Carnival of Homeschooling- The NaNoWriMo Edition

Preface

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Welcome to this hundred-and-umpteenth Carnival of Homeschooling! Because November is National Novel Writing Month (also known as NaNoWriMo or nano), and I’m over 10,000 words into the writing process (and can’t think of anything but writing, writing, and more writing), I thought it would be appropriate to format this Carnival as sections of a book. I even consulted the Chicago Manual of Style for an authoritative list of book parts!

Introduction

For me, homeschooling is first and foremost a heart matter. In Mangled Schedules and Grateful Hearts, an article I wrote for Home School Enrichment magazine, you can read how a father’s presence and influence can shape a family school. Enjoy! Read more

Bayeaux Tapestry- An Animated Look at History

One of the highlights of our trip to Europe was seeing the Bayeux Tapestry– the story of the 1066 war. I’d just finished reading 1066: The Year of the Conquest by David Haworth (highly recommended), so it was fresh in my mind, and it was interesting to see the differing perspective of this amazing piece of needlework. Although it’s called a tapestry, it’s simply a very long piece of linen– approximately 70 meters– embroidered with the story of the battle. You can learn more about it at its official site in Britain.

The animated version below brings it to life in a fresh way, and is guaranteed to make even small boys enjoy the Tapestry! Read more

Create A Place of Quietness in your Day

Do you ever feel overwhelmed when there is noise and hubbub all day long? It can be hard to avoid when you have children home all the time. One of the things I did with my boys was to create quiet spaces in our day. I always tried to begin the day before anyone else got up. I’d take time over coffee and breakfast to read a chapter or two of the Bible, then look at my list of priorities for the day.

After the boys got up and we did school, we’d have an afternoon Quiet Time. It lasted for various amounts of time, depending upon their ages, but the important thing was that each person had a separate place to be, and there was nothing noisy happening in the house. Not even good noise like music! Each boy could read, write, color, nap, even play Legos or Knex, as long as he was silent. During that hour or whatever time we spent, our spirits were refreshed, and we grew ready to cope with the rest of the day.

After the boys went to bed, there was a final quiet time in which Donald and I would sit in the sunroom and read the newspaper or a book, I’d make my list for the next day, and we would sometimes visit quietly. It was a delightful way to wrap up our long day!

I hope that you have quiet spaces planned into your life for the next school year. It’s amazing what can happen in quiet moments! I’ve attached a handout from a recent conference where I spoke on “Making Time for Things That Matter.” It has a number of good quotes on quietness, as well as a few other helpful things. I hope you enjoy it!

making-time-handoutindd2

“Now I begin to feel that all that is important comes in quietness and waiting; and that activity should be only the working out, the digesting and putting forth of what one learned, so that one may become empty again to receive more.” Rodney Collin

“…in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” Isaiah 30:15

Note: I have been trying to find out the artist and the name of the painting above. I initially thought it must be a Vermeer, or possibly a Rembrandt, but haven’t been able to find it in any of the sources I have. If you know, please leave a comment and let me know so that I can properly attribute it. Thank you!

“The Schoolboy”- A Summer Poem by William Blake

It’s been awhile since I posted a poem, but when I heard someone talking about doing school through summer, I just had to post this one! Enjoy!

The proper joys of summer.

I love to rise in a summer morn,
When the birds sing on every tree;
The distant huntsman winds his horn,
And the skylark sings with me:
O what sweet company!

But to go to school in a summer morn, —
O it drives all joy away!
Under a cruel eye outworn,
The little ones spend the day
In sighing and dismay.

Ah then at times I drooping sit,
And spend many an anxious hour;
Nor in my book can I take delight,
Nor sit in learning’s bower,
Worn through with the dreary shower.

How can the bird that is born for joy
Sit in a cage and sing?
How can a child, when fears annoy,
But droop his tender wing,
And forget his youthful spring!

O father and mother if buds are nipped,
And blossoms blown away;
And if the tender plants are stripped
Of their joy in the springing day,
By sorrow and care’s dismay, —

How shall the summer arise in joy,
Or the summer fruits appear?
Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy,
Or bless the mellowing year,
When the blasts of winter appear?

From Songs of Experience, 1794

Nature Fun for Summertime

Two foxes strolled through the yard yesterday as if inspecting their own property. I’m surprised they hadn’t been frightened out of the neighborhood by the yapping of our little terrier who had spotted a doe browsing through the azaleas just an hour or so earlier, and was still “woofing” her displeasure at the trespasser. The foxes weren’t very big, but they sported bushy tails that were almost as big around as they were. I wish we’d had time to grab the camera!

