Lately I've been feeling a little dry around the edges. I had a few minutes to myself this afternoon, so picked up one of the books from the Charlotte Mason series - "Formation of Character". I never get a chance to do this kind of reading, but felt the need for it. As I was reading, CM hit my need right on the nose.
She wrote, "As a stream can rise no higher than its source, so it is probable that no education effort can rise above the whole scheme of thought which gives it birth; and perhaps this is the reason of all the 'fallings from us, vanishings,' failures, and disappointments which mark our educational records."
Right ON. My "stream" is shallow. I've let myself get so busy with chores, schooling, and other family stuff that I've neglected to fill my mind with IDEAS. CM goes on to write, "In saying that EDUCATION IS A LIFE, the need of intellectual and moral as well as of physical sustenance is implied. The mind feeds on ideas..."
She is referring to teaching children, but how can the teacher teach the children and feed them ideas if the teacher has nothing to give?
Thank God for the Deep Thinkers who have gone before.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
This n’ That
We just got back from a 10-day visit with my family in Tennessee. It was the first time in almost 20 years that my entire family was together. I have four brothers and a sister, so it hasn't always been easy to get us all in the same place at the same time. We celebrated my Dad's 80th birthday, which is in August, and my Mom's 75th, which was a couple of days ago. It was hard to leave them. They're slowing down and it's hard to be so far away from them. Darin, the kids and I did as much for them as we could before we left. They heat their house with a wood stove. One of their biggest challenges in the last couple of years has been bringing in wood. They have a big barn that is FULL of wood. My parents have lived on their mountaintop home for 17 years now and my Dad has consistently cut wood over the years in anticipation of them slowing down and him not being able to keep up with the demand. So we filled up the back of their truck with load after load of wood and brought it to their garage. We made two huge stacks for them. Mom said that what we brought in for them should last through December. Of course my goal is to get them to snowbird it down here in Dallas for January. I chatted with them about it while we were there, but it's summer and they've forgotten how hard it was to keep up with the fire in the stove last winter. We'll see...I would love to post some pictures of our trip, but I'm still having PhotoShop issues...Darin has so much to do around here that I hate to bother him about this measly issue. One of these days I'll work up the nerve to harass him about it again. ;-)
We took a lot of June off from school, so we got started back up again in earnest this week. I've incorporated a new plan to our day that has been a lifesaver for me, and I know the kids are also enjoying the new set-up. What I can't believe is that I didn't think of it sooner. It's been very hectic to get school done in the mornings with Henry and Sophia wondering around, looking for something to do. There were days that I worked on some lapbooks with them, but I was unable to be consistent with it because Ben, Lydia or Jack would need me for something related to their own schoolwork. That would leave Henry and Sophia crawling all over me while I tried to work with one of the olders, or crawling all over each other - they do not play well together yet, but then that's another issue...ANYWAY...it was really hard. By the time naptime rolled around I was totally burnt. So what I've done is divide the olders' schedules into Morning Work and Afternoon Work. The Morning Work includes everything they can do without my help. And then of course the Afternoon Work is all the stuff for which they need me.
OH MY GOODNESS.
It is so nice. The olders are less stressed, I'm less stressed, and Henry and Sophia are feeling less stressed. I'm glad that now Henry and Sophia are not running around with nothing to do AND that now they have things to do and it's all with ME. :-) I really enjoy spending time with them. We're working into a groove. We water the plants/garden outside, read books, play a game, do a little misc. exploring. Today we found a paper wasp nest that our pest control guy knocked off our house a couple of days ago. It still had a wasp on it. It was dead, but looked alive. We brought it into the house and I grabbed my Christian Liberty Nature Reader off the shelf and we read all about paper wasps. I saved the nest until Darin got home tonight and had Henry tell him everything he remembered from what we read. At first he said, "I don't know what we read." Then in the very next breath, he proceeded to tell Darin everything we had read. ;-) I enjoyed that!
Ben turns 15 on Saturday. 'Nuff said. <sniff sniff>
I tried to feed Grace some rice cereal today with no success. She was hardly impressed. The first bite she gagged. The second bite she spewed out all over me. While I was trying to give her a third bite, she grabbed the bowl and it fell to the floor. End of Day 1. We'll try again tomorrow. ;-)
We took a lot of June off from school, so we got started back up again in earnest this week. I've incorporated a new plan to our day that has been a lifesaver for me, and I know the kids are also enjoying the new set-up. What I can't believe is that I didn't think of it sooner. It's been very hectic to get school done in the mornings with Henry and Sophia wondering around, looking for something to do. There were days that I worked on some lapbooks with them, but I was unable to be consistent with it because Ben, Lydia or Jack would need me for something related to their own schoolwork. That would leave Henry and Sophia crawling all over me while I tried to work with one of the olders, or crawling all over each other - they do not play well together yet, but then that's another issue...ANYWAY...it was really hard. By the time naptime rolled around I was totally burnt. So what I've done is divide the olders' schedules into Morning Work and Afternoon Work. The Morning Work includes everything they can do without my help. And then of course the Afternoon Work is all the stuff for which they need me.
OH MY GOODNESS.
It is so nice. The olders are less stressed, I'm less stressed, and Henry and Sophia are feeling less stressed. I'm glad that now Henry and Sophia are not running around with nothing to do AND that now they have things to do and it's all with ME. :-) I really enjoy spending time with them. We're working into a groove. We water the plants/garden outside, read books, play a game, do a little misc. exploring. Today we found a paper wasp nest that our pest control guy knocked off our house a couple of days ago. It still had a wasp on it. It was dead, but looked alive. We brought it into the house and I grabbed my Christian Liberty Nature Reader off the shelf and we read all about paper wasps. I saved the nest until Darin got home tonight and had Henry tell him everything he remembered from what we read. At first he said, "I don't know what we read." Then in the very next breath, he proceeded to tell Darin everything we had read. ;-) I enjoyed that!
Ben turns 15 on Saturday. 'Nuff said. <sniff sniff>
I tried to feed Grace some rice cereal today with no success. She was hardly impressed. The first bite she gagged. The second bite she spewed out all over me. While I was trying to give her a third bite, she grabbed the bowl and it fell to the floor. End of Day 1. We'll try again tomorrow. ;-)
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