Samantha's Busy Hands

She really enjoys srorting these big buttons and having Mom or Dad help her string them in groups. She especially likes circles.

This is Mugs. One reads the letter sounds on the bones and feeds them to the doggie. I made Mugs for Josh, but Samantha loves letters and their sounds and enjoys playing with Mugs. It's a little bit difficult for her to get the bones into his mouth, though.

She looks so tiny in her booster seat. It's surprizing how much personality fits into such a small package!

This is one of her favorites. She calls it her "Choo choo train," and often asks to play train. Her fascination with the game is finding and putting in the numbers. She's usually not very keen on the pegs.

School

Samantha is trying out Josh's "new" desk. We picked up used school desks at a garage sale and Luke fixed up one for Josh. Samantha's is painted but awaiting a new desk top in the garage. Right now she is happy with her little table, but she still likes the BIG desk!

This was the first day of school for the 2011-2012 school year. Josh brought his blanket to school because he wasn't feeling well...I think he was dreading school! He's been doing OK since we got going, though. Our new reading curriculum has been great for him!

Rice play. Bring on the vacuum!

Math Practice

Independant work at agenda time. Josh is reviewing color words. He ended up using Samantha's paints after she got tired of painting. He took his time and it looked great when he was finished.  

Cones and rings. Samantha lines up and organizes things. It's so cool to watch her.

This is recess! Josh loaded up Samantha and all her animals into a box.

Here's Rosie in the mix. Can you still see Samantha? So funny!

Laughs

The Pink Panther

Getting ready to help Dad fix the kitchen plumbing

Samantha certainly lives up to her middle name, Joy. She is such a little character. Looks like she's ready to take on the world!

Feathered Friends

Here is a spring photo of Samantha with her friends the "chichens." She misses them since it's been so hot, too hot to spend much of the day outside.

Here is the friend that Josh misses so dearly, Blue Jay. Once he was grown-up and flying all over the house I banished him to the back porch during the day and he eventually flew off. Josh is still sad.

Samantha LOVES music

These are probably from about 6 months ago. She still loves music, but now she likes to have all available people dance with her. Josh, for the most part, currently has a better attitude toward the whole thing!

Growing Things

It has been a lifelong joy of mine to watch things grow. I am speaking of plants right now, but it really applies even more to my children! To see my son enjoying gardening is oddly satisfying. It's a hobby we can enjoy together and it's a life skill he can use.

The Vorpal Blade

In her book Home Education, Charlotte Mason wrote that children should have “tales of the imagination, scenes laid out in other lands and other times, heroic adventures, hairbreadth escapes, delicious fairy tales…” (pg 152) These types of stories and books inspire the imagination.


We usually think of imagination as being something used to write fairy tales or during playtime. But Charlotte wrote that it is not only for amusement, but that it is a prerequisite for the ability to do heroic things.

What child does not take their vorpal sword in hand and slay the Jabberwock, snicker-snack, along with the protagonist as they read or hear Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky? In my house that beast is slain anew each time the poem is read! Charlotte wrote that without the ability to forget your own problems and identify with someone else’s struggles, you would never be able to do anything heroic. Perhaps this exercise in imagination will allow my children to brave the unknown or to stand up and fight for something they believe in. They may never do these things, but, in any case, this poem certainly encourages imagination.

One of my favorite childhood imaginations comes from The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I read this book over and over when I was a child and could just see the horrible cold and ugly attic room turned into a lovely place filled with beautiful things. I imagined Sarah’s excitement when she sat down to the table full of delicious food and had her first real meal in months as well as her relief to sit and eat, warm and comfortable.

I don’t know if I am able to do heroic things because of the time I spent using my imagination as I read wonderful books as a child, but I do see in myself the ability to swim against the culture around me and follow my heart in many different areas of life. I hope to impart this same courage of conviction on to my children and that they will be able to live their lives as thinking persons rather than following the tide of our media-driven culture.

the very bread of life

Education is a Life.


When I first read these words I imagined a life full of real experiences – visiting the zoo, watching seeds sprout and grow, singing together, etc.

Charlotte Mason meant something totally different!


Charlotte Mason’s concept of Education is a Life concerns the care and feeding of our minds. As we feed our bodies, we must also feed our minds. Charlotte wrote that the proper food for minds is ideas. Ideas supply energy. They nourish and feed our minds, just as wholesome food nourishes our bodies.

Now, ideas cannot be force-fed into anybody, least of all children. Certain thoughts will grab and animate them and others will be tossed aside. Charlotte recommended providing a great variety of ideas to children, from which they would be able to pick and choose. This is why she called for providing “much and varied humane reading, as well as human thought expressed in the forms of art.” (vol 6 pg 111)

This is such a relief and breath of fresh air to me. It expresses some of my deepest feelings about life and living it as a human, created in the image of God, rather than an animate being evolved from a rock…or even a fish. I crave art and beauty of all sorts. It feeds my soul. Our society seems to say that these things are worthless, unnecessary and maybe even stuck-up.

Some homeschoolers believe that children really only need the 3Rs and anything more is gravy. Well, Charlotte disagreed. She wrote that this so-called gravy “is not a luxury, a tit-bit, to be given to children now and then, but their very bread of life, which they must have in abundant portions and at regular periods.” (vol 6 pg 111)

Without the daily mind food of ideas, both I and my children will wilt and suffer under the load of daily academic drill and effort. Ideas lift us up from the mundane slog, providing vision and focus which will keep us well-nourished and encouraged to go on.

delicious!

Today I heard something unexpected at lunch.

"Mom, may I have some more of that delicious spinach?"

Love it!!