What We Do, Part 4: Bible

I hope you are enjoying my telling of what we do each day. So far I've shared our singing of hymns and prayer time; how and what we memorize. It might interest you to know that this just completes our first half hour of the morning, and now it's time to open our Bibles!

Bible is the foundation for everything we do. With the advent of Charlotte coming to stay, we've gone through a learning process that has taken us from complicated, to simple. I've written about our Principle Approach to studying much over the years, and I'm really seeing how it has prepared us for this (Charlotte Mason) progression in our learning. While we learned so much with our Judah Bible Curriculum, our emphasis was changing and we are now finding it a true pleasure to just read the Word of God!

Concentrating our efforts on reading scripture has given us a fresh passion for God's story. We chose to read through the gospels first and are using Penny Gardner's lists that you can find here and here. Son and I take turns reading and it really is a great chance for me to hear him read aloud. We are enjoying the fact that the short lessons that Charlotte prescribed, suit us well at this time. They allow us time to discuss what we've read, and lend themselves nicely to have five year old daughter join us. She is learning to narrate and son is loving sharing his own bits of learning with her.

I have to mention that a side benefit of reading the Bible has been our children's increased vocabulary. Well, any reading of real books will do this, but it's amazing to me how a spelling quiz will show no trouble with words like "righteousness", "blessed", or "trial", while "exception" or even "dilemma" bug the tar out of my boy!

One conundrum that I've faced with the decision to go this direction, is what to do with other Bible resources we have and love. For instance our "Child's Story Bible", by Catherine Vos. I love this book! We used it and our Bible for awhile, but there was so much repetition that it got monotonous. Charlotte does not hold to repeating readings, and preferred the actual text, to watered down versions. So while Vos's book is the best of the story Bibles, the Bible is the Bible!

This brings me to another bit that I haven't mentioned for awhile: Translations and simplified texts. We have chosen to use the English Standard Version for our own personal reasons, but with that decision came the effort that we would all use it together. We also chose to put son in a "full", and not "children's" version as soon as he was solidly reading. This was around age 7. It helped that they came out with a Children's ESV that was full text but included pictures! With memorizing, studying meanings of the words God used, etc., we just didn't see it making much sense to use a kiddie version.

Recently we began attending a new church and 5yo daughter's first handout in Sunday School was the Lord's Prayer--in baby talk. No kidding! She has been in the process of learning the true Lord's Prayer and I found it frustrating that they would use baby talk in place of the beautiful words of Jesus! Is it any easier, or hold any value, to teach a child a watered down prayer that's not in the Bible, than to teach what Jesus truly taught? I think not! Enough said.

Lastly, I'll add that "just" reading the Bible is what we feel the Lord wants for us at this time. We've set aside the notebooking and the excessive planning and are concentrating on listening to God and seeing what He has to reveal to us. This was not an easy step for me (the Planner!), but we have been really blessed by it! AND. Bible is solidly the Word of God and not a "subject" that requires a programmed response.

Read about the other things we do:
Part 1: Hymn Study
Part 2: Prayer
Part 3: Memorization

What We Do, Part 3: Memorization

Oh, I wish I was an Oscar Mayer weinerrrrr.
For that is what I'd truly like to beeeeeeee.
For if I was an Oscar Mayer weinerrrrrrr.
Then everyone would be so proud of meeeeee.

Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onion, on a sesame seed bun.

Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere...

To be, or not to be. That is the question. Whether tis nobler in the mind....

I pledge allegiance to the flag, of the United States of America...

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.

You get the picture.

Memorization.

Every stored up bit of life becomes a part of who we are. We draw from what we know whenever the fancy strikes us. With hymns and scripture, we draw comfort and inspiration. With literature and history we gain purpose and understanding; and we wax philosophical. With music and stories, we find passion and joy. The benefits of memorization have been studied and documented and a child who memorizes will always excel in communication (as well as everything else!).

