Making sense out of history

I've been asked to elaborate on how I make Connecting With History work in our homeschool, since I combined it in the past with my Catholic Ambleside curriculum, and will continue next year to combine Ambleside Online, Mater Amabilis, and Connecting with History. (CWH)

First, I will say that each of these have their "history" strengths and weaknesses.

Ambleside is full of wonderful history selections, and I deeply admire the advisory's commitment to using original source and free material as much as possible. That being said, I firmly believe that their history is biased and whig-centered, anti-Catholic, and therefore (perhaps not purposely, but nonetheless substantially) dishonest. At the very least, it's incomplete. For those who are wondering what I'm talking about, I can give a simple example. In many of Ambleside's selected readings, when a Catholic person is doing something noble and heroic, he is called "a Christian" and his interest in the Bible, evangelism, etc. is played up, whereas his commitment to the Church, the Saints, etc is completely ignored, despite the historical facts of his faith and personality. However when a famous Catholic does something bad or questionable, he is called "a Catholic," and his commitment to the Church is played up... which is, quite frankly, diabolical. Another example is that there have been substantial Catholic contributions to Ambleside's body of work (curriculum, information, articles, personal information about Charlotte gathered in research, etc.) which have gone completely unacknowledged or unattributed, and every attempt by these contributors to provide an environment which is inclusive for both Protestants AND Catholics has been met with resistance. The reason, I'm beginning to discover, is that the majority of the movers and shakers who have worked hard to provide such a wonderful curriculum follow reformed theology, which essentially rejects Catholicism as a form of Christianity and also rejects philosophy and the use of logic/reason, which are a critical part of a liberal arts curriculum such as CM advocated.  This information has greatly saddened me as I have been discovering it, but I think we all already knew that Ambleside's selections provide a very Calvinsist-centric view of the Christianity and thus, the world just by looking at some of their selections for Church History. I'm by no means arguing against using Ambleside, so PLEASE don't misunderstand me. It is absolutely phenomenal as a curriculum and deserves many praises! But for us Catholics, who know better, we need to be very aware of Ambleside's limitations in the scope of teaching history.

Mater Amabilis' history selections are excellent. I like them so much I am using them! I like them so much I am using them despite the fact that I am also using something else! But I am modifying their use because I have several students of several different ages and I need things to be very simple in my homeschool. If I had only one or two students, I would leave Mater Amabilis exactly as it is and use it as recommended. And as a side note to Catholic readers, don't ever feel like you are settling for a second-rate, "Catholic version of Ambleside Online" when using it. Mater Amabilis is an original creation based entirely on the research of its creators, who have themselves spent time at Ambleside, England studying Charlotte Mason themselves from her own sources, and who have made great contributions to the Ambleside Online curriculum. So don't feel that you are settling. With Mater Amabilis, know that you are getting the very best of Charlotte Mason's original ideas and work, and often, in my opinion, a more honest example of what Charlotte would have said/done considering that her faith background, as a lifelong member of the Church of England with many close Catholic connections (like GK Chesterton's wife!! Squee!!), is much closer to Catholic than to the reformed tradition. Ultimately, Charlotte's theology isn't the "bigger picture" point, and I'm not arguing for one curriculum OVER the other in that I think both perspectives have value for people of either religious persuasion, but I do think that it bears mentioning so that people who use MA with a sigh of resignation can be encouraged.... Mater Amabilis is authentically Charlotte Mason, and is inspired directly from her own choices and sources, not by those of Ambleside Online, therefore remaining faithful to her method.

Connecting with History uses living books, is solidly Catholic in nature, and is very complete. It is chronological (yay) and can quite honestly be a spine for all the rest of your work... if you like unit studies (I don't, and CM didn't.) The only downside to this program, in my view, is that instead of savoring one book all the way through we stuff ourselves with like, twenty different history titles as quickly as possible (the program sometimes recommends reading 2-3 chapters PER DAY. Aint nobody got time fo dat!! Other down sides people often mention is the cost of books (not a problem over here, and I'll tell you why in a minute) and not having lesson plans (also, not a problem. Here we go!)

Most CM-folk agree that we need to be teaching history in two tracks: a national history and a world history simultaneously. Most CM-folk also agree that it's best if the child can keep his own history reading going at his own level.... and yet most large-family mamas will tell you they are terrified of keeping track of each individual child's reading or of the amount of time it will take to sit down with each kid individually until they are able to get their own thing going on.

That's why I've chosen to combine all  those solutions into an easy method: I use CWH for world history, working all together with personal assignments here and there and I use the AO/MA combined ideas to develop a national history track that is tailor made for each student.

Meanwhile, If you've ever heard an experienced CM parent say anything to other, new homeschooling moms I am sure it was this:

"Less is More."

And they swear it's true. ;)

Sooooo..... what to do? There really is just so much good stuff out there!

First, I think, the key is to keep  things simple, especially at the beginning, and to select QUALITY over QUANTITY. When in doubt, do less.

Because Connecting with History does such a great job of covering so much ground (poems and scripture to memorize, picture study, history, geography, copywork, dictation, saints, Bible) it forms the groundwork for much of the day...And we do something from it every day.

Connecting with history operates on a plan: The first part is an introduction, the second is an in-depth study portion, the third is a project/activity/telling/wrap up portion. They are slowly releasing lesson plans, but you don't need lesson plans to make it work.

