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The weather’s changing, summer’s finally over, and there’s a definite chill in the air many days. Now we can look forward to some of those fun activities that only happen in the autumn: Collecting leaves and pine cones for wreaths and other decorations; heading out to the local pumpkin patch; baking fresh apple and pumpkin pies; brewing hot spiced apple cider (hey, I can smell it simmering just thinking about it).
At the end of November, the United States celebrates Thanksgiving Day. One of our family traditions for this particular holiday is making a Thanksgiving Tree. People tell me every year that they like this particular idea so much, I repeat sharing it (sorry if it’s a repeat for you!).
Anyway, we make a tree trunk with bare branches out of black craft paper and tape the “tree” to the dining room wall. Then we cut out individual autumn-colored leaves (red, orange, yellow, brown) from more craft paper.
As someone in the family thinks of something or someone they’re thankful for, they write the item or person’s name onto one of the leaves and then tape the leaf to the tree branches.
We try to put the Thanksgiving Tree in place by mid-November so our family has at least a full week to add more leaves to the tree. By Thanksgiving Day, the tree is FULL with the names of people, events and things we’re thankful for. This is great fun for the kids and a meaningful addition to our family’s holiday traditions.
And what would holidays be like without a few special treats?
My favorite recipe for hot spiced apple cider is one of those throw-it-together-as-you-go recipes, but I’ll try to explain the process as best I can. First, I take a large jug of apple juice (a gallon if we’re entertaining). Then I pour the juice into a large pot on the stove (or into the slow cooker if I don’t want to use a burner). Heat to a simmer.
Then add the following ingredients to the pot:
- about one cup of frozen orange juice concentrate (this ingredient is a MUST)
- approximately two teaspoons (more or less) of EACH of the following: Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Ginger, Cloves (whole or ground)
- and sometimes I add about one cup (or less) of cranberry juice cocktail
Let it all simmer for awhile (half an hour at least). The smell wafting through the house while the cider is simmering is simply heaven. Mmmmm … Serve the hot spiced cider in mugs. For a nice touch, add a whole cinnamon stick to each mug.
Having a large pot of cider simmering on the stove when company arrives is a sure way to make them very happy that they chose to come over to your house.
And for another treat, make some baked pumpkin seeds (you can also do this with acorn squash seeds). After all the pumpkin carving or pie making, don’t throw out the seeds. Separate the seeds from the stringy pulp (don’t rinse or remove every last bit of the pulp — the pulp adds flavor). Place the seeds on a cookie sheet, stir in about 1/4 cup of melted butter, sprinkle with a small amount of salt and then bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes until lightly browned. Enjoy!
And if you’re wondering what to do with the leftover stringy part of the pumpkin guts, visit my friend Diana’s blog for a tasty recipe: Pumpkin Gut Bread
Happy autumn to you and yours!
Here are a couple of ultra-easy Autumn craft ideas.
Leaf Prints:
Make your own cards or gift wrap by using nature’s bounty of freshly fallen leaves. Use poster paint for printing on paper (for cards, gift wrap, etc.), or use acrylic paint if you decide to decorate an item that needs a waterproof finish (glassware, clay pots, etc.). Brush a small amount of paint onto the underside of the leaf where the veins are more pronounced. Carefully place the leaf where you want the design printed and cover with a layer of paper towel. Gently roll a rolling pin over the top (or you can use the side of an empty bottle). Remove the paper towel and lift the leaf.
Wheat Weaving:
Soak wheat on the stalk (from craft stores or local farmers) in a tub of water for an hour or so. Holding three seed heads together, braid the stems of the wheat stalks. Curve the ends around to make an oval loop, a circle wreath, or even bend it a bit to make a heart shape. Tie with brightly colored ribbon. As the stalks dry, they’ll hold their shape. Add to your autumn decorations.
In spite of often rainy, inclement weather, Charlotte Mason insisted on going out once-a-week for an official Nature Walk, allowing the children to experience and observe the natural environment firsthand. If you’re doing this with your own children, keep in mind that these excursions should be nature walks, not nature talks.