Later, we sat on the patio at the edge of the woods and watched as a hawk tended its nest of noisy babies. There was a lot of activity up there, and I kept a sharp eye on our smallest cat, lest she look a bit too much like lunch from the hawk’s lofty vantage point. All went well, and we were able to bear the mosquitos long enough to enjoy watching fireflies flicker across the lawn, and see the occasional bat swoop by.

You may not have wildlife neighbors as we do, but in any neighborhood, there are many things to enjoy. I grew up in the heart of Los Angeles, and much of my world probably seemed to outsiders to be almost entirely paved over. Even there, there was much to see. Our tiny yard was a rich ecosystem of ferns, St. Augustine grass (nice for nibbling, if your mother didn’t catch you), an avocado tree, and many other plants. Less than a mile away was a park, ringed with fragrant eucalyptus trees and featuring ample play equipment and space for running and playing.

What kind of fun can you have with just a few plants, trees, or rocks?

The eucalyptus trees drops silvery “buttons” that can be threaded on a string for a necklace or bracelet, and its long, narrow leaves can be written on with a sharp stick.
Wide blades of grass can be held between thumbs and blown to make a loud squawking noise.
Clover blossoms or buttercups (aka weeds) in the grass are fun to string together in long chains (make a small slit right under the blossom and slide the stem of the next flower through and repeat).
Pine cones can be taken apart and the “petals” use to make owls or flowers or to shingle a birdhouse roof.
Raw veggies can be eaten fresh in the garden (no washing allowed).
Gourds can be dried and painted for use as birdhouses, planters, or musical instruments.
Wild berries can be used to make homemade dye to finish coloring the t-shirt you carried them home in.
If you see wildlife, and you’re quick enough, take a photo and create a simple nature journal (make it simple, or it’s not likely to get done!).
Flat stones can be skipped over water, or wrapped in wire and made into a necklace.
Sidewalks are a great place for chalk drawings, hopscotch (you do remember how to play, don’t you?), skating, bouncing balls, jacks, and more. I miss sidewalks!
Shells can cover boxes, lamps, and more, though they are often prettier in water.
You can get a lot of reading done in the boughs of a friendly avocado (or other) tree.
Trees, bushes, and garage and shed rooftops make great hiding places for a twilight game of hide and seek (adults can play too–just don’t fall off the roof on anyone’s head).

There’s much more you can do, but that’s a start. I’d love to hear your ideas– please feel free to leave them in the comments section.

The key is to go outside and stay for awhile and be willing to get dirty. It’s a joy to appreciate and experience creation, but if you’ve not been used to doing so, it may take a bit of practice. Trust me– it’s worth it!

*****

Convention Season Specials: We’re in our last week of the convention season, so the sale will end after this weekend. If you need any high school reference or language arts materials, be sure to check it out!

Northern Virginia Home Education Conference: If you can come, please look us up in booth 203. I’ll be speaking on High School Transcripts and The Essential Essay. I hope to see you there!

The Perfect Cure for Summer Boredom

Don’t forget to use the Convention Season Specials by July 12!

It’s summertime, and a few days after you put away the schoolbooks, you may hear the dreaded complaint, “I’m bored.” It’s a complaint I always welcomed, because I had found the perfect answer. However, let’s look first at the history of boredom.

Next time one of your children complains about being bored, or you wonder why you have to do the same task over and over again, consider this: You may be bored, but did you know that the very word itself wasn’t even invented until after 1750? Now that’s an interesting fact to keep your boredom at bay!

Think about it: If people were bored back in the 1700s, they had no clue. They might have felt it, but they hadn’t come up with the word to describe it yet, according to Patricia M. Spacks, the author of Boredom: The Literary History of a State of Mind. But once the concept had a name, it became universal. Children soon pointed it out. Researchers blame it for a number of society’s ills, including drug addiction. Even entertainment is seen as boring, because there’s so much of it to go around. The bottom line, according to Spacks, is that there’s no cure for boredom. You just have to accept it, and know there will be a change for the better soon enough.

The late poet Joseph Brodksy had this depressing thought to offer in a 1989 college commencement: “When hit by boredom, let yourself be crushed by it; submerge, hit bottom,” he said. “The sooner you hit bottom, the faster you surface.” According to some experts, the real trick is to simply get used to monotony. It’s a part of life, even among exciting people. They suggest that you try to experience things in new ways, and not mistakenly assume that only new things are interesting.

That’s all very well, but my perfect cure for the complaint of boredom was to cheerfully say, “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that! Here’s a little project you can do” while handing them the tools for accomplishing a chore from the day’s to-do list. My boys learned very early that it was much more fun to choose an activity from the Summer Fun List (a list of good books to read, art projects to try, things to build, games to play, etc.). The key was that once the word “bored” was uttered, there was no taking it back, and the suggested chore had to be completed. Trust me, this works like a charm!

