Interested in CM?

There are a lot of really great resources available for learning about Charlotte Mason and her method of education, but some of my favorites come from Sonya at SimplyCharlotteMason. She put together my first and favorite CM resource, "Laying Down Rails", about the value of becoming people of good habit. She offers some wonderful helps for beginning CM users. One is "Education Is..." which is a free ebook download, and now she is offering her new ebook, "Masterly Inactivity" for free. If you haven't read much about CM, you'll be pleasantly surprised and delighted with this topic! Go for it. It's free!

The Best Vacation Book

I told you a bit about our wonderful trip to Florida, but there was so much more to tell. We are a "driving" family. We drive everywhere! Our kids have always traveled very well by car and it's somewhat of a family tradition to make car trips an adventure. We are known to stop spontaneously when seeing historic signposts and hours in the car have rarely distressed us. This trip was 18/hrs one way. So round trip, plus four days poolside/beachside gave me lots of reading time. Granted, not all of it went wholly un-interrupted, yet it was quality time to read! Time, I'm not likely to get again (in that quantity) anytime soon.

I've been carrying Karen Andreola's book, "A Charlotte Mason Companion" around with me for weeks. I'd read a paragraph here and there and underline a thought, yet I couldn't really sink my teeth into its content more than being totally enthralled with the "idea". We know from Charlotte Mason that "ideas" are pretty vital.

So now I finally had time to read. Amazingly, I almost didn't take the book with me, but I'm so glad I did! Inspiration and excitement came from every passage and even the chapters I'd initially skipped (while treating this book as a reference) touched me and gave me a fresh perspective.

The fact that we'd already begun applying many of the CM principles in recent weeks, just made the concepts more appealing. I no longer needed to be convinced of the truth of Charlotte's ideas. The fact that this would be the best educational concept for our family, added to the consistent teaching of Biblical Principles, can't be denied. My reading and processing of this information was further advantaged by discussions with my husband as I read. He'd seen the difference that just changing our schedule has accomplished, so he was easy to convert. His insights into our children always encourage me and help to refine my viewpoint.

I think one of the ideas that struck me most was regarding atmosphere in the home. Karen says,

"How much influence the world has over our children really depends on what standards we set at home--the standards by which the chidren are accustomed to measure things--and the strength of the family ties."

Standards are not just about discipline and obedience, but about habit. In layman's terms, what we let our children get away with. Believe me! I've had my share of telling, retelling, and telling again to say with authority that it does not build character or relationships. It does cause consternation and grief for the Mama. Training our children in basic disciplines of diligence and listening will most assuredly change the atmosphere of any home!

I always tell my friends how strongly I believe that God gives us everything we need to homeschool. I know that He is making a way for us to better mold and train our children to glorify Him, not just now, but always. Like any journey into the seemingly unknown, we must keep our eyes on the light--the Light of the World--so that our narrow path can be more easily illuminated.

I could tell you so much more about this book! I'm sure you'll hear it referred to often if you hang around here much. I highly recommend it and hope that you don't wait for a long car trip and vacation to read it.

Charotte Moved In

Charlotte Mason has indeed moved into our house. She is here to stay and our whole family could not be happier. Even the husband is singing her praises and ready to take us on a family vacation to Ambleside, England just to be "near" her!

Seriously. We are a family that has begun a beautiful metamorphosis. Our transformation is slow and mesmerizing, but never painful. I've never been a "one step at a time" type of person--more the "all or nothing" sort. However, I am genuinely appreciative of each step of progress and I'm not pushing! We have yet to let our later afternoons in on our new family member, but I have high hopes for upcoming days. The resources we have gathered are now our friends, rather than our enemies.

Training has officially begun! Training of good habits. We're being oh so careful not to let things slide, but to stand and count them in the moment. I look forward to seeing where we go a year from now, or even a few weeks!

Just so you know...we haven't had one "I hate school" OR even an "I hate math" since she came and conquered! We are sooo going to England!

Do Art (Not Crafts)

I've always had a "bent" in favor of art & music, though that is not synonymous with "talent". It has never been a secret to me that teaching art and music increases a child's abilities in many areas. Numerous studies have proven it, despite the decline of such subjects in the public schools--or maybe "in spite" of them. Then there is just the beauty aspect, which in itself has value. It is fine, it is fun, it just makes sense when there's time.

