What I’m Reading: Formation of Character by Charlotte Mason
This is the final book in the CM Home Education series that I need to read. This is one of many books in my current reading slowly book stack. I haven’t made it very far, but I’ve already found much to put into practice. I was also quite impressed at the chapter with Dorothy’s story. Charlotte Mason is talking about neuroplasticity except not in those terms. “The nervous tissue is modified under the continued traffic in the same order of thoughts” (p 60, Living Book Press edition). She continues on the next page, “Such habit of thought is set up, and must go on indefinitely, in spite of struggles, unless—and here is the word of hope—a contrary habit is set up, diverting the thoughts into some quite new channel. Keep the thoughts running briskly in the new channel, and, behold, the old connections are broken, whilst a new growth of brain substance is perpetually taking place.”
I have also spent quite a bit of time this week reflecting on some of my own choices regarding our school schedule. I have a tendency to want to avoid dealing with stress in life. Some stress is good and pushes us forward and some stress is just a part of life (and I’m not going to get into bad stress). In the past when I had a lot on my plate, I usually removed something from my list in the guise of rest or needing to prioritize. Some reprioritizing does need to happen, but I’m starting to notice where I’m reprioritizing and where I’m avoiding. In the same chapter about Dorothy, Charlotte Mason says, “habit…is a chief factor in character” (p62). A new goal I have for school this year is to really reflect on whether we need to put off part of school to accommodate our schedule or give us time for rest, or if I’m just avoiding dealing with stress. Teaching my children good habits starts with me.
What I’m {nature} Journaling: Sunflowers
Where I thought I planted peas, I have sunflowers blooming. I’m surprised, except I shouldn’t be too surprised. Several weeks ago, I was studying their growth and how they looked as the greenery was growing. I noticed it opened like the sunflowers on my deck that had recently bloomed. It was odd, but I’ve never seen peas grow, so I didn’t’ know what to expect. Well, they aren’t peas. They’re beautiful sunflowers.
Third Grade Highlights
We completed a full week of school with a full test run of what our schedule will look like once our co-op begins next month. We were away for the afternoon and morning I expected plus another afternoon when I needed to be away. I was encouraged to see that we can complete a week’s work well and within a week. Of course, we still have a little tweaking to help with our flow but we’re on track for setting our routine.
My son loves reading out loud. What!? I didn’t know if this day would come. He loves reading his phonics readers, and he’s asking to read more verses when we do our Bible readings.
Needs Improvement
We did horribly at getting up and going in a timely manner this week. (BUT we did well in completing our work, so let’s stay positive about this.) And I let the tv stay on longer in the mornings while I was trying to get my own act together. I think I mentioned it before that we’re using the first month to get back in a routine. I’m going to extend us some grace, and we’ll try for better next week.
Curriculum Spotlight
We are going out on our own for history and geography this year (minus the CM geography concepts listed on AmblesideOnline). We will be studying American history for the next two years. We’re loosely following the Beautiful Feet Books Early American Primary list. We completed America Begins by Alice Dagliesh and Columbus by the D’Aulaires. I plan on adding in quite a bit of Native American history to the list as it’s one of my favorite historical subjects, and I have a lot of books collected over the years for us to peruse. I’m also looking forward to Washington’s time as it’s been a very long time since I’ve studied that time period. I may even spend some personal time reading some of the political philosophy essays of the time as I really enjoyed those classes in college.
We are traveling the world for geography this year. I thought this might be the last year that I can really do something fun like this with my son. We will spend five weeks on a continent or region. I’m roughly following Give Your Child the World by Jamie C. Martin. I’m using book lists from her book, Simply Charlotte Mason, and Beautiful Feet Books. I made an age appropriate list for both children. I’m checking out what is available from the library since our holds system isn’t always reliable. We start the lesson by finding America on the globe and then tracing a route to where we’re going for the lesson. I read the two books out loud and then we find the locations on the map to color (my daughter just colors the whole map). Then we draw a picture in our travel journal. I let my son decide what he wants to draw. The first week he said he was eating a tiger. I’m just making a list of the books we’re reading with a small illustration. There will probably be weeks where we try out a recipe from that region, perhaps the fifth week.
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