I tend to do one time period (unit) per month, which gives me four weeks per unit. The first week is the introductory week. I do my background reading (if there is anything I'm not familiar with) and the first night around the dinner table, I introduce the discussion questions. Second night we might watch a movie from that time period and casually introduce the new poem and scripture to be memorized. In that first week, we will do all of the initial readings from the spine (I do Founders of Freedom for the really little kids and Old World's Gifts for the oldest. I do that because they requested it, and NOT because I have to... either one of those would work great for all of them.) I break down the reading from those into two days worth of readings because I have history scheduled for a short period on Monday and again on Thursday. If you have history scheduled every day you could read a smaller portion each day, but I find it is possible to get it all done on two days and focus on literature the other days.

Connecting with History has wonderful literature selections, but Charlotte Mason wasn't a fan of unit studies. If a literature selection is absolutely marvelous, I might opt to use it, but the majority of our literature comes from the AO/MA booklists and is not usually based on the history unit being read. There are enough living non-fiction history books to keep your kids learning and loving history, and my personal opinion is that many of  the historical lit selections available for young people are not well written, only "alive" in the sense that they are purposely descriptive. I want my kids to have THE BEST, so I avoid many of the historical literature selections that I find to be... living twaddle. (A perfect example is the highly acclaimed living math book from CWH Volume I called "What's your angle, Pythagoras?" Completely historically inaccurate, and poorly written, it was a huge waste of our time and money.)

I have a religion slot first thing in the morning, after breakfast. We tend to do Catechism and Saints in the morning and Bible at night, but sometimes I switch it up. In that slot we will do the CWH religious readings--- whichever bible and saints stories are scheduled for that unit. Because we are a CM homeschool, in addition to reading the selected story I have my children narrate it. Before I do it, I drill them on their catechism lessons, for about five minutes, so all together the religion period takes about twenty minutes. After we read and narrate, we might discuss one aspect of what we read, or just say a little prayer.

I have a history period scheduled on Mondays and again on Thursday, and it is for a family read aloud. So for twenty minutes I will do the read aloud. The first week, as I said, I will read from the spine. The second and third week I will read from the selected book. (I use their beginning level read alouds-- and one or two of the important grammar level ones.) When they get older and can read independently, we will use that time to do their independent reading. After I read I will ask for narration, and allow them to ask questions. During the fourth week, there is not any reading to do (or perhaps just a small amount) and so we use that time for activities and events and working on their presentation. Part of their history lesson is always to record (or right now, watch me record) the events and people they are reading about in their book of centuries. Because we are a CM family, we don't do endless notebooking pages, but we do for example, write down a narration and illustrate it, or make what I call a "narration map" as I read (the child draws the events as we read and then uses it to narrate to me) and include those in our notebooks. We also include pictures of our project/activity and presentation. I'm not into crafts, so we don't do anything crazy.

Wednesday is my geography day. On Wednesdays I have a geography period scheduled with twenty minutes of reading and ten minutes of map drills, so if there is appropriate geography reading that goes along with CWH I will use that and ask for narration, then do a map drill. If not, I will continue to read selections from that unit's book list-- an additional saint story, for example, although I do try to make it one that has helpful reading about geography. I might also use that time to watch a netflix documentary or something relating to the geography of the place we are studying if I'm out of reading.

As I said, the last week is the activity week, and we do one or two of the suggested activities (games, charts, etc.) and finally rounding it out with a play or a dinner party. In our homeschool daddy is very involved in all things schooling, so we don't take the time to tell him all about what we have learned, but in other families, that would be a great wrap-up activity.

Doing it this way DRASTICALLY reduces the book cost because I'm not reading every single book on the list. In fact, for most of the year (in fact, all the years!) all we really need is one of the saints stories compilations, a bible, our spine (founders of freedom, or the old world's gifts), and one family read aloud per unit (so about ten "new" books per unit. I also found a used copy of MB Synge's World History series and I use that to fill in when I don't have the budget for a new book that month or when I feel like my money could be better used elsewhere. It takes a little bit of legwork to find the spot in the Synge series where we need to be reading from, but I absolutely LOVE the series, my kids do too, and we are never bummed that we don't have a "new" book on the days we don't.
Also, it goes without saying that if you buy one book a month vs buying them all at once it's easier on the budget. I have found many of them used via ebay, amazon, etc. But yes, you can successfully teach the CWH program using just the saints, the bible, and whichever age-appropriate "core" book you will use.

On Thursdays, I also do a family read aloud from their national history track.  Last year, we did Our Island Story, this year we will continue to do Our Island Story but also add Guerber's 13 Colonies (or perhaps This Country of Ours, the jury is still still out on that one.) OIS will be for my first grader and 13 Colonies for my second grader, but naturally they will often overlap/ hear each other's readings, and that's just fine with me. :)

One other thing I have done to combine is to incorporate some of the AO/MA readings that I loved in the appropriate Connecting with History unit. So, for example, we will be reading The Little Duke, an AO selection from Y2,  all in one month and over the regular time period it covers (in Volume II of CWH), instead of over one year.

As they get older, they will continue to do many of the history readings that are original source material and just really good books from Ambleside and Mater Amabilis. I will be particularly cautious when it comes to Ambleside's selections because of the skewed view of history. For example, I do have and can't wait to use Churchill's History of the English Speaking People. However, I find him to be a bit of a pompous imperialist with very little regard for indigenous people, and I will make sure to counter balance their studies at that time with something that helps them see that.