Ah! The time crutch. I've fought that battle for years. Now I think I'm finally winning it with our Charlotte Mason style learning. Short lessons have made all the difference, but truly putting a focus on the love of learning and not pushing canned curriculums and workbooks, we've been able to begin truly learning about things we love (along with math! :)).

Here are a few of the fabulous FREE resources that other moms have shared. They are so good, so easy to follow, and so important, that you don't want to miss out on them!

Jenny @ Jenny Wren's Nest just re-posted her great 36 week artist study she's calling "Waiting To Be Discovered".

Then there is Sherri who shares her lesson plans for using Mona Brookes' book, "Drawing With Children".

Barb @ Harmony Art Mom also shares her version of using "Drawing With Children" in more of a nature journal style. She has a ton of great art, music and nature lessons available on her site. Be sure to check it out before you buy anything!

I'm really realizing how important it is to have quality art supplies available all the time. If you are out of watercolor paper, it's kind of hard for the kids to make you a beautiful water color painting of that bird they just saw (or their doll having a tea party!). Though that is truly a whole other subject, I recommend the following always be on hand. This is not in any way a comprehensive list!

Firmly planted in their place:
Scissors
Rulers
Hole punch
Stapler
Plastic lids for mixing paint colors
Place to create!
Art portfolio for each child
Art books for inspiration. (We love our art calendar!)

Things that come & go & require replenishing:
Good quality colored pencils & sharpener (preferably a manual one that won't eat up your investment!)
Water color pencils (these are SO fun!)
Pastels
Quality (& numerous!) paint brushes of varying sizes.
Real drawing pencils & an art eraser Water colors
Primary colors of paint
Quality colored markers in various widths
Quality colored paper/construction paper
Colored chalks
Water color paper (this was hard for me because it's not cheap, but other paper doesn't receive water color paint well. Stock up when it's on sale. )
Other types of art paper/Sketchbooks
glue (don't use glue sticks if you can help it! They are easy, but dry out and paper peel apart!)

Let me just add that when my kids have been left to their own devices totally, with no direction, for long periods of time (months!) they argue, fuss and accomplish very little. There is little peace and joy. All this CM stuff has had a huge impact on that aspect of our lives. Right now my kids, with a friend, are painting beautiful pictures while listening to "Your Story Hour" online! Smiles all around!

I'll also say that I absolutely despise "crafts". I agree with Charlotte Mason that handicrafts need to be beautiful and useful. While I have supplied a certain amount of googly eyes, pipe cleaners, craft foam, etc., I leave their use totally up to the little 'uns and when they're gone, they will probably not return.

On Copywork

Copywork is one of those things that I never "got". As much as I would want my children to have perfect handwriting, forcing son to write has never accomplished much. BUT, that is NOT what copywork is for (alone) and THAT is what I missed in my understanding. Here is a wonderful series on copywork at Understanding Charlotte. If copywork has baffled you, like it has me, read and think it through once more.

Deciding Bible

Because I'm a bit ridiculous when it comes to order, I'll tell you that after reading so much about Charlotte Mason, and more to the point, determining that things in our lives need to change and CM is a part of it, I naturally must begin with the beginning. And that is Bible.

Bible lessons up till this year, have been our favorite. We've had three wonderful years with Biblical Principle Approach (BPA) and Judah Bible, however...this year I have found it lacking. Too much repetition for my ideal study. That makes me nuts because we've so enjoyed it and learned so much as the Holy Spirit has guided us through these lessons.

I will tell you, and many of you know this from hanging out here, the lessons are intricate, time consuming to prepare, and time consuming to deliver. Of course, there can't possibly be anything more worth while to spend our time on, so that doesn't so much matter. What does matter to me at this point is (and please excuse the analogy) that we don't keep Jesus on the Cross.

Scripture is God's whole story. Meaning "whole", as in "don't leave anything out". I've most assuredly been convinced that we don't want to miss a thing in God's Word. At the same time, I'm no genius and trying to figure out what to do has been a chore.