I've talked about memorization now and then, so there's not much new to add. I'll just tell you this: I'm more amazed every day at the number of beautiful things there are to memorize! I can't help but think about that saying, "Garbage in, garbage out!" It applies to so many things, but memorization takes the cake. My own brain is a plethora of pop songs and old jingles. Being a "no tv" family, causes me some amusement as I remember the glory days of "I'm a pepper, he's a pepper; Wouldn't you like to be a pepper too!" Not really what I want to be remembered for knowing, yet it's in there...forEVER! :)

Now my mother was a different story, she died nine years ago and I inherited her many photo albums. Upon taking them apart to reorganize them and make sure they were protected, I made a little discovery. My mother wrote lines from poems and occasional folk song lyrics on the back of my baby pictures! At the time I thought that was so odd, but truly "who she was". Now I'm amazed at the treasury of thoughts that she passed on to me! Because she memorized.

You'll remember from previous posts that we've used Simply Charlotte Mason's Memory System for awhile, tweaking it and making it our own. I continue to mold it to fit our needs and throughout the week we drill and practice presenting. We work on them together, as a family. I've come to realize that when done alone, this hasn't been as effective. Together, it's personal!

We memorize all kinds of things. Scripture, poetry, speeches, bits of history (like the poem on the Statue of Liberty). We even memorize hymns, through our hymn study. Don't forget the value of ALL the things you choose to memorize! Then there was the War of 1812. This contribution by their dad, taught them all about the Battle of New Orleans. They sing it together and it is a hoot!

Don't underestimate the value of music in helping with memorization--even if you have to make it up. Though we haven't used any of the memory song CD's, we did find Schoolhouse Rock's Multiplication Rock particularly useful! There's also putting things to rhyme. We tried to memorize the Ten Commandments out of the Bible. We struggled for awhile until I found this:

You shall have no gods but me;
Before no idol bend your knee.
Take not the name of God in vain;
Dare not the Sabbath day profane.
Give both your parents honor due;
Take heed that you no murder do.
Abstain from words and deeds unclean;
Steal not, though you be poor and mean.
Tell not a willful lie, nor love it,
What is your neighbor's do not covet.

Now we all have them memorized! Every day we come across something that we want to memorize. Whether it's hiding God's Words in our heart, or treasuring a favorite poem, we memorize. That's not likely to change. I relish the day my children turn to their own children and tell them "I know how to memorize the Ten Commandments!"

Read about the other things we do:
Part 1: Hymn Study
Part 2: Prayer

Wake Up Call

I am not a morning person, and neither are my children. We have gotten into a bad habit of taking our time to get up. As happens with most parent-induced habits, this Mama began to see the error of her ways, and changed her habit. I began getting up and was eager to start the mornings, however... My children didn't seem to get the same memo and were not cooperating with my new-found "glory in the morning". As a result, my husband heard this every morning:

"Time to get up!"
"Children! Get up!"
"Are you up?"
"Get up!!"
"I TOLD YOU TO GET UP!"
"WHY AREN'T YOU UP?!"

Etc., Etc. It wasn't pretty and Charlotte my husband was certain it was my fault. Imagine that! After reaching his limit, he laid down the law: I may awaken them ONE time, and ONE time only. I set a timer for one hour and I wait. They have that one hour to get up, dress, do morning chores, and eat. If that timer goes off and they aren't done eating, I'm to take their food and they get nothing else to eat or drink (except water) until lunch.

Well, you can imagine their little brains, can't you? They didn't believe it. Oh, they played along for a few days, but yesterday--on a Monday, no less--it was time for the Mama to be tested. We knew it was coming and husband grinned at me as he walked out the door with no hope that the children would make it in time.

First daughter came scurrying down to eat, only to be sent back up to complete her chores. Then son raced down the stairs with less than a minute to go. One bite of oatmeal and the timer went off. I picked up both bowls and began rinsing them in the sink. The mayhem insued. "You don't care if we starve!" "You don't love us!" "IT"S NOT FAIR!!" I called their dad and they each got on the phone with him. All I could imagine was that my day was just ruined and that I may just get pushed beyond my limits with the attitudes. Daddy saved the day and held both children in check and you'll never guess?

What has been proven over and over? That children need and even crave boundaries. They need rules and order and they respond to them.

So we had a very profitable day! Everyone buckled down and we had a wonderful lesson time. We only had a couple of murmers of hunger, then lunch brought relief. I decided to show my children the benefits of good attitudes and took them to the budget movie to see "The Tale of Desperaux." Great movie (You were right, Angel!).