Most of Mater Amabilis' religion suggestions (outside of the advent and lent selections) are found in CWH, so we aren't skipping those, just using them differently.

Ultimately, using Connecting With History this way has helped me to unite my entire family and make good use of our time while the children are so very young. I may discover that as they get older they can be freed from "family history" and switched over to JUST the AO/MA selections, but again, most of them are the same as those found in CWH, so... why not continue this way? I'll see how I feel about it when we get there.

Does that answer questions about how to combine a family history curriculum with AO or MA? If not, please feel free to comment and I'll do my best to answer!

Final (I hope!) schedule for next school year

   Combined Prep 1B 1A Final

Enjoy!

Review: Laying Down the Rails for Children

My copy of Laying Down the Rails for Children arrived yesterday and I am so happy I could just melt.
I do believe it was only a few days ago that I posted a blog bemoaning the fact that it took a lot of legwork to get habit training going in any kind of an intellectual manner. I have to research and pre-read the stories I plan to use to illustrate the habit we are studying.
I have to come up with games and ideas.

The complete set of books.

The checklist in the back of "laying down the rails."

My habit-learners

The book "Laying Down the Rails" has served as inspiration and as a checklist for what I should be doing as a parent, but not necessarily as a curriculum. And yet as I have worked with it over the years and explored other habit-training curricula, I've been constantly drawn back to it for so many different reasons, chief among which is that it truly is the most faithful to CM, faithful to my ideas about morals, religion, the intellectual life, physical health, etc. It is very complete.

The new books are a set of two, covering ALL of the habits mentioned by CM in her own books. The first page for each habit is a series of fill-in-the-blank type lines that ask questions about where to go for inspiration. They are useful for brainstorming ideas.
After that are some lesson plans that include stories, games, ideas, and poems. It's perfect, and exactly what I had been doing, only basically done for me... which means it will be worth it to you if your time is worth some money, and not if you prefer to keep the money and spend the time.

A way to use it is just to spend a month on each habit. Going down the checklist, pick habits you know you need to start with, and then just attack them.

The new books COULD serve as a stand-alone, although they do refer to the original book for definitions of habits, etc. I strongly recommend getting and using both! Enjoy

Mind Blown!

AN IMPRESSION.

I have been asked to try and recall any memories I may have of Miss Mason and I have attempted once or twice to write something adequate but have failed miserably. Time and events from the outside seem to have made a long leap from the days when I first worked for the P.N.E.U.

But a picture of a certain Sunday in Advent, though it must be twenty odd years ago, rises to my mind and is as fresh as if it had occurred yesterday. It was my first visit to Ambleside as appointed, or provisionally appointed Secretary to the London Office. I was horribly frightened (I had only arrived the night before) the students knew so much more than I did--I had no training--nothing but a hope that I might possibly be the right person for the job. Miss Mason I was told had talks with her students on Sunday afternoons. We assembled in the drawing room, it looked so countrified to my London eyes, and the trunk and branches of a cherry tree outside the window held my attention--as well as the portrait of Matthew Arnold on the wall. Trees and Arnold might help me I thought to keep my nervousness within bounds. I remember Miss Mason and her gentle smile and voice as she explained my presence to the others there. The actual words of her talk I have forgotten, but I hope not the spirit. "That thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed" was the stone upon which she built a complete" house of education" for us that afternoon--explaining how thoughts could be translated into action when revealed, and like young plants bear fruit in due season in the lives of the young children who were to carry on the work.

I have since looked up this text on which the little sermon was built and find I had underlined the words following "There was one Anna a prophetess." Surely something then had moved me to connect the two ideas. Had I realized dimly at this first meeting, that a prophetess was speaking, and that slowly and surely her prophecies would be fulfilled? That she was then revealing to a little handful of her followers something of that wealth of though which she was depending upon us to translate into action?

[084]

I know I hoped sincerely that I might bear my part in the good cause.

Ms. Mason was gifted in many ways, but in none I think more than in her power of inspiring others with ideas, and ideas fundamentally so sound, that those who were able to work them out, felt that they must originate in truth--so often ideas are inspiring for a time, but having little actuality, little relation with facts--they do not live to bear fruit. We can all say of Ms. Mason's work for children and true education, that it dealt with those primary conceptions of the tense value of every human soul that nothing of God's gifts given direct by God Himself, or through the instrument of his creatures could be too good for it. I think I had the impression that this was the thought in her heart that Sunday that she was revealing to us, and that we on our part were earnestly desiring that it might be the spirit in which the work could be accomplished and the only way in which it could ever be accomplished. This must have been so for I find marked with the same date, "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings." Whether I elaborated the idea for myself, or whether Ms. Mason did for me, I am after this long stretch of years unable to tell. The train of thought was continued somehow to its conclusion. If we were able to reveal the thoughts in our hearts to the children, they would so express themselves that we could not fail to recognise the source from which all inspiration and good thoughts come, that are only truly revealed in "that perfected praise" which is the inherited gift of the children of God.

This little sermon, if I may call it so, has recurred to my mind over and over again and I have written it out as best I may--as a very small tribute to the memory of one for whom I had and have a very profound admiration.
Frances Chesterton.(wife of GK Chesterton)

The Habit of Attention

The habit of attention has come up often, lately.

