Since beginning the formal home education of our children eight years ago, I am annually gifted with some amount of time for intentional reflection and the gleaning of knowledge.  The form of refreshing has varied from a solitary 24 hours on 130 acres in a tiny house located just off the Mohawk Trail to a spirited road trip with a friend to attend a weekend of workshops.  Four of these eight
Please join me over at AfterThoughts, where Brandy Vencel invited me as a guest writer. Â I've written about Charlotte Mason and the study of physics for nine to 12-year-olds just.for.you. Â I do hope you enjoy it.
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Autumn rates right up there with spring for wanting to just close the books and head outside. Since we are spending most of our days outdoors in both work and play, I thought you might enjoy a tour around our grounds and then I'll catch you up on our doings. Our home started out as a storefront for Berkshire Glass Works in the mid-1800's. The exceptional sand of our county (97-99
Whilst cleaning up the computer, I found this draft that had never been posted. Though it was begun long ago, happily the sentiments remain fresh and true. Mushroom hunting! Is it any wonder it's called Tanglewood? Living in the past a bit as I searched for pictures to share with our Compassion child so thought I'd share them with you as well. I have been living in the past as I write,
Personally, I don't keep a lot of apps on my phone but among those you will find is the Barefoot World Atlas. As an ambassador for Barefoot Books, I'm thrilled to let you know that the Barefoot World Atlas has been named by Apple one of the top ten apps from among the nearly million available in their App Store. To celebrate, you can Download the Barefoot World Atlas for free this week!
 Would you be surprised by the suggestion to place Handwriting or Handcraft directly after the arithmetic lesson? After all, in a Charlotte Mason education variety in the order of lessons is important so neither the brain nor body tires. This makes sense when arithmetic lessons are primarily oral. Rather than being worksheet driven, with a child working a page of exercises such as the one
Through a series of steps Max is led to discover the rule for finding area. Hello, best beloveds. We have been humming along with two new bee hives, final exams and a succession of enchanting house guests (perhaps entertaining angels unaware) whilst also working out how to best relay the joy of Charlotte Mason Mathematics in an hour at the Living Education Retreat in July. All
I missed my rays of sunshine whilst at work. Probably the single-most question I am asked is how we home schooled during this year "abroad" while running a restaurant. This was no easy feat and I had to constantly remind myself to not try to get through the subjects but into them and enjoy the time, no matter how little, with my boys. The logistics, along with apologies if this is a bit
Truly, I love being a part of this wonderful world with all of you. Our family experienced so many changes this past year that I hope you will understand why I could not properly take you along. In March we sold our home in Massachusetts, packed up our furniture, books and our chickens and headed to the Midwest to restore and run the historic Northside Cafe' in Winterset, Iowa along with my
...found on the "Teaching for Excellence" site whose teaching model "integrates the effective works of the nation's leading educators, researchers, authors, school systems, and classroom teachers into a comprehensive approach to classroom curriculum, assessment and instruction."Â
Sonnenschein's The ABC of Arithmetic Hello dear friends. I know it has been a long time since you've heard from me but you see, I've actually been writing you all this time - you just didn't know it. You can read how at my guest post over at Simply Charlotte Mason. I hope to fill you in on the personal details in the next few posts.
Though separated by time and space, we celebrate the good news of great joy with you all!Image courtesy of the gifted Jackie Morris.
Circus Maximus.This little number didn't even require the dress-up box. Chilly means chili. Busy elf.
Five months of life lessons. We built our first chicken coop, cried buckets of tears at the loss of three tiny balls of fluff, nursed a sick chick to recovery, learned who our friends were when they gave up a beautiful Saturday to help construct a run, had a stare-down with an adult Red-tailed Hawk, found out four of our eight birds are roosters ("What are the odds?" we joke), learned the
Other than our herbs, we haven't been able to garden much this year. Thankfully, God has seen to bordering our woods with Flat-topped White Asters. For those of you wondering, we are fine post-Hurricane Irene. There is extensive flooding but since we are on high ground, it is the danger of falling trees that concerns our family the most. Winds "weakened" to 60mph before arriving here and only a
What looks like contemporary art is actually our home school scheduling board. Sticky notes make moving the subjects around a breeze and, believe me, they move around a lot before becoming one of the Pages at the top of the blog. In a Charlotte Mason education the transition into fourth grade is a big one - with more independent work, dictation, formal grammar lessons, Latin and copy-books
It's not really sticky-beaking if you are invited in, right?! " '...I daresay she is too ill to move or speak, and to-morrow, perhaps, she'll be our jolly mother again...''That's because your dear mother has no self, Charlie, boy; no sooner does she feel a bit better than she does more than she can for us all,' " (Charlotte Mason, Formation of Character, p. 98).Such were the whisperings in the
If you've been with me awhile you know that I stay as far away from my computer as possible when the weather turns warm. Here's a bit of what we've been up to...What's on My Mind: Charlotte Mason, discussing how the knowledge gathering of children illuminates their knowledge of God, shares with us her experience of listening to a group of thirteen-year-old girls narrate after hearing an essay
This is my work space. Well, at least until the days turn warmer and I long to be outside, at which time I pack up a basket of supplies and sit beneath the bowers of our great White Pine. This arrangement worked well until last autumn. Heading to a conference with my friend, Carie, she suggested we arrive early so we could picnic and hike at Walden Pond first. Good friend. After a visit to
This hymn, written by Howard Higashi, is breathtaking in its intimacy and immediacy. It runs through my heart and mind every spring. I do not know where they have laid Him. The stone is taken away from the tomb. Oh! They have taken Him away! Oh! Where is He? Disciples came and saw the empty tomb But went away so soon to their own homes. They're satisfied with
There are times when our posts are like those stones taken from the middle of the Jordan river and set in Gilgal - memorials to remind us of what the Lord has done in our lives. Do join me at Educating Mother as I revisit lessons learned from Vashti, the queen who scorned her husband's simple request in the book of Esther.
Walking into a fine restaurant with your family, you are seated at the best table and, with a flourish, presented the menu. Opening the gilt-edged leather book in anticipation, you are shocked to find that all the restaurant serves is sawdust! Sure there is some mistake -- after all this is a Zagat five star restaurant, one of the most popular in town -- you look around and are astounded to
Ducks at Cheshire LakeWe're tagging along with my husband to New York City for a mix of work, play and school and won't be seeing you again until the next Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival on April 5th. The theme is "Education is a Life" and will be hosted right here at Barefoot Voyage so I do hope you will join me. Suggested Reading:Vol. 3 pp 152-156Vol. 6 pp 104-111
thank you for sharing!! tell me your FAVORITE books in this category by e-mail... pretty please! ;)
Me too, please.