If you feel a little guilty for requiring your children to entertain themselves, or worse, you suffer a bit from the inability to keep yourself happily occupied, I assure you that banishing boredom is a noble goal. Consider these quotes:

“Many hours of solitary occupation and enjoyment, will lead to the development of the highest intellectual and moral traits of character; in fact, his mental resources may be considered entirely unknown and unexplored, who cannot spend his best and happiest hours alone.” (Jacob Abbott, c. 1850)

“Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln never saw a movie, heard a radio, or looked at television. They had loneliness and knew what to do with it. They were not afraid of being lonely because they knew that was when the creative mood in them would work.” (Carl Sandburg)

All creative people know that there’s really no such thing as boredom– it’s just a feeling of dissatisfaction that, if properly channeled, can lead to great work. Don’t be tempted to respond to complaints of boredom by rushing about, providing distractions. Let your children learn how to constructively use time, and they’ll never have to be bored again.

Charlotte Mason on Teaching With Literature

In the chapter, “Liberal Education in Secondary Schools” in A Philosophy of Education, Charlotte Mason suggests that “the mind refuses to know anything except what reaches it in more or less literary form.” From my observation and experience, this is largely true. Truths and principles conveyed through stories, especially in the context of a learning lifestyle, stay in the mind as useful and usable ideas that can be incorporated in a student’s writing, conversation, and life.

In support of this idea, Miss Mason discusses how vaguely we remember the daily newspaper we read or how little children remember of worksheets and exercises. “The mind appears to have an outer court into which matter can be taken and again expelled without ever having entered the inner place where personality dwells. Here we have the secret of learning by rote, a purely mechanical exercise of which no satisfactory account has been given, but which leaves the patient, or pupil, unaffected… Now there is a natural provision against this mere skimming of the ground by the educational plough. Give the sort of knowledge that they are fitten to assimilate, served in a literary medium, and they will pay great attention.”

Miss Mason observed that most people remember ideas that reach them in the form of story, and they are able to apply and use these ideas in other areas of study, as well as in their writing. The only way to easily achieve the retention of knowledge is through “a great deal of consecutive reading from various books, all of some literary value; …one reading is sufficient; nor should there be any revision for the distant examination.”

As an example of the cultural literacy that comes through exposure to literature, she provides an impressive “list of 200 names, used with ease and fitness in an examination on one term’s work by a child of eleven in Form II.”

Abinadab, Athenian, Anne Boleyn, Act of Uniformity, Act of Supremacy, America, Austria, Alcibiades, Athens, Auckland, Australia, Alexandria, Alhambra.

Bible, Bishop of Rochester, Baron, Bean-shoots, Bluff, Bowen Falls, Bishoprics, Blind Bay, Burano.

Currants, Cupid, Catholic, Court of High Commission, Cranmer, Charles V, Colonies, Convent, Claude, Calais, Cook Strait, Canterbury Plain, Christchurch, Cathedral, Canals, Caliph of Egypt, Court of the Myrtles, Columbus, Cordova.

David, Defender of the Faith, Duke of Guise, Dunedin, Doge’s Palace.

England, Emperor, Empire, Egmont (Count), English Settlement

Flour, Fruits, French, Francis I, Francis of Guise, Ferdinand, Foveau Strait, Fuchsias, Fiords, Ferns.

Greek, Germany, Gondolas, “Gates of the Damsels,” Gondoliers, Granada, Gate of Justice, Gypsies.

Henry VIII, History, Hooper, Henry II, Hungary, Haeckel.

Israel, Italian (language), Italy, Infusoria.

Jesse, Jonathan, Joseph, John, Jerusalem, James, Jane Seymour.

King of Denmark, King of Scotland, Kiwi.

“Love-in-Idleness,” Lord Chancellor, Lord Burleigh, Lord Robert Dudley, Lime, Lyttleton, N.Z., Lake Tango.

Mary (The Virgin), More (Sir Thomas), Music, Martyr’s Memorial, Milan, Metz, Monastery, Mary, Queen of Scots, Mediterranean, Microscope, Messina, Middle Island, Mount Egmont, Mount Cook, Milford Sound, Museum, Moa, Maoris, Mussulman, Moorish King.

Naomi, Netherlands, Nice, New Zealand, North Island, Napier, Nelson.

Oberon, Oxford, Orion.

Pharisees, Plants, Parliament, Puck, Pope, Protestant, Poetry,

Philosophy, “Paix des Dames ,” Philip II, Paris, Planets, “Pink Terraces,” Piazetta, Philip of Burgundy.