In addition to the weekly Nature Walks, Mason also recommended children spend large quantities of time outside each day, no matter what the weather. Take a daily walk for fun and fresh air.
She also encouraged children to keep a nature notebook or nature journal. Nature notebooks are essentially artist sketchbooks containing pictures the children have personally drawn of plants, wildlife or any other natural object found in its natural setting. These nature journals can also include nature-related poetry, prose, detailed descriptions, weather notes, Latin names, etc.
- Nature Study Books and Materials
- Natural Nature Learning
- Nature Notebooks
- Nature Study for City Dwellers
Copyright Catherine Levison. Used with permission. All rights reserved. http://charlottemasoneducation.com
We all want to raise polite and loving children who aren’t causing our lives or home schools to be in a constant state of friction. Both adults and children tend to be creatures of habit and there is no end to the problems (or, better yet, lack of them) that arise from habit.
It’s a good thing that much of our daily activities are habitual, for example, people operate cars through the power of habit. What would it be like to have to think about the turn signal, foot brake, steering wheel and two mirrors every time we made a turn? What does this have to do with raising children and education? Everything. Much of what we do, and how we do it, is controlled by habit.
I observed the power of habit first hand when we moved the dining room clock in our house and replaced it with a picture. Because the clock had hung there for nine years everyone found themselves disoriented by the change. I don t know how many times I stood in front of the picture mystified, trying to figure out the time.
I also came face to face with the power of habit when we moved into a house that had a sink with reversed hot and cold water faucets. I thought I would grow accustomed to the reversal rather quickly — I was wrong. I would have been able to replace one habit with another if there had only been one sink in the house, however, it wasn t the only one and I admit I found myself in constant confusion when I was in front of this particular sink. I had to think instead of relying on habit.
Charlotte Mason was one educator who recognized and wrote about the power of habit and claimed that even virtues such as patience, meekness, courage, generosity and truthfulness are a matter of habit and can be trained as such. I agreed with her to a point but I did not really know this to be a fact until one time when I paid for my groceries with a hundred dollar bill. The clerk made change, then wrapped it up inside the receipt and inadvertently included my hundred dollars. No one saw this, in fact, I almost didn t look at the wad myself. At the last moment I did look in my hand and saw what had happened. My reaction came so fast even I was surprised. One of my habits is honesty and it was out of habit that I returned the money. Later, I thought about habitual morality and realized its significance.
If you find yourself always telling or asking your children the same things over and over again then this teaching on habit will benefit you. If I had the proverbial nickel for every time I told my kids to put the milk away, I’d be rich. Mason noted that when you find yourself always telling children to do the same thing, you have not trained them in the habits you wish they would perform.
The key is to identify one bad habit at a time in your child (or yourself) and then purposefully replace it with a good habit. We often make the mistake of tackling too many bad behaviors at one time. Success comes when we focus on one problem at a time. It s best to approach the child, clearly state what the bad habit is and then explain how it will affect their future.
For example, if your teenage child prefers to sleep in rather than getting up at a decent time explain to him how this can affect his employment, college grades and ability to catch the bus on time. The goal is to get him to see why he would want to make a change. Make that your first and final lecture. With a view that the child has to exert himself toward the new habit, do not interfere when it isn t necessary. Help as inconspicuously as possible.
Habits ordinarily take six to eight weeks to take shape and become permanent. Then they are habitual and will not need additional work. After the bad habit has been replaced by a good habit you can target a new habit.
For Charlotte Mason’s own words on the subject of habit formation, be sure to check out the new book, Habits: The Mother’s Secret to Success, edited by my dear friend, Deborah Taylor-Hough.
About the Author:
Catherine Levison is a long term home schooling parent with over a decade of experience. She is the mother of five children and resides in Seattle. A popular speaker to home schooling audiences throughout the USA and Canada, Levison is the author of the popular book, A Charlotte Mason Education: A How-To Manual, the sequel More Charlotte Mason Education and A Literary Education: An Annotated Book List (SourceBooks). Visit Catherine online at: http://charlottemasoneducation.com
SUCCESSFUL NARRATIONCopyright Sheila Carroll
Used with permission. All rights reserved.
http://www.livingbookscurriculum.com
Narration is a simple but powerful tool of learning. Most children enjoy telling you what they know about a subject. It delights them to tell about an incident, however small it may seem to us. Charlotte Mason, a British educator from the last century, believed that this love of telling could be used as a foundation for self-education.