This morning, there was leaping from all beds and a quickening of the feet! Breakfast was appreciatively eaten and our day of lessons has commenced. Think they got the message? It was a hard one even for this Mama to learn, but I'm relieved that my husband saw clearly the need for me to be uhhhh....put out of my misery! :)

Happy Valentine's Day

The Quest for Primary Readers

Remember my book collection? Well, I didn't truly start that collection until after my first born was reading. I never looked for primer readers, or bought them. Now that my daughter is reading, I've been going through my books and other than Dr. Seuss, which I believe should be read aloud and not too often, I don't have much she can pick up and read.

One day while I was playing around in Google Books, I found this wonderful reader by Maud Summers, published in 1908. What a gem! It didn't hurt that it was also available as a free download.

Up till now we've used an old set of McGuffey Readers that my Mama bought many years ago. I love them and we'll keep using them and daughter's skills increase. On a lark I checked Google and what do you know! They are available as a free download too! Who-hoo! Here's the link for the primer.

I've kept looking though. One book is never enough! :) One of the great benefits of free downloadable books is the fact that you only have to print off what you want. I was able to print out the first few chapters, hole punch them and put them in a folder. She doesn't discriminate against a "printer" book, though I confess, It's been a slow growing love appreciation for me.

I visited with my good friend EEEEMommy yesterday, and she showed me her Emma Serl Language books. Lo and behold! The Intermediate book is available (but not the primary!). But it got me looking around and I discovered the Elson (of the Fun With Dick and Jane series) Primer Reader (free) too.

I don't want to fail to mention our Early Reader's Bible. Daughter is just starting to read it herself. Son read it and though I don't like children's Bible's for Bibles' sake, I can't think of anything better to read content wise.

I have a great aversion to twaddle. Some readers will be twaddly because of they're very nature. This too shall pass. As I experienced with my son, the beginner reader is just for a season and there's no looking back! So, I prefer the older publications. They are very appealing to me in my Charlotte Mason-y, living book, way of thinking! All the wonderful picture books and such are waiting for the next step!

I've created my own Google Library which you can find here. I've posted a link to it in my sidebar in case you want to check back and see what other goodies I've found! You'll probably be hearing more about my "finds". Can't seem to keep my mouth shut!



Sidenote for conspiracy theorists: The whole CPSIA thing where they just banned all children's books printed before 1985, is really Google in cahoots with the Democrats to control the provision of books. You wait! Soon they'll be charging for them and they'll be the only ones you can get them from. Just kidding! Maybe! :)

What We Do, Part 2: Prayer

Do you start your day by praying with your children? I grew up in a Christian home, participated in youth groups, joined a campus ministry, then went on staff with them (CCC)...but I never prayed aloud. I was terrified, reluctant and basically unsure of what was expected. No one ever told me that praying was simply talking with God. Ok...maybe they did, but if they did, they didn't say it LOUD enough.

Fast forward to the day I found out I was pregnant with my first child. THAT was the day I learned to pray aloud. I prayed over that child SO loud because I realized that day, that the most important thing in the world was that this tiny baby know Jesus. I haven't stopped since.

My children have received an inheritance of prayer. They know what it means to give thanks, to acknowledge the Father, to petition Him. They pray for each other. They pray for their friends. They give thanks continually in prayer. Our hope is that they truly learn the meaning of "pray without ceasing".

I highly recommend a study on the Lord's Prayer, since that is how Jesus taught us to pray. I highly recommend memorizing the Lord's Prayer, and last but not least, I highly recommend reciting it daily with your children.

Teach your children not to be embarrassed or afraid to lift meager words to the ear of the Father. No words are meager! Encourage them to think about what the Lord would want them to consider talking with Him about. While you don't have to curricularize (like that word?!) prayer, do make it a habit. Be sure that they know there are consequences to prayer, as well as to no prayer. Teach them about relationship and as you guide them in Biblical Principles, be sure they understand "Thy will be done".

If they are ever allowed to believe, either actively, or because of indifference, that their prayers do not matter, they will not grow in their relationship with the King of Kings.