Queen Catherine, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, Queen Isabella, Queen Juana.

Ruth, Robin Goodfellow, Ridley, Reformation, Radiolaria, Rotomaliana (Lake), Rea.

Saul, Samuel, Simeon, Simon Peter, Sunshine, Sugar-cane, Spices, Sultan, Spain, St. Quentin, Socrates, Stars, Sycamore, Seed-ball, Stewart Island, Seaports, Southern Alps, Scotch Settlement, St. Mark, St. Theodore, St. Maria Formosa (Church), Sierra Navada.

Temple, Titania, Testament, Treaty, Turks, Toul, Thread Slime, Tree Ferns, Timber Trees, Trieste, Toledo.

Verdure, Venus (Planet), Volcano, Volcanic Action, Venice.

Whieat, Wiltshire, William Cecil, Walsingham, Winged Seed, Wellington, Waikato.

Zaccharias, Zebedee.”

I won’t suggest that an American student in the twenty-first century should have the same list, but they should have a similar wealth of knowledge ready to use “with ease and fitness.” There is a story at the bottom of every subject, and when it is told (once, as she states, is usually sufficient), it can help children understand and remember the essence of an idea.

Application

To apply this concept to your daily teaching, I suggest copious amounts of reading (or listening, in the case of auditory learners). In addition to literary fiction, bring in biographies of artists, explorers, architects, writers, scientists, musicians, and mathematicians; stories of expeditions, inventions, discoveries, compositions; travelogues; magazines such as National Geographic or Smithsonian; and whatever fits your family’s interests.

You’ll find that your students will deeply understand the concept of justice after suffering with Jean Valjean in Les Miserables, and they’ll remember the bitter cold and peril of the Arctic circle, as they try to survive with Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd’s expedition. Contrast this with what they would understand or remember after filling out a worksheet with the definitions of justice, love, and faith, or a scientific report on the weather in the Arctic or Antarctic.

Stories bring knowledge alive and engage emotional memory in a way that makes abstract principles and arcane facts easy to understand and remember. When learning can be joyous and simple, why make it boring and difficult (and pointless because they are unlikely to remember anything) by using tedious worksheets and canned curriculum? It’s never too late to start teaching well. Resolve now to make literature and stories a major part of your educational adventure!

*****Don’t forget the Convention Season SALE!

Also, I’ll be speaking at Cindy Rushton’s Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2009. This online homeschool convention includes:

Online Seminars with With 35+ Speakers!
Virtual Vendor Hall!
Free Gifts–ebooks, audios, downloads!
Special offers from your favorite Online Vendors!
Mp3 Downloads for all audios (over $1000 in workshops!)

I think you’ll enjoy this, especially if you can’t make it to a live conference this year.

Dinner-Time Conversations: What’s Your Topic?

Is there anything more delightful than sitting down to dinner with your family? Even if you’re having something as pedestrian as grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, the company and conversation can be joyous and memorable. (It can be otherwise as well, but we won’t discuss that!)

One of the major goals I had as our boys grew up was to make our dinner table a place of peace and fellowship. We tried to steer the conversation to interesting topics to which most of the boys could contribute. This was fairly limited when they were small, but the range of topics increased dramatically when the oldest two started reading. Read more

Decision-Making: The “Anti-Supposed To” Manifesto

I’ve recently heard a lot of questions around the idea of “supposed to.”

What am I supposed to wear?
Are there supposed to be lines between every paragraph?
Are we supposed to wash the dishes in the left or right side of the sink?
Are we supposed to write on both sides of the page?
What is my student supposed to do with her literature assignments?
Are we supposed to use cursive?
Are you supposed to send flowers?

Enough, already! Sometimes you’re just supposed to do what needs to be done in the very best way you can. This is very important when teaching children. Too many “supposed to’s” and they lose the initiative to learn and to try new things because they imagine there’s only one right way to do anything. What a mental prison! Read more

Streamline Your Life with Habits

Charlotte Mason believed that a habit is “ten natures,” and she was right. Habits can make life smoother by automating repetitive tasks. By simply thinking through the things you do each day, and figuring out how to do them most efficiently, you can make time in your life for more interesting and rewarding pursuits. How can habits make your life easier? Here are some of the ways I’ve found:

Habit: Making a daily habit of reading and meditation can help you become more focused on the important things in life.

Habit: Plan lessons once month or once a semester, rather than once a week or on the fly.

Result: When you plan many lessons at once, you will be deeply enough involved to see the big picture and can create a well-balanced, creative course of study, rather than slapping together the basics at the last minute. Read more

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