Narration is a natural way to demonstrate and organize information. Charlotte Mason’s idea of narration as a tool for education and assessment was far broader in intent than mere “parroting back” information. It involves really knowing the thing read.
In order for narration to be an effective form of self-education, the children must be read aloud to from the very first and with the best literature available. Contained within great books is nourishment for the child’s mind in the form of ideas. As Charlotte Mason has said: as the child’s body needs nourishment to grow, so too the child’s mind needs nourishment in the form of ideas in order to grow.
Narration, then, provides an effective way for those ideas to be made specifically the child’s own. Narration, if done consistently and correctly, gives the child:
- Beauty of expression
- Recall of material
- Increased mental facility
- A means of evaluating what is understood
The Basics of Narration
When you’re ready, sit with the child (this also works with more than one child) and say gently with a smile, “I’m going to read (give the title) one time to you. I want you to listen carefully. Then tell me in your own words all you remember of the story.”
After you have read the story, pause a moment to let it settle in, then say, “Tell me all you remember about the story.” At this point listen without comment until the child is done.
If there is more than one child you can let one start and the other add. Or, alternately, you can have the first child narrate and then ask the second (or third), “Is there anything you would like to add?” Taking turns narrating while others listen builds the habit of attention in children.
Step One: Start Small
Start with a small, interesting paragraph when beginning narration with your child. The best time to begin is when the child is about six years old. If your child is younger than six and is narrating spontaneously, listen intently and with interest. Show your approval with smiles and nods, but don’t require it of the child.
After age six, start with simple stories of a high quality. Aesop’s Fables is the best literature to use. These contain a minimum of characters (usually only two) and a minimum of action (usually only one – two events).
As the child matures, you should be adding increasingly complex material. The progression should be from short paragraph to brief passage, single page to gradually several pages. Most children in the upper elementary grades should be able to narrate several pages if they have been given regular practice in narration.
Step Two: Choose Material That is Appropriate
In the early years, after Aesop’s Fables, I found folk tales the best subject for narration. Children are able to follow the “what happens next” and reconstruct it in their minds. Stories are stories because the images and events are linked together in some logical way. In “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”, for example, there are three bowls, three chairs and three beds of graduated size. There are also three distinct parts to the story, like acts in a play. This is a logical progression that the child can understand easily. By allowing children ample opportunity to narrate back these pleasurable stories, their expressive language will grow by leaps and bounds.
Suggested age ranges and appropriate material:
- 6 – 8 years — folk tales (read no more than three to five minutes); experiences (such as a visit to Grandma’s or a field trip); events in nature (such as the flow of the seasons, the cycle of a butterfly from pupa to chrysalis to butterfly)
- 9 – 12 years — more complex folk tales; add biographies; well-written non-fiction; fiction (a rule of thumb is 10 – 15 minutes)
- 12 and up — continue as in nine to eleven years with increasingly complex literature. Begin work writing summaries (outlining first is an option), creating products as a response to the literature (play, mural, puppet, letter recommending the book)
Step Three: Listen Without Comment
This step is by far the most difficult for us as the parent/teacher. But, be silent we must. If the child suspects that you will offer “helpful questions,” then he knows he doesn’t have to do all the work himself. Don’t interrupt! Doing this is critical to your child’s budding skill. It is also part of respecting the child — expecting that he can and will do his own work. This is assuming that you have given the child material that is appropriate to his age and development.
Step Four: Be Consistent
Several years ago my daughter, Bridget, was becoming more and more resistant to narration in our homeschool. So, I did what I shouldn’t have — I made her do it. Finally, one day she wailed, “I hate narration!” I was appalled at the state of affairs. So, I did another thing I shouldn’t have — I quit requiring it of her. A whole school year went by with no narration. Really.