This is very preachy, isn't it?! Emotional topic for me.

Please note! It is not necessary to force prayer journals on them (been there, done that!) or to "make" them have a prayer time. Prayer is not about duty. Prayer is about love. Live prayer with them so that it becomes a part of who they are. You do this by praying with them until they miss it when you don't!

Be an example. Establish a habit of praying aloud. Don't wait. They're listening now. It really, truly is up to you! While I never claim to be an authority on any subject, this is what the Lord has shown me as a mother. I hope you can gain from my experience.

After this manner therefore pray ye:
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory, for ever. Amen.
(Mat 6:9-13)

The Children's Song

Occasionally we'll come across a poem in our Poem-A-Day, that is special and then it's just too hard not to share it. While we love so many, it's the surprises that delight. This one today had that affect. (Emphasis mine.)

The Children's Song

(from Puck of Pook's Hill)

Land of our Birth, we pledge to thee
Our love and toil in the years to be;
When we are grown and take our place
As men and women with our race.

Father in Heaven who lovest all,
Oh, help Thy children when they call;
That they may build from age to age
An undefiled heritage.

Teach us to bear the yoke in youth,
With steadfastness and careful truth;
That, in our time, Thy Grace may give
The Truth whereby the Nations live.

Teach us to rule ourselves alway,
Controlled and cleanly night and day;
That we may bring, if need arise,
No maimed or worthless sacrifice.

Teach us to look in all our ends
On Thee for judge, and not our friends;
That we, with Thee, may walk uncowed
By fear or favour of the crowd.

Teach us the Strength that cannot seek,
By deed or thought, to hurt the weak;
That, under Thee, we may possess
Man's strength to comfort man's distress.

Teach us Delight in simple things,
And Mirth that has no bitter springs;
Forgiveness free of evil done,
And Love to all men 'neath the sun!

Land of our Birth, our faith, our pride,
For whose dear sake our fathers died;
Oh, Motherland, we pledge to thee
Head, heart and hand through the years to be!

Oh, roar a roar for Nora

Oh, roar a roar for Nora,
Nora Alice in the night.
For she has seen Aurora
Borealis burning bright.

A furore for our Nora!
And applaud Aurora seen!
Where, throughout the summer,
Our Borealis been?

by Walt Kelly(Pogo artist)

If you've never seen the Pogo comics from waaaay back, you're missing out. They were a favorite of my dad's, (50's) if that gives you any clue. They are creative, funny and family friendly! This little rhyme is one of our favorites. Another more popular short was this lyric sung to the tune of Deck the Halls.

Deck us all with Boston Charlie,

Walla Walla, Wash., an' Kalamazoo!
Nora's freezin' on the trolley,
Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!

Don't we know archaic barrel

Lullaby Lilla Boy, Louisville Lou?
Trolley Molly don't love Harold,
Boola boola Pensacoola hullabaloo!

Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Polly wolly cracker 'n' too-da-loo!
Donkey Bonny brays a carol,
Antelope Cantaloupe, 'lope with you!

Hunky Dory's pop is lolly gaggin' on the wagon,
Willy, folly go through!
Chollie's collie barks at Barrow,
Harum scarum five alarm bung-a-loo!

Dunk us all in bowls of barley,
Hinky dinky dink an' polly voo!
Chilly Filly's name is Chollie,
Chollie Filly's jolly chilly view halloo!

Bark us all bow-wows of folly,

Double-bubble, toyland trouble! Woof, woof, woof!
Tizzy seas on melon collie!
Dibble-dabble, scribble-scrabble! Goof, goof, goof!

The books are a little harder to come by these days, but well worth the fun in the reading! My kids are just now being introduced to them and I'm hoping they'll replace son's fascination with Charlie Brown (who I'm so tired of).

Oh! The Unexpected Math Surprise

Monday brought an unexpected math problem. Our goniometer for RightStart E disappeared. Being that it's pretty necessary for the rest of our lessons, we searched high and low. Being totally irritated because of the waste of time & energy (We never found it.), I decided to order another one. Frustrated, I was not about to quit math for a week. A practice page came in handy, but I wanted more progress and less tears.