Insofar as it is useful to us to teach our children the habit of attention so that their schoolwork does not suffer, it is understandable that Charlotte Mason would have considered it one of the top three habits to instill.
With it, our children will not dawdle or waste time during lessons. They will read for instruction the first time. They will know how to obey and follow directions. They will make the necessary connections and become keen observers. They will self-educate, which is our goal, after all.

Lately, though, I have witnessed ways in which a life lacking the habit of attention is detrimental in other ways, both to the person living it and to the people who must share the planet with him.
There is a lot of talk about attention deficit disorder, for example, and many distressed parents of medicated children with ADD/ADHD diagnoses who are difficult to handle both in class and at home.

I've always been somewhat skeptical of ADD/ADHD claims because I'm from a country that doesn't really acknowledge its existence. (For more on that, see a great article here.)

I am often struck by the truthfulness of the above-linked article when I compare my experiences growing up in France and the average American experience of most children. In France, we had routine, we had order, we had plentiful time outdoors and excellent food. We took our time to do everything (to eat, to sleep, and to work.) Here everyone appears to rush around incessantly and then collapse and medicate from the stress.
Whereas French babies enjoyed long nature walks, American babies are almost immediately plopped into any number of gadgets or toys that soothe or entertain.

Most moms I know don't believe me when I tell them that my children have virtually NO battery operated toys, and that my infants have only a bed and a pack and play. I've even struggled with the idea myself.... believing that it would be much easier to have these objects to entertain my little ones, even using them from time to time. This latest baby, our fourth, however, has not at all had the luxury of experiencing these things. In fact, I set her down inside a baby bouncer  the other day at  a friend's house and realized that-- at ten months-- it was the first time she was having the experience of "plastic play."

"What do you do with them all day?" People ask me, incredulous, trying to imagine a world in which there are no baby swings, entertainment centers, floor mats, and jumpers.
And yet-- that world is out there. And it is glorious!

Below is an interesting link which demonstrates how using Charlotte Mason's ideas can help cure the ADD/ADHD epidemic (one which, in cultures that value outdoor time and face-to-face conversation, is far less concerning.)

A Cure for ADHD? from Media Talk 101 on Vimeo.


It goes without saying that the amount of screen time our children get and the quality of the books they read, as well as their environment (slow paced, peaceful lifestyle vs modern rushing from place to place) also plays a part. (See: Captivated.) Obviously, these things have an effect.

But even this-- a medicated child, a child with challenges focusing--- well, it doesn't seem like the complete end of the world, does it? I mean, there are lots of people out there who genuinely struggle with the habit of attention and who are doing just fine in other ways, right?

But there is also another element to the habit of attention and it's necessity that pops up in my house all the time.

 You see, my husband is a firefighter, and his job is to rush into danger.
While we are home, and he is at work, my children and I are praying for his safety every moment. Our hearts skip a beat when we hear sirens go by and a tweet or news alert in my inbox can send me over the edge. A phone call late at night when he is on shift, or a car near our driveway, can set our hearts aflutter.

Some of the kinds of things my husband might do on any given regular workday includes putting out fires and going in to rescue people trapped inside, going on rescue missions when people are lost or missing, and going to the scenes of accidents, emergencies, explosions, or bouts of domestic violence or terrorism. When he goes there, he will almost always find a chaotic scene waiting for him. Ash, blood, bone, guts, burning flesh, urine, feces, and vomit are the substances he works with daily. Fear, terror, anger, and unthinkable violence are emotions he encounters often at work.
It's a stressful, heartbreaking kind of job for him, but not for those reasons.
It is hard for him because there's another kind of emotion he encounters almost daily: apathy. And he can't stand it.

Apathy, and inattention, are the source of many situations our emergency personnel face daily. Inattention (either neglectful or intentional) cause personal injuries, accidents, fires, and other endangerments too numerous to mention. In fact, hardly a day goes by that our family doesn't hear, upon his return home from a shift, of a story or situation that he was sent in to help at where the source of the problem was someone's inattention.

He will tell you, and so will I, that we embrace Charlotte's emphasis on attention because (a) a child cannot obey if s/he doesn't know what to do, (b) a child cannot tell the truth if s/he doesn't know what the truth is, exactly, and (c) inattention is a great evil--- it's the opposite of diligence, and akin to ingratitude.

So what are some ways to build the habit of attention? Here are some ideas that have worked for us (and it does help, we are convinced, that we started young. My oldest, who I really hammered with this habit, is capable of pointing out the most minute details, finds bird's nests in the most astonishing places, etc.)

1. Frequently point out the results of inattention,  or better yet--  let the child discover them.
2. Do nature study often.
3. Train through games ("what did you see?" "which hand is it in?")
4. Unplug. Turn off anything with a screen and get outside (CM recommended 4-6 hours PER DAY.)
5. Allow natural consequences.
6. Go back and read Charlotte herself on this habit.

Charlotte's ideas revolved around encouraging the child to use his will to develop the habit of attention, intentionally.

Let him know what the real difficulty is, how it is the nature of his mind to be incessantly thinking, but how the thoughts, if left to themselves, will always run off from one thing to another, and that the struggle and the victory required of him is to fix his thoughts upon the task at hand

Be on the watch from the beginning against the formation of the contrary habit of inattention

It is the mother’s part to supplement the child’s quick observing faculty with the habit of attention. She must see to it that he does not flit from this to that, but looks long enough at one thing to get a real acquaintance with it.
The mother will contrive ways to invest every object in the child’s world with interest and delight.
Even the child who has gained the habit of attention to things, finds words a weariness.