Then, I had the summer to think things over. I realized that too often I had chosen material inappropriate for her, and I didn’t use narration consistently, only as it occurred to me. At the start of the next school year, I sat down with her and explained that we would begin again and we would use narration every
day.
day.
Charlotte Mason has written that when forming a new habit to watch over the formation of it with care and consistency. This I did. Little by little, Bridget began to regain confidence and skill. Today she narrates long passages with ease, and making books of her narrations is a special pleasure.
Step Five: Use Many Forms of Narration
Be creative in your use of different forms of narration. Frequent verbal narration is to be encouraged because it builds expressive language and clear thinking. However, many children enjoy other forms of narration.
Here are a few below:
- Record narration on cassette tape, then replay it so child can hear.
- Transcribe child’s narration word for word. Read it back to the child for any additions (remember, no helping).
- Create a poster with characters and setting, then have child retell.
- Make a story streamer (cut a sheet of paper 5 by 25 inches, then fold in equal sections according to number of parts of the story. Have child draw pictures from the story in sequence — older ones can add text — then retell the story from the pictures).
- Act out part or the entire story with your child.
- Make a timeline, then retell.
- Research geography of story and have child tell about it.
- Make a diorama.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
–Sheila Carroll is founder of Living Books Curriculum, a literature rich, complete curriculum growing from the work of Charlotte Mason. This article previously appeared in Parent’s Journal, the e-newsletter of Living Books Curriculum. Visit Sheila online at: http://www.livingbookscurriculum.com
Whenever someone online links to a page on one of my blogs, I receive a notification about it in the administrative area of my blog. The other day I found that someone named “Grandmother Wren” had linked to two of my nature study articles, so I figured I’d go see what sort of blog entry prompted a nature study recommendation. Turns out, it was a posting about children spending time outdoors everyday to connect with nature.Here’s a quote:
“The National Wildlife Federation recommends that parents give their kids a ‘Green Hour’ every day, a time for interaction with the natural world. This can take place in a garden, a backyard, the park down the street, or any place that provides safe and accessible green spaces where children can learn and play.”
You can visit Grandmother Wren and see her list of thirteen great ideas/resources for spending time with kids outdoors at: http://grandmotherwren.com/?p=109
~Debi
Copyright Sheila Carroll. Used with permission. All rights reserved. http://www.livingbookscurriculum.com
What is a living book? Charlotte Mason said a living book is one that is “well put” and “well told” (Parents and Children, p. 263).In other words, in a living book:
-
The language used powerfully and beautifully expresses the ideas of its author
-
The narrative — whether fiction or non-fiction — holds together in a compelling and memorable way.
Here’s an example:
Typically in elementary school today, the study of germs is given a few pages in a science text. Louis Pasteur and the story of his work with cows and vaccines is given a passing reference.
Typically in elementary school today, the study of germs is given a few pages in a science text. Louis Pasteur and the story of his work with cows and vaccines is given a passing reference.
Instead, read Louis Pasteur: Founder of Modern Medicine to learn of Pasteur’s early research into why vats of fermented beer were turning sour (answer: microorganism had contaminated the batch), and later how three of Pasteur’s daughters died from typhoid and then, in 1865, a cholera epidemic hit Marseilles, France. It was then that Pasteur carried out a number of experiments in a hospital in the hope of finding the germ that caused this feared disease and to save the town of Marseilles.
Interested? Your children will be, too. That’s a living book.
Another way to think of living books:
When children grow up hearing the best ideas put forth in the best possible language, they model their thinking and their writing after these. Charlotte Mason felt that a parent or teacher’s chief duty was to provide living ideas as food for the child’s mind.
If we give our children “dumbed down” books or books in which the information is in bits and pieces across the page, then the ideas are no longer living but dry-as-dust facts. Living ideas are primarily found in living books, books that are “well put and well told. “
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
–Sheila Carroll is founder of Living Books Curriculum, a literature rich, complete curriculum growing from the work of Charlotte Mason. This article previously appeared in Parent’s Journal, the e-newsletter of Living Books Curriculum. Visit Sheila online at: http://www.livingbookscurriculum.com
A long-time online aquaintance of mine recently posted a series of posts on her blog about how she was able to put together an entire year’s worth of curriculum from just a couple of trips to the thrift store.
