and focus on just one thing - such as just pastels, or just sketching, or whatever. Also, thinking of it as only 10 lessons really makes it seem very doable. Also I hope to remember Sketch Tuesday every week.

The bulk of my actual planning was for Morning Time. I plan exactly what is going to happen every morning (if you don't take charge, THEY will), so it takes a good bit if planning. Here's the jist of what we're doing:
Folk Songs: Simple Gifts/Click Go the Shears
Hymns: Sweet Hour of Prayer/Rock of Ages, also a variety of Patriotic Hymns
Bible: Genesis, Gospel of John
Memory Work: John 10:27-30, Ps 67, a poem per child
Manners: Hat etiquette, interrupting, more to come
Artist Study: Albert Bierstadt
Composer Study: Mendelssohn
Shakespeare: Pericles, Measure for Measure, As You Like It
Read Alouds: Buffalo Bill, James Herriot's Treasury for Children, Blue Fairy Book, American Tall Tales, Pilgrim's Progress
Poetry for respective Terms

*Feeling like you are behind schedule is a part of homeschooling. It. Just. Is. I say I am playing catch up because I am not quite where I want to be. That's just a part of life, and so I almost don't feel behind, it's more of a "slow and steady wins the race" feeling.

And then it was ... July???

This month was over before it began. I had it so cram packed full of things to do and places to go. I hoped against hope that I hadn't packed it too full.

I packed it too full. In other words, if all the things I planned for June were groceries, the groceries would be spilling out of the bag and busting it. Oh yea, and one of the handles would break.

But lest you begin to believe that I really deserve to be pitied, let me assure you that it has been a wonderful fun-filled month. I have traveled all over Texas, now it is oh-so-nice to be at home and have nowhere to go.

For 10 weeks. Yes, on Monday we begin our 10-week summer school term. I'm looking forward to it. I have been occasionally dropping an advertisement here and there to the boys, "I'm SO excited about the folksongs we're going to learn in Morning Time.... I can't wait to read another Shakespeare play....". I finally heard, "can't we do Morning Time today???"

Yesssssssssss.

"Nope. You have to wait until Monday."

Current Favorite Picture

Home Education, Part 2

By the way, the subtitle of this book is "Training and educating children under nine". This is not strictly a home schooling book. Charlotte Mason herself was a teacher in what might be called a public school in today's terms.

Part II - Out-of-door life for the children

Or, the indoors are over-rated.

"Perhaps a Mother's first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it spent for the most part out in the fresh air. And this, not for the gain in bodily health alone - body and soul, heart and mind, are nourished with food convenient for them when the children are let alone, let to live without friction and without stimulus amongst happy influences which incline them to be good."

Are you ready? I am!

"...for of the evils of modern education few are worse than this - that the perpetual cackle of his elders leaves the poor child not a moment of time, nor an inch of space, wherein to wonder - and grow."

Me??? Cackle???

Ah-hem.

Yes, the indoors are overrated, my friends. We have created such comfortable, climate controlled environments in our homes that going outside can seem too much trouble. Such a hassle. Too dirty. Too hot. Too humid. Too wet. Too cold. Too windy. Not as important as doing the dishes ... or scrubbing the toilet. Pack up everything? Be gone how long? We seriously spend too much time inside. This is something that I now realize is way easier to do before your children are in third grade. Then it really becomes a tug of war between what does the older child need versus what do the younger children need. Charlotte gives many suggestions as to the ins and outs of how you should spend your outdoor time. Also she says to not "send" them out, "take" them out.

"the flowers, it is true, are not new; but the children are; and it is the fault of their elders if every new flower they come upon is not to them a Picciola, a mystery of beauty to be watched from day to day with unspeakable awe and delight."

(I was so excited to actually know what she was talking about when she mentioned Picciola!)

"All this is stale knowledge to older people, but one of the secrets of the educator is to present nothing as stale knowledge, but to put himself in the position of the child, and wonder and admire with him;"

I struggle with this. I just simply find it challenging to put myself in their position. I am always needing to be reminded of this.

There is a lovely quote from Audubon, the American ornithologist, that is just lovely and inspiring. I won't share it now but will in a future post.