UH OH. Stop there. Did you catch that? Moms, are we talking TOO much?? Are we-- gasp--- nagging?

Instead, establish a time-table (schedule)

Never let the child dawdle over copybook or sum.. when a child grows stupid over a lesson, it is time to put it away. Let him do another lesson as unlike the last as possible, and then go back with freshened wits to the unfinished task.
The child knows what he has to do and how long each lesson is to last. This idea of definite work to be finished in a given time is valuable to the child, not only as training him in habits of order, but in diligence.

Second, use her method of short, focused lessons in which perfect execution is the standard.

Lessons are short, seldom more than twenty minutes in length for children under eight; and this for two or three reasons. The sense that there is not much time for his sums or his reading, keeps the child’s wits on the alert and helps to fix his attention; he has time to learn just so much of any one subject as it is good for him to take in at once: and if the lessons be judiciously alternated- sums first, say while the brain is quite fresh; then writing, or reading-some more or less mechanical exercise, by way of a rest; and so on, the program varying a little from day to day, but the same principle throughout- a ‘thinking’ lesson first, and a ‘painstaking’ lesson to follow,- the child gets through his morning lessons without any sign of weariness.

Third , remember that the secret to habits is motivation and repetition.

Reward the child for attention-- with the natural consequence: leisure time.

A further stimulus may be necessary to secure the attention of the child... in the shape of a reward to secure his utmost efforts...they should be the natural consequences of his good conduct.
Of work done well & quickly....the enjoyment of ample leisure 

and allow natural consequences to be a punishment of their own, as well.

There is a law by which all rewards and punishments should be regulated: they should be the natural, or at any rate, the relative consequences of conduct; should imitate, as nearly as may be without injury to the child, the treatment which such and such conduct deserves and receives in after life.
She must consider with herself what fault of disposition the child’s misbehavior springs from; she must aim her punishment at that fault, and must brace herself to see her child suffer present loss for his lasting gain.

Then repeat, repeat, repeat, and repeat again, without nagging.

In my family, we set aside a time for studying virtue and good habits-- We select one a month to focus on, and then we hammer it.... telling stories that teach  it, demonstrating it in nature when we see it, and reading about saints who carefully cultivated it.

Paying attention saves lives, saves relationships, saves academics. It's so worth it.

Laying down our own rails.

Some grown-up reading

Right now I'm reading....

Daily:

Thomas Dubay's Fire Within
The Bible
The Catechism of the Catholic Church

In addition to reading aloud to my children weekly in the following subjects, right now I'm reading:

Mondays (Science and Nature Study)- The handbook of Nature Study
Tuesdays (Literature, Poetry and Shakespeare)- Jane Eyre, the Oxford Book of English Verse, and Shakespeare's King Lear
Wednesdays (Geography and Travel) -Peeps at Many Lands Ancient Egypt
Thursdays (Salvation History)- Scotland's Story and A History of the American People
Fridays (Fine Arts and Philosophy)- Bertrand Russel's The Problems of Philosophy
Saturday (Torah and Plutarch) - Salvation is from the Jews and Plutarch
Sunday (Gospel and Good Works) - Scale How Meditations

What about you?

Khalil Gibran on Friendship.

Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.


When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."
And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.


And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

-- Khalil Gibran

Happy birthday to the love of my life, my dearest friend, my husband, Appian.

Baby Mockingbird rescue

Found this little guy stuck in our garage. 

We put him back in his nest.... we think he's a mockingbird, and his mommy almost immediately started feeding him again. Thank goodness! We were worried.

Here is one of his brothers a few days later, hopping around getting used to his new freedom. :)

A parent's education

Yesterday, a friend posted a beautiful picture of--- her husband's bathroom reading. :) It made me laugh, but I could relate-- they are a CM house, and so as parents, read they must!

I've read a lot about parents following along with Ambleside for their own education and I love to hear about it. I was fortunate enough to be raised by parents who are also educators, and for that reason I have been surrounded by truth and beauty all of my life.

At the same time, I agree that one of  the most appealing aspects of a CM education is that parents and children are experiencing life side-by-side and learning-- at their own level, of course, but also in a way that enables them to interact together with the material being covered.

So with that in mind I would like to give you some ideas of ways you as a parent can benefit from educating your own children the CM way. Below you will find a few examples of books we are reading as adults to join in the conversation between our own children and Those Who Have Gone Before.

In the mornings, my children study Catechism. I've said before that our Catechism lessons follow a set order, and I try to follow along with that same theme myself.

On Mondays, they learn a Catechism lesson from a well-written textbook and narrate it. The following six days they recite the Questions and Answers to memorize that relate to their lesson, until they are ingrained in their memory. I do the same with my own copy of the Catechism, reading at my own level on Monday morning before the kids get up and working on memorizing my own sections throughout the week. That way when the kids hit me with a tough theological question, I've got ready-made answers already memorized to help explain the tough stuff.
I then add some living books-- namely biographies of saints. I read these along with my kids, but before the day begins, I also read up on the day's saint, and journal a bit. As they wake up, they join me--- by that time, I've learned enough to mention a few facts about that particular saint, which they enjoy listening to and drawing about in their own journals.

For math, I just stay a bit ahead of them, pre-reading a lesson or two in advance to ensure I know where we are leading.

For grammar, I take great pleasure in testing myself and reciting along with them as they learn the rules. If mom's doing it too, it makes it a lot more fun to see who can do it best!