If you think homeschooling’s just too expensive to consider pursuing seriously, take a look at Mama Squirrel’s ideas. 
Here’s a link to her series of posts:
”What I came up with isn’t necessarily a Charlotte Mason curriculum; that needs to be clear … I think it’s more like an amalgam of Sonlight Curriculum and Ruth Beechick; it’s supposed to be something that could keep you going, even if you were homeschooling for the first time.” –Mama Squirrel
Copyright Catherine Levison. Used with permission. All rights reserved. http://charlottemasoneducation.com
We all want to raise polite and loving children who aren’t causing our lives or home schools to be in a constant state of friction. Both adults and children tend to be creatures of habit and there is no end to the problems (or, better yet, lack of them) that arise from habit.
It’s a good thing that much of our daily activities are habitual, for example, people operate cars through the power of habit. What would it be like to have to think about the turn signal, foot brake, steering wheel and two mirrors every time we made a turn? What does this have to do with raising children and education? Everything. Much of what we do, and how we do it, is controlled by habit.
I observed the power of habit first hand when we moved the dining room clock in our house and replaced it with a picture. Because the clock had hung there for nine years everyone found themselves disoriented by the change. I don t know how many times I stood in front of the picture mystified, trying to figure out the time.
I also came face to face with the power of habit when we moved into a house that had a sink with reversed hot and cold water faucets. I thought I would grow accustomed to the reversal rather quickly — I was wrong. I would have been able to replace one habit with another if there had only been one sink in the house, however, it wasn t the only one and I admit I found myself in constant confusion when I was in front of this particular sink. I had to think instead of relying on habit.
Charlotte Mason was one educator who recognized and wrote about the power of habit and claimed that even virtues such as patience, meekness, courage, generosity and truthfulness are a matter of habit and can be trained as such. I agreed with her to a point but I did not really know this to be a fact until one time when I paid for my groceries with a hundred dollar bill. The clerk made change, then wrapped it up inside the receipt and inadvertently included my hundred dollars. No one saw this, in fact, I almost didn t look at the wad myself. At the last moment I did look in my hand and saw what had happened. My reaction came so fast even I was surprised. One of my habits is honesty and it was out of habit that I returned the money. Later, I thought about habitual morality and realized its significance.
If you find yourself always telling or asking your children the same things over and over again then this teaching on habit will benefit you. If I had the proverbial nickel for every time I told my kids to put the milk away, I’d be rich. Mason noted that when you find yourself always telling children to do the same thing, you have not trained them in the habits you wish they would perform.
The key is to identify one bad habit at a time in your child (or yourself) and then purposefully replace it with a good habit. We often make the mistake of tackling too many bad behaviors at one time. Success comes when we focus on one problem at a time. It s best to approach the child, clearly state what the bad habit is and then explain how it will affect their future.
For example, if your teenage child prefers to sleep in rather than getting up at a decent time explain to him how this can affect his employment, college grades and ability to catch the bus on time. The goal is to get him to see why he would want to make a change. Make that your first and final lecture. With a view that the child has to exert himself toward the new habit, do not interfere when it isn t necessary. Help as inconspicuously as possible.
Habits ordinarily take six to eight weeks to take shape and become permanent. Then they are habitual and will not need additional work. After the bad habit has been replaced by a good habit you can target a new habit.
About the Author:
Catherine Levison is a long term home schooling parent with over a decade of experience. She is the mother of five children and resides in Seattle. A popular speaker to home schooling audiences throughout the USA and Canada, Levison is the author of the popular book, A Charlotte Mason Education: A How-To Manual, the sequel More Charlotte Mason Education and A Literary Education: An Annotated Book List (SourceBooks). Visit Catherine online at: http://charlottemasoneducation.com
You can purchase Levison’s books online:
A Charlotte Mason Education
More Charlotte Mason Education
Later today I’m going to be adding a small pile of used books to my eBay store. I’m in the midst of trying to do some serious decluttering around my house. Wish me luck! 