The Simply Charlotte Mason forums allowed me to get one answer that was broad, but covered the entire Bible in a six year rotation. (See below) It still didn't give me enough detail to know how to do it. Then there is a wonderful list that Penny Gardner made for OT and NT. This list is very useful as the scriptures are broken down into segments perfect for short lessons.

The biggest difference to me, method wise, and apart from the "short lesson" idea, is that Bible is studied concurrently with History and Geography. While that sounds great, we already have four years invested in a chronological history beginning with the Explorers and American History (I do not agree with teaching small children ancient history before teaching them a foundation of Biblical truths and principles. This article explains this to my liking.)

Here is the six-year rotation from Sonya at SCM:
1. Genesis-Deuteronomy
2. Joshua-Malachi
3. Matthew-Acts
4. Selected epistles
5. Selected epistles
6. Rest of epistles & Revelation

Then for older children, more focused studies:
1. Mosaic Law
2. Proverbs
3. Romans
4. Various Bible Study methods
5. Doctrine study
6. Doctrine study

I like this and find that we would be around year 3-4, and not ready for the older set in-depth, though we've covered some of it.

A few thoughts on what I want to do each week:
1. Read God's Word together! (15-20 minutes/day)
2. Begin Bible Drills with son (finding passages in scripture) once or twice a week. (5-10 min./wk)
3. Continue practicing the memorizing of the books of the Bible. (A couple of minutes at a time.)
4. Include Biblical Principle examination. (5-10 min./day where applicable)
5. Include Character trait focus. (5-10 min./day where applicable)
6. Continue hiding God's Word in our hearts with memory boxes. (10 minutes/a day--during a separate set-aside time)

It's funny to see what appears to be so little time set aside for things that are so vital, yet that's really all it takes to introduce an idea that remains with a child the rest of the day, week...his life. We don't stop talking about a lesson when the lesson is done! This is the part that this super-planning Mama forgets and begins to force scheduled time to the point of bitterness.

It occurs to me, as I think this through, that the problem with using anything but just the Bible for Bible lessons is that anything less than the whole involves an agenda. Whether it's Judah Bible, that I've used, which pounds home seven very important principles over and over, or a purchased workbook/focus study. That makes the CM philosophy of reading the whole Bible and the Bible alone (for Bible) very appropriate, encouraging and appealing.

Using the NT list, we'll get through the gospels by spring. I used excel to list out the lessons by approximate date. It's also a nice "coincidence" that we started it this week with the nativity stories. Works for me! I also took our "Child's Story Bible" (which we love for historical content, relevance and connectivity to the rest of scripture) and cross-referenced the index with the scripture passages.

One last thing I'll mention is "Discovering Doctrine" from SCM. It is an ebook for notebooking Bible according to ten doctrines that every scripture applies to at least one: Bible, God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Man, Sin, Salvation, Angels, Church, Future Events. This, like Biblical Principles, is a great way to facilitate discussion of Biblical truths.

There you have it: Bible via Charlotte Mason. At least for this CM beginner!

Lose the Clock, But Not the Timer

I'm a scheduler. There. I said it.

I've done MOTH (Managers of Their Homes). I've done 'em all. I DO learn something new each time. Sometimes I RE-learn those forgotten lessons... Like the one that says, "Do NOT put times on your schedule! YOU'LL BE SORRY!" But no. Gotta learn it the hard way, even if I learn it quick.

This time all it took was a trip to the bathroom. Yep. Son needed a rather l o n g break in the restroom, but THAT wasn't on the schedule! You gotta love cut and paste on Excel; particularly CUT. DELETE. It's outta there! The times column is gone. Replaced by a nice limit as to how long to spend on each item. That would be SHORT limits, as in "Short Lessons" which Charlotte Mason advocates and may very well be the thing that sets us free from "I HATE SCHOOL" .

This was my first step: re-create the schedule. After total chaos in the day, order seems appropriate. Especially order that brings joy and productivity. When you focus on "short lessons"--anywhere from 10-40 minutes, depending on age--it's amazing the things that you can fit in a day! We can do art again. And spend time drawing. And time outside. It's amazing what you can do when you get math done before dark! Oh. And there's music and ALL the wonderful things I'd dropped because I was "doing too much" and making the day too long. Now they are all on the schedule throughout the week and we always get done with our main subjects by 12:00 or 12:30.