For literature, I'm quite satisfied reading along with them because we select wonderful literature for them to read! But I do make sure to check out a poem a day from The Oxford Book of English Verse when they are done reading from the Oxford Book of Children's Verse. For foreign languages, I am enjoying the refreshers from teaching the kids Latin and French.

For science, I too record any notes I might find amazing about what I see outside. I too will draw along with them and fill up my "knower" with all sorts of fun science facts. I also read from the Handbook of Nature Study so that I know how to casually name-drop new friends... birds and insects, trees and bees.

For history, I pre-read most of their books, and I make sure to read stuff on my own level and narrate it to my husband when he has the time to listen. I also keep my own book of centuries, which for now my children can observe until they are old enough to do their own.

For fine arts, I too am learning to play an instrument, to use my voice, to memorize names of beautiful pieces of art and music, and to read sheet music.

For Shakespeare and Plutarch, when my children read from a re-telling, I read from the original.

And those are just some small and simple ways to join them on the journey. Taking on these practices is so much more meaningful than throwing a workbook at them and calculating a grade. It ensures not only that the child grasps the information, but also that the parents and children are enjoying life together and all that it has to offer. That they are growing together, or rather, side-by-side. That they are building memories that make a family.

This is the core of why Charlotte's methods are amazing-- everyone must be on board, and work together to create the atmosphere of education.

Song of Saul Before His Last Battle

WARRIORS and chiefs! should the shaft or the sword
Pierce me in leading the host of the Lord,
Heed not the corse, though a king’s in your path:
Bury your steel in the bosoms of Gath!

Thou who art bearing my buckler and bow,
Should the soldiers of Saul look away from the foe,
Stretch me that moment in blood at thy feet!
Mine be the doom which they dared not to meet.

Farewell to others, but never we part,
Heir to my royalty, son of my heart!
Bright is the diadem, boundless the sway,
Or kingly the death, which awaits us to-day!

-- Lord Byron (1788-1824)

On teaching Catechism

Charlotte Mason taught Catechism.

Lately I've been reading a lot from CM enthusiasts about just how to do that. Because CM families come from far and wide across all denominational lines, there are many ways people have implemented her ideas without a formal catechism, but as a lifelong member of the Church of England, Charlotte read, memorized, taught, and understood much of what she grasped from a formal Catechism in question-and-answer format as well as regular Bible reading, just like a Catholic.

And although her theology may have been lacking from a Catholic perspective, her concern was not with the lofty debates of doctrine, but with being good, and doing good.
From her profound faith and her study of philosophy she came to believe that parents should welcome children and educate them, that families formed society, that knowledge of God was the ultimate end, and that a method was needed to enable all people to understand these things clearly.

Although I have often read of atheist families teaching using the Charlotte Mason method, I have been surprised by it--- put simply, Charlotte's inner Christian life and her study of philosophy clearly formed all her ideas about education.

Obviously, we can see that she "pointed towards God" in all her subjects... science, math, literature, etc. And we've often examined how she did that. We also know that she regularly taught Bible lessons.

The tradition of Catechesis is no light matter--- in Catholic circles we know all about the importance of the task. However, in most Catholic families, even homeschooled families, Catechesis is a formal task taken on on Sunday mornings in a religious education class by a trained professional, and often happens rather incidentally at home.

So how did Charlotte, who desired to empower families to teach their own children, formally teach Catechism?

It began in the earliest stages with the telling of stories-- as naturally as possible and in all settings the child would encounter on a regular basis.

While, wondering in amazement at the order of numbers in an arithmetic class. While walking during nature study---

A mother knows how to speak of God as she would of an absent father with all the evidences of his care and love about her and his children. She knows how to make a child's heart beat high in joy and thankfulness as she thrills him with the thought, 'my Father made them all,' while his eye delights in flowery meadow, great tree, flowing river.

These little talks should be quite natural, but they prepare the mind for the seed which will be sown in formal catechesis. Nature Study is the perfect time to do this, but for me, one of the best times has been early in the morning, when we first wake up. I like to spend that time outside on the deck, with the birds, and read my Bible quietly. Sometimes my children join me, and have many questions about what they see and hear!

Naturally, Charlotte used memory work/explanations from the formal catechism. But she also used her own favorite method of presenting the children with living ideas and first-hand accounts of events in the life of Christ and the Church.

In my endeavor to imitate her method, I use both a formal catechism and living books-- chief among them biographies of the saints throughout time and excellently written stories which provide careful lessons about virtue.

Charlotte placed chief importance on the study of the Gospels-- something which many protestant traditions often miss out on in practice, emphasizing the epistles and St Paul's teachings on "righteous living" over the Life of Our Lord.

For Catholics, this is a no-brainer.... the Gospels are the core of our daily meditations.

I should like to urge the importance of what may be called a poetic presentation of the life and teaching of Our Lord. The young reader should experience in this study a curious and delightful sense of harmonious development, the rounding out of each incident, of the progressive unfolding which characterises Our Lord's teaching; and, let me say here, the custom of narration lends itself surprisingly to this sort of poetic insight

.In her PNEU schools, the children alternated between studying the Old Testament and the New. This technique is very efficient to keep reading interesting and to help make connections. As Catholics, we are fortunate to have daily readings in a lectionary-- one from the Old Testament, one from the Psalms, and one from the Gospels. On Sundays, we often have a reading from the epistles as well.