A number of the books will be about financial and simple living topics that might be of interest to readers of this blog. Plus, there should be some children’s books, educational materials, and classic literature, as well.
So far, I’ve listed several books in the Core Knowledge Series (What Your Kindergartner [1st, 2nd, 3rd grader] Needs to Know). I also have an unused (and unopened) copy of Quicken Personal Finance 2007 Home & Business software. And due to popular demand from several friends, I’m going to list a couple of photographs that I’ve taken and had made into 8″x10″ prints and matted in 11″x14″ mattes.
Feel free to stop by later and see if there’s anything that interests you or your family.
http://stores.ebay.com/Simple-Pleasures-Books-and-Gifts
~Debi
by Sheila Carroll (This article appeared in the 2005 edition of The Charlotte Mason Monthly eNewsletter.) Used with permission. All rights reserved.
The study of great works of art is an important component of a Charlotte Mason education. Many educators think children should first learn to “do art”, that is learn free-hand drawing and other art techniques. Then later, usually much later, the child is introduced to great works of art.Charlotte Mason believed that is putting the cart before the horse.Ms. Mason wrote, “There must be knowledge … not the technical knowledge of how to produce, but some reverent knowledge of what has been produced that is, children should learn pictures line by line, group by group, by reading not books (about art) but the pictures themselves.” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 214)
Learning to enjoy and understand a work of art is a sweet pleasure that lasts a lifetime. However, finding affordable reproductions, especially for homeschooling families on one income, is a challenge. Charlotte Mason noted that she acquired her reproductions, postcard-size black and white engravings from a commercial source. “A friendly picture dealer supplies us with half a dozen beautiful reproductions of the work of some single artist, term by term.” (p. 215).
How to Study a Picture
Introduce the artist with a few interesting details of his life. An excellent book to aid in this is ‘Art in Story’ by Marianne Saccardi. It is out-of-print but still widely available. Then, a “few sympathetic words about his trees or his skies, his river-paths or his figures, the pictures are studied one at a time; that is, children learn, not merely to see a picture but to look at it taking in every detail. Then the picture is turned over and the children tell what they have seen (i.e. narrate)” (p. 214).
Preparing an Art Portfolio
Developing an art portfolio by time period or simply to hold all the works is a good practice. You will need a three-ring binder and “sheet protectors”. Staples sell a box of 200 (more than enough). The sheet protector is three-hole punched, so you then prepare the work of art as below and store it in a three-ring binder.
Since your child will be studying one work of art at a time, it helps to set the work off visually. Take a sheet of black or off-white construction paper and center the work of art on the page. To the back side of the construction paper add the title, the artist and the date. Then, put the whole in the plastic sheet protector.
Sources for Inexpensive (or free!) Picture Study
The Internet
Many museums have digital copies of their works online. It is permissible to download one copy for study purposes. The drawback is that a good print requires using your colored ink cartridge a good bit. The plus side is that you get a fairly good reproduction that you can print in 8 1/2 x 11 format, which permits you to see more detail. Use any search engine to find the works of the artist you want to study. A really good searchable data-base is Artcylopedia ( http://www.artcyclopedia.com ) which has online art for over 8,000 famous painters, sculptors and photographers, at art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Dover Books
Dover Books ( http://doverpublications.com ) has many quality reproductions in the form of “art cards”. This can be small or large format prints that sell for $1.50 and $5.95 respectively. Each book contains 12 – 24 prints of one artist or study period such as Impressionism.
Remaindered Books
The bookseller Barnes and Noble regularly sells remaindered books in its “Sales Annex” online and has a special table in most stores. Remaindered books are publishers overstocks that have been dramatically reduced, often more than 80% off the list price.
Bargain Books
Bargain books are not used or damaged, but some titles are marked to indicate that they are publishers’ overstocks. An example of a bargain available not long ago was Georgia O’Keefe’s One Hundred Flowers, a stunning collection of her works with a list price of $100, which Barnes & Noble sold for $19.98.