More CM:

"Most children of six have had this taste of a naturalist's experience, and it is worth speaking of only because, instead of being merely a harmless amusement, it is a valuable piece of education, of more use to the child than the reading of a whole book of natural history, or much geography and Latin. For the evil is, that children get their knowledge of natural history, like all their knowledge, at second hand. They ate so sated with wonders, that nothing surprises them; and they are so little used to see for themselves, that nothing interests them. The cure for this blasé condition is, to let them alone for a bit, and then begin on new lines. Poor children, it is no fault of theirs if they are not as they were meant to be - curious eager little souls, all agog to explore so much of this wonderful world as they can get at, as quite their first business in life.

'He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.'"

There is so much truth in this one paragraph. I think there are much fewer children now, even at the age of six, who have such experience with nature. Babies are placed in front of Baby Einstein videos, first graders are given their "lessons" on iPads, any leisure time is spent on the computer or in front of the tv. I have by no means "arrived" in this area. It's just something I feel very strongly about. We live is a "virtual" culture, and what is real is continually being replaced by something that is not. Don't get me wrong. I love my iPhone, I love Google, I love Pinterest, enjoy keeping in touch on Facebook, I realize these are good things. What I am saying is that we don't always choose what is best. And simply because something is good doesn't mean it is the best choice. Am I making any sense?? CM is saying natural history books are good. But they are not necessarily the best choice for your little ones. Your little ones don't need to look at a tree in a book. Not that in and of itself is bad. They need to go look at a real tree. They need to feel its bark, see how its branches grow. Notice the shape of its leaves, see how the tree changes through the seasons. And so on and so forth. They need to be aquainted, personally, with the natural world.

"Let them once get touch with Nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life. We were all meant to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things."

After all, God did create this world for us to live in.

"Reverence for life, as a wonderful and awful gift, which a ruthless child may destroy but never can restore, is a lesson of first importance to the child:-
'Let knowledge grow from more to more;
But more of reverence in us dwell.'
The child who sees his mother with reverent touch lift an early snowdrop to her lips, learns a higher lesson than the 'print-books' can teach."

More is caught than taught!

"For it is a law of the mind that what we know, we struggle to express. This fact accounts for many of the aimless questions of children; they are in quest, not of knowledge, but of words to express the knowledge they have."

"The evil of the ready-made life we lead is that we do not discern the signs of the times."

What I particularly like about this chapter are all the ideas she gives in spending time outdoors. Things I would never have thought of. I also appreciate her articulating how to let the children alone. Of course, not the one-year-old. But there are so many things that can be taught to the children while outdoors, i.e., not during "school".

I have heard that spending much time outside and nature study is a "Holy Grail" of sorts. I can see why, and have not really found a solution for our family yet. I think it is a process, and different things have to be tried until you get into a routine that fits. For me, I have to see in my head how it will work before I attempt to try. But like I said, I feel very strongly that it is more important than ever to get outside in order to be in touch with nature and real things. Everything else is slipping away into a virtual reality that I find quite frightening.

Home Education, Part 1

I am blogging from my phone today so I can't link things like you can on the full blogger website. Ceridwen, who is a Very Great Friend of mine, and I are reading through Charlotte Mason's first book entitled "Home Education". You can get a copy from your library or purchase one or go online to read it at www.amblesideonline.org .

Part I - Some Preliminary Considerations

"It is a great thing to be a parent: there is no promotion, no dignity, to compare with it."

From page one she wakes you up to the magnitude of the responsibility given to parents, to mothers. It may feel like a thankless poop patrol, vomit patrol, laundry patrol, spills and crumbs everywhere kind of a job. Oh, but it's more.

"And they will take it up as their profession - that is, with the diligence, regularity, and punctuality which men bestow on their professional labours."

Sideways glance here. What we don't have to do we tend not to do or put off for as long as possible. The thought of it is much worse than the actual doing it. What we are fighting here is our own sinful selfish nature. It's the part of growing up that's so hard - we think it will be great to not have someone telling us what to do all the time. And it is great. Until we realize how hard it is to make ourselves do what we ought.

"To give reasons to a child is usually out of place, and is a sacrifice of parental dignity;"

The above quote is under the heading, "They must perceive that their Governors are Law-compelled."

"Children's faults are serious.... To laugh at ugly tempers and let them pass because the child is small, is to sow to the wind."

What comes to mind is Proverbs 31, "she girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms."

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

What more can you add that? I'll just say that it is apparent in our society and culture that not enough parents are doing this.