This tradition was continued when the Church of England was formed, so Charlotte also had this "food" for meditation daily. No need to re-invent the wheel, a natural or formal study of these daily readings as depends on the ages of the children puts us in touch with the life of the Church, the community of believers, and with God's Word daily. This is the work of Catechesis!

Two techniques for studying  these might be used: the first is Lectio Divina, which I have blogged about before here, and the second is narration and discussion.

Charlotte explained her ideas about teaching "the things of God" quite clearly here in Volume I:

The Times and the Manner of Religious Instruction.––The next considerations that will press upon the mother are of the times, and the manner, of this teaching in the things of God. It is better that these teachings be rare and precious, than too frequent and slighty valued; better not at all, than that the child should be surfeited with the mere sight of spiritual food, rudely served. At the same time, he must be built up in the faith, and his lessons must be regular and progressive; and here everything depends upon the tact of the mother. Spiritual teaching, like the wafted odour of flowers, should depend on which way the wind blows. Every now and then there occurs a holy moment, felt to be holy by mother and child, when the two are together––that is the moment for some deeply felt and softly spoken word about God, such as the occasion gives rise to. Few words need be said, no exhortation at all; just the flash of conviction from the soul of the mother to the soul of the child. Is 'Our Father' the thought thus laid upon the child's soul? there will be, perhaps, no more than a sympathetic meeting of eyes hereafter, between mother and child, over thousand showings forth of 'Our Father's' love; but the idea is growing, becoming part of the child's spiritual life. This is all: no routine of spiritual teaching; a dread of many words, which are apt to smother the fire of the sacred life; much self-restraint shown in the allowing of seeming opportunities to pass; and all the time, earnest purpose of heart, and a definite scheme for the building up of the child in the faith. It need not be added that, to make another use of our Lord's words, "this kind cometh forth only by prayer." It is as the mother gets wisdom liberally from above, that she will be enabled for this divine task.

A practical example of how to do that might be to consider that you yourself should study the daily readings and the week's catechism lesson ahead of time and be in prayer about ways to instill that information to your children in a natural manner, simply incorporating them in your own wonder and awe as these things become concrete in your life.

Still too vague? I know what you mean. It took me a long time to find a method that followed these principles but also followed a schedule. So here's what I came up with.

Following breakfast and morning prayer, and before chores, exercise, etc, we gather for a Catechism class that lasts about fifteen minutes.
On Mondays, each of my children studies their own level of a formal Catechism lesson (we use the Our Holy Faith series.) They read the lesson, narrate, and we discuss. It's very simple.
On Tuesdays, we all together read from a living book that elaborates on a habit/virtue we are studying and trying to implement.
Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays we read from a living book that tells the story of an event in salvation history or the life of a saint.
On Fridays, we do a simple picture study-- only we study a work of sacred art.

To further simplify our lives, these selections are usually not random but come from our history curriculum, which is thoroughly Catholic and uses living books as a foundation. That way I don't have to teach history later in the day. ;)

In addition, we have a five minute period of recitation each day where we recite together scripture memory verses and catechism questions we are learning and have learned.

Because prayer is the foundation of a relationship with God and therefore effective Catechesis, we observe a family morning prayer time and a family evening prayer time. (We use  prayer from the liturgy of the hours... the official hourly prayer of the church in which we chant the psalms.)

Because Charlotte taught hymns, understanding the profound relationship between sacred music and the learning of sacred things, we learn a hymn together and sing it during our prayer times, memorizing approximately one per month.

As a Catholic family, we also have the benefit of being able to take our children to liturgy often. We don't go every day, but we go often enough either to mass or simply for a quiet holy hour together that my children gain the benefit of regular time spent in God's concrete presence.

In the evenings, usually after dinner, we study the Bible. At this stage, I more often TELL a Bible story than read one, but from time to time I read from a big, beautiful Bible in King James English. Either way, they remain mystified and engaged... asking questions til late in the night, forming their playtimes on Bible stories that rouse their imaginations in the day.

What has amazed me about doing all this is that it knocks out many of the CM "subjects" I want to incorporate: picture study. hymn study. bible. catechism. history with living books. nature study.
This is how our family has begun the difficult and rewarding work of Catechesis, using Charlotte's ideas about the divine life of the child.

20 Principles of a CM Education: #1

I'm following along in my CM study group on facebook with Ambleside's 20 Principles of a CM Education study. If you'd like to join us and have a blog, please post a blog by the deadline with your thoughts on each principle, and then join the discussion either in the Ambleside Forum or in my CM Study Group on facebook.

Today I'll be focusing on Principle number one:

Children are born persons.

 This realization had such a huge effect on my parenting very early on. If you've been following this blog from it's beginnings you will remember that I often felt so completely frustrated by the ultimate Mommy War in Christian circles: the question of parenting "style."

In one corner we have well intentioned so-called "gentle parents," followers of a parenting style called Attachment Parenting which you've heard me rail on time and again. I watched them cosleep and affirm their children and ignore temper tantrums for years and thought to myself..... that's not for me.
It seemed to me that Attachment parenting did great harm to a child, allowing them freedoms children should have to act up or express wishes and seemed to me a breeding ground for selfishness and later problems.I based this not on the methods-- which I liked (extended breastfeeding, cosleeping, expression of affection, babywearing, etc.) but on the results. Quite frankly, most of the children I met whose parents considered themselves fervent adherents of this method were wild.