It was then that I remembered to check my shelf. I dusted off a resource that I'd bought on impulse, but never used. It was one of those thing everyone rants and raves about, but when I saw it, I thought it was the most ridiculous math book I'd seen and was bummed I'd spent the money on it. Desperate, and because it claimed to address an issue we were having, we dove in.

In case you're wondering, the book is "Times Tales", by J. von Eggers. Seeing as my son is a bit older than most starting in this book, we went through it pretty quick. Almost finishing it in one sitting. To say he was delighted, would be an understatement! He loved it and he got it. The trigger memory method used was right up his alley and the promise of tearless times tables is in sight! He finished the book on his own and by dinner had it all memorized. He practiced again at breakfast and is now bent over his multivide practice problem, eagerly smiling triumphantly through the problems that on Monday brought him to tears. Victory!

What was daughter (5yo) doing all this time? Why eavesdropping, of course! And...as can be expected, she has also learned many of the problems before she's even learned more than basic addition. I shake my head in wonder and am so pleased that I've redeemed an otherwise wasted purchase.

I can't help but wonder if God allowed the loss of our goniometer for such a time as this! :) I was so irritated over the loss of a piece of plastic, and God used the experience to bless us.

More About Books

I've shared before about one of my favorite "book" resources, "Who Should We Then Read?" by Jan Bloom. Well, volume 2 is out now and promises more incredible insight into good living books and their authors. Volume 1 has been the most helpful book (to me) for learning who writes about what and how good are they! Just so you know. :)

What We Do Part 1 (of 47 ...Just Kidding!) Hymn Study

It occurs to me that though I live with myself and my constant planning and doing, not everyone reads my mind and knows what we do! I THINK you must know, but I forget to tell you.

So, Charlotte came to stay and we've learned a lot. Here's what our day looks like:

We start off each day singing hymns of praise. We really love the old hymns and are in our 3rd year of studying them. Typically, we learn one new hymn a month, but realistically, we learn more! We soak them in. We talk about the lyrics and read about them if there is a story to go with them. (Check out the Hymns for A Kid's Heart series.) We usually sing 3 or 4 songs each morning; sometimes just the chorus' because, though I would love to tell you we "remember" the words to every verse, we don't. We also don't always focus our learning on every verse--as the Spirit leads, you know!

We are currently in our 2nd of the 4 books in the Mr. Pipes series--"Mr. Pipes and the British Hymn Writers". It is a wonderful book full of lots of inspiration. Since we are also inspired by history, studying hymns in this way has been one of our great joys! Note to Douglas Bond: Make an audio WITH music!

So how did I initially choose the hymns that we would study? My Daddy gifted me with an old hymn book from the church I grew up in and I went through it with a fine tooth comb! I'm fortunate to have a heritage of hymn singing as my Daddy also used to play them at the piano and I would sing along with him. That said, I tinker with the piano, but we don't typically sing hymns with music accompaniment; just acapella. (So whether or not you play a musical instrument, none is required.) I made the effort to copy the lyrics which are almost all online, into Word and print out our own "hymnals". This gives me a record of what we've actually sung and gives my son a copy of his own to have and sing from. Hymns also make a wonderful contribution to poetry study as many were not written to be sung, necessarily. Too, they make for a great source of Copywork and quiet reflection.

Ambleside Online offers a hymn resource with a 12-year rotation of hymns to learn. So if you don't know any hymns, or where to start, they provide all the links and selections and you'll have no excuse.

Just so you know, I've seen hymnals in the public library, as well as at used book sales so they should not be too hard to come by. I understand that many churches that have converted to contemporary praise, or the use of overhead projectors, have stashes of hymnals in the closet. Just ask and you may receive!

Another thing I should mention about hymn singing: It's very contagious and very uplifting. But a warning...you will find contemporary Christian music a little harder to listen to after indulging in great hymns. Especially, if you read about them, examine them, pray them, and make them part of your family life.

As far as listening goes, we have a couple of favorites (of course!). We love Selah's hymns! We also were recently introduced to Fernando Ortega. I'm sure there are many more, but those two have covered many of the bases for us. Occasionally, there will be a gem on youtube that excites us. Remember this?