Now I don't do them the same, and some I've had to discard the previous curriculum, but the point was to learn them, not choke on them! We've brought back some wonderful old favorites such as reading and studying the hymn writers using the Mr. Pipes series. No one ever says they "hate" that!

Ordering the day is the perfect ideal. It is one of the things that first attracted me to MOTH: the idea that you can make a list of everything that you'd WANT to do in a day, then schedule it. The fact that you may not be able to get those three hours of math in can be tough! But 30 minutes can work too! Heehee! :)

The truth is, we are doing a 15 minute lesson, with 15 minutes starting on problems. Then later, he has another 15 minutes to finish. He really likes this much better and seems to remove a lot of pressure. If he still can't get it done, it doesn't feel as if he hasn't done a thing, wasted a lot of time, and it's the end of the world, if you know what I mean.

I can't tell you the burden that has been lifted.

We still must continually work on breaking our old habits and establishing our new ones, but we'll get there.

So far, so good!

When Mama Ain't Happy...

Our first month of school was great this year. Excitement, order...nice weather. Everything ordered up in such a way to provide maximum learning. Yet, as the shine began to dull on our new year, the clock ticked faster, the storm clouds came closer and joy was lost to pressure. I ruminated for a couple more months; making a change here, or there. Trying this...or that. Staring at the piles of curriculum and planning notebooks which left a choke-hold on my heart.

Not one good attempt went un-punished. They all seemed to make matters worse. It was then, in the midst of more crisis, that God made it pretty clear He had a few things to teach this 'ole gal. And, being Sovereign (over ALL) He decided to teach me a WHOLE bunch of things ALL at once. To some people, the urge to run stark naked down the street, with hair afire, might be a consideration at such times. But my Father knows me and He had other plans.

Isa 64:8 But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.

The molding...the refining...not so fun. However, the things of God ARE. So. I began to listen and as I did, God began to change my heart about many things. One of them was what our homeschooling should look like. The information; the ideas, were not new. As a matter of fact, it was more my focus that was off. That, and my memory. Memory plays tricks on us. Maybe that is why we so often repeat our past mistakes. My memory was telling me that we had "moved on" from things we had enjoyed because boy is older and thus "no longer interested" or worse yet, "there is no longer TIME."

Compromise. One after the other. Result: No. Joy.

Alright. So, what am I really talking about? I read this post over at Sprittibee and after a couple of emails, I began doing some reading. Interestingly enough, I'd already read some of the material before, but it fell on deaf ears and a hardened heart. Have I now decided that Charlotte Mason is the end all, beat all? Not to the exclusion of ALL else. But, I get it now! I really do.

I had but to begin reading about CM, then discussing it with hubby (often in front of the kids) and an incredible transformation began to take place. It would take many paragraphs to tell you all the little things that began happening. God's little miracles of hope. Little ears perked up and the conversations were amazing!

Wasn't it just about two weeks ago that we were spending 3-4 HOURS daily on math? The math that had required us to drop all other subjects but spelling. The math that left us with depression, sorrow, anger and restless dawdling. The instigator of "I HATE SCHOOL!" Wasn't it that same two weeks ago that I yelled at my boy for sketching a picture while looking out the window? Wasn't it me who told him, "but the sketchbook away and DO. YOUR. MATH!"

That was me. Shame. On. Me. And it's happened more than once.

Let me make this clear: Math is not the problem. Habit is. That's changing already and a subject for another post, but let me just say new habits are easy; breaking old ones is TOUGH!

I felt as though I single-handedly destroyed all love of learning or joy in any subject. I began to see the deterioration of my relationship with my son and the corruption of attitudes in all of us. In other words, Sat*an was having a hay day.

So you're about to hear more about this journey back to joy. What it's not about is perfection, or smooth sailing. It's not about some new shiny model (or method). It's hopefully about the things of God; our unique family, and what God desires for us to do with our time together.

There is a lot to tell! Stay tuned!