In the other corner we have well-intentioned opposite of AP parents (what do we call those? Ezzo/Pearl people?) where I have sat firmly and happily for many many years. This camp advocates putting marriage and the good of the family before the desires of the child (highly agree!) and also advocates training and discipline (if needed) to rectify personality problems and bad habits. (agree!)
However, it seemed to me that many of the moms I met who were very verbal about this method of parenting still had children I found questionable in their behavior.And it didn't allow for things which felt natural to me: holding babies. gentle, affirming words (well, maybe not natural, but right!) etc.

I was looking for a parenting style that I felt fulfilled my biblical objectives to train my child in righteousness, but which was a tried-and-true technique.

And while many of ezzo/pearlized children I met who were grown turned out wonderfully, there were some parents who appeared to have used every technique recommended in those books and who really, truly were mystified as to why their children had grown up and walked away from the behaviors they had been trained in.

In other words, the AP families I knew tended to have an abundance of love but little discipline, and the Ezzo/Pearl families I knew tended to have an abundance of discipline but were often lacking in tenderness. There are many exceptions that come to mind, but those were the norms as I saw them.

I'm a very black and white person, so armed with this knowledge I opted for the Ezzo aproach and it worked quite nicely. People constantly marveled that my children were well behaved and enjoyable.
I tried to always remain firm in my resolve to keep them from selfish behaviors and to squash their wills. And I thought I had it made!

Until my child turned five or so and STILL had not outgrown some of her problematic behaviors, like veering towards a meltdown when we had to leave a place she wanted to stay at. What what what?? You mean I had painstakingly done EVERYTHING right according to all my go-to parenting books and my child STILL demonstrated willfulness from time to time? I had not completely squashed that willfulness??
Yes.

It became apparent to me that even though I had all the answers.... I didn't have all the answers.
Which lead me to this idea, this snippet, really, of Charlotte's. Children are born persons. Around the same time as I first discovered it, my husband and I were con/reverting back to Catholicism. And studying the Catechism, which specifies that human dignity -- treating the person, made in God's image--with respect-- was not optional. This greatly affected our marriage. We were persons.  We should treat each other as such.

In Charlotte's philosophy, a child was not a thing, but a person, and as such worthy of every human dignity, respect, kindness, etc.
This was so beneficial to me, because instead of thinking of my child as a machine which I just needed to figure out, I began to think of my child as a person that I needed to enjoy discovering. And also to begin affording them a respect that I had only heard AP people (and my husband, if only I had listened!) preach.

I loved this middle-ground approach, full of tenderness and compassion but also firm and guiding. I think this is part of Charlotte's universal appeal-- that she is both gentle and firm, and also one of the reasons it is so important to read her own work and not just what others have said about her: it's easy to take some of her quotes out of context or to misunderstand her greater meaning. (One of my biggest peeves in life is hearing Unschoolers rave about how they love using Charlotte Mason, who was a very very far cry from advocating unschooling.)

To take it further, the idea that children are born persons is the answer to the greatest evils which we in the Catholic Church daily battle here on planet earth.
Chief among them is objectification-- objectification which leads to abuse, neglect, pornography, abortion, euthanasia, sex-selection, gender confusion and a host of other issues which relate to the Culture of Death.
Yes, you read that right. Charlotte Mason's first principle is the CURE to the majority of the ills of this world.

And it isn't something she came up with on her own. It came to her because of her deep faith. Reading scripture daily and nourished by it she would have often meditated on this maxim:

Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
-Matthew 22:36-40 (KJV)

I leave you with the thoughts of Charlotte herself with regards to the personhood of Children... thoughts which have provided much meditation and delight for me over the last few years. It is because of this principle that I can say I finally walk that peaceful middle ground, finding a healthful tension between love and affection and order and discipline. Giving children their natural rights as persons creates an atmosphere of education. It frees the children to grow in security and confidence, but also in gratitude and good will. It further enables us to honor that personhood in ALL people around us, because if we see it in children, who are often most trying, we will surely see it in our difficult neighbor, or that challenging family member. Most importantly, it is a foundation for the House of Education which we desire to build over these little persons in our care.

We do not recognise 'Child-Nature.'––We endeavour that all our teaching and treatment of children shall be on the lines of nature, their nature and ours, for we do not recognise what is called 'Child-nature.' We believe that children are human beings at their best and sweetest, but also at their weakest and least wise. We are careful not to dilute life for them, but to present such portions to them in such quantities as they can readily receive.

We are Tenacious of Individuality: we consider Proportion––In a word, we are very tenacious of the dignity and individuality of our children. We recognise steady, regular growth with no transition stage. This teaching is up to date, but it is as old as common sense. Our claim is that our common sense rests on a basis of Physiology, that we show a reason for all that we do, and that we recognise 'the science of the proportion of things,' put the first thing foremost, do not take too much upon ourselves, but leave time and scope for the workings of Nature and of a higher Power than Nature herself.

We think that Children have a Right to Knowledge––Much guidance and stimulation are afforded by another principle. We are not anxious to contend with Kant that the mind possesses certain a priori knowledge; nor with Hume that it holds innate ideas. The more satisfying proposition seems to be that the mind has, as it were, prehensile adaptations to each department of universal knowledge. We find that children lay hold of all knowledge which is fitly presented to them with avidity, and therefore we maintain that a wide and generous curriculum is due to them.
--Charlotte Mason, Vol II ch 21