Personally, I've found hymns to be a great comfort. Second only to scripture. Hymns are a gift to give our children. Like the memorization of scripture, when you learn hymns, you carry them with you the rest of your life. They become a tradition that becomes a response when a response is needed.

We study hymns. For about 10-15 minutes everyday, we sing together. Every friday we read from Mr. Pipes for 15-30 min. Once a month, we intro and read about our new hymn (20-30 min.). Apart from singing, we had quit the "study" and the reading about them because we had no time. Charlotte changed that with "short lessons".

Short lessons are so simple it's irritating to those of us who are driven and controlling and live with a over-anxious agenda. Short lessons is nothing more than reducing the amount of time spent on each topic; focusing instead on communicating one--only one--idea per subject, per day. It's about finding joy in information and ideas and stopping BEFORE they become tedious, demanding, sufficating and STEAL the joy and love of learning. We tried it. She was right.

We now have time and hymn study makes us happy. What else can I say?! It's probably one of our favorite things about each day. If you are interested in what hymn we are currently learning, check my left sidebar. It's always there!

Daughter's 1st Poem

Today my 5yo daughter wrote her first poem. This is 100% contributed to the fact that we read poetry every single day during the week. She started to tell me this poem and I could hear the meter in her voice imitating the poets she's heard. We had just read a living math book with a beautiful picture of a moon shining on the ocean at night. This was what she said:

The sunlight shines on the morning sea.
The sea waked up and did the waves.
And the little girls two, played around the sand
and they heard the sound of the sea.
When it got darker and darker, they saw the moon shine on the sea
and that was when they went [goed] back to the hotel.

Shamefully, I did help her correct her grammar in the last line as we've been conquering (repeatedly!) "goed" vs "went". With a gentle reminder, she actually corrected herself, so that is why I included the correct word.

Free Grammar Resource

Thanks to Science of Relations for sharing about this great living book on grammar. It's available as a free download from google books. Apparently, it was offered on Homeschool Freebie of the Day, at some point. So you may already have it and not know it!

I don't know about you, but everything about grammar has worn me down my whole life. It was only when Charlotte came to stay that grammar began to find a place amongst us that was tolerable; nay, even enjoyable. To keep suspense to a minimum, the resource is called Grammar-Land, by M.L. Nesbitt. (1878). It's for all ages and seems delightful!

Booking

It started with my last take from a used book sale....

I just couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't put them up! There was no order to my shelves. My good friend and booksaleing buddy helped me determine how we use them and put them in that order. We chose our Truthquest History indexes.

With the help of my handy dandy label maker, I labeled every section from the indexes. This label means AHYS book 2 (II), section 15. Gotta love that!

I have a lot of pilgrim books! But we LOVE pilgrim books!

Ta da! Now...don't croak. These are just my American history living books. There are a few fiction mixed in (that are blatantly history related). Here is the rest of my fiction, which I put in alphabetical order by author. I used to have them by title, but that was a disaster! Surprised?

Picture books on top.

Continued... (Oops! There's E's pillow, Angel!)

And continued again. These shelves are FULL. Not sure what I'll do with any more fiction!

Here's most of the science goodies.

Here's our notebooks, literature, art, music, Bible, and more history.



And these are the books in our school room and in current use.

It makes my head spin. I'm grateful for the chance to collect all these goodies AND USE THEM! And I DO have a plan to use ALL of them! More on that soon. So...

No books are on the floor. No piles. Now to check my list and make sure it's up to date.

(See! I have been busy!)

I'll leave you with this...

It's my library book sale bags...
hanging on the treadmill...
which is broken...
and besides...
isn't that what treadmills are for?? :)

Brain Freeze

For all you non-blogging types, brain freeze is what comes upon you after diligently posting twice daily for a week only to come to a screeching halt after eating snow ice cream. There can be no other explanation than sudden brain intoxication and paralysis of the typing fingers.

I'm cured!

Forty-seven cups of mocha, a thorough house cleaning including 16 loads of laundry, a visit to a great new church; time with friends, a little sunshine...that's all it took!

So, what have you been doing lately?

And yes! Those are sprinkles going on the snow ice cream!