You can order One Hundred Flowers from Amazon at this link: http://snurl.com/100flowers
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sheila Carroll is founder of Living Books Curriculum, a literature rich, complete curriculum growing from the work of Charlotte Mason. This article previously appeared in Parent’s Journal, the e-newsletter of Living Books Curriculum. Visit the LBC website: http://www.livingbookscurriculum.com Be sure to sign up for the LBC newsletter, Parent’s Journal: http://www.livingbookscurriculum.com/e-newsletter.htm
Even in the city, children should get their knowledge of nature first hand and get into the habit of being in touch with nature. Here are some simple nature/science ideas for city (and rural) families to share together:
1) Press and mount flowers on cardboard. Write the names of the flowers, and where and when you found them. I recently saw a photo-album used to store pressed flowers. Having a field guide to identify flowers and flowering trees is very helpful.
2) Keep a nature calendar. A calendar devoted to nature observation could be kept with simple entries on when the leaves first fell or the fruit tree in your yard first ripened for the year.
3) Leaf identification. Children should know the leaves of their neighborhood. For example they can begin to notice that some leaves are heart shaped, some are divided, and some fall off in the winter.
4) Give children a pocket compass, a magnifying glass and possibly a microscope. We like using the magnifying glass better. Buy the best magnifying glass or microscope you can afford and check it at the store — they seem to vary in how they focus.
5) Learn about the wind. A weather vane mounted on the housetop or porch railing is not only a decorative object but also a learning tool. Charlotte Mason said to teach children to notice winds. Tell the children that the wind is named by what direction it comes from; for example, if someone is a Mexican because they were born in Mexico, they don’t become a Canadian when they visit Canada.
6) Even children in the city can observe natural animal life. City dwellers can try to feed and observe city birds such as sparrows. Children can place a caterpillar in a box with a netting over it and watch it spin. Keeping an ant farm is fun and educational.
7) Swamps and ponds are an excellent resource for science learning. Have children go to the pond, gather some frogs’ eggs, and place them in a large glass jar. After the tadpoles begin to form legs, take them back and release them at the pond.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: –Catherine Levison is a popular speaker to parenting and educational audiences throughout the U.S.A. and
Canada. She’s also the mother of five children, a grandmother, and the author of the book, A Charlotte Mason Education: A How-To Manual, the sequel, More Charlotte Mason Education, and A Literary Education. She resides with her family in the Seattle/Tacoma area. Visit Catherine online at: CharlotteMasonEducation.comCatherine Levison’s books can be browsed at. A Charlotte Mason EducationMore Charlotte Mason Education
I stumbled upon the following article online just now. Thought some of you might find it a good idea, as well: Have Fun With Your Children – Take Them To The Art Gallery!
Excerpt:
“Talk about the art you’re looking at. You don’t have to be an expert. Tell your child what you like or don’t like about a couple of pieces. Perhaps mention the subject, colours, how the artist has created the work, even the framing is fair game. Show your children that sometimes you have to stand right back to see the pictures properly.
“At the end, comment on which you liked best and ask them for their favourites as well. Don’t forget to ask why they like what they do and always remember that their opinions are just as valid as yours.”
Keeping personal journals of daily events is one way to ensure your children have simple practice in handwriting, spelling and composition everyday. Setting aside a few minutes each evening after dinner to add a few paragraphs to your journals can be a fun family activity. The example set by parents who also keep a personal journal is invaluable.
By recording each entry’s date, time and outdoor temperature your children will quickly become adept at using a calendar, a clock and a thermometer. Notations about the weather can also include barometric readings. It’s often fun to try and predict local weather patterns, seeing if you can “out predict” your favorite television weather reporter.
Get creative … and have fun!
It used to be that the only way to access fine art reproductions was to head down to the local library or bookstore and grab yourself a coffee table art book. Or maybe buy a calendar or two with reproductions from your favorite artists.
But now we have the Internet — the world of art is accessible to anyone. Plus, there are a number of excellent educational sites designed for kids / parents / teachers / home educators.
Here’s a small sampling of some of the great fine art resources available online:
Art Lessons with Talent Teacher
Art Tales: Telling Stories with Wildlife Art
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