Semester 2, Week 9

What I’m Reading: Tending the Heart of Virtue by Vigen Guroian
This is another one of those books that’s been crossing my radar for awhile that I’m finally getting around to reading.  I must confess that the main reason why I finally gave into buying this book was the fact that I didn’t enjoy reading Pinocchio with my son.  Even thought I’ve kept it on my daughter’s free read list for next year (my son loved the book), I have been dreading listening to it again. Guroian’s book didn’t convince of the merits for me, but this book and heeding the advice of a few others who’ve said the repetitive nature of the book doesn’t even phase kids but helps solidify the heart of the story.

Tending the Heart of Virtue is definitely a must read for parents who don’t see the value in reading old stories.  I wish I had read this before we started my son in Ambleside Online Year 1 because I removed several of the readings of fairytales because I DID NOT understand them and wanted to avoid the topic of witches since this was a sensitive matter in part of our family. I don’t think if I had read this book before we started AO that it would have changed my mind about reading the specific fairytales, but it would have sparked my interest in doing more research (and fact checking…to say I can be a bit cynical is an understatement).  

I have a completely different view of fairtytales now.  I grew up loving them and remember checking out a particular book from the school library in second grade.  I checked out the anthology so many times because I loved the rhymes and Rumplestiltskin. I liked fairytales until I saw the glorifying of Disney princesses. At that point I had little interest in fairytales (my college class didn’t even redeem them). While I don’t think I’m a fairytale expert or feel like I want to analyze them (with the knowledge I’m acquiring from my class), I am enjoying them more than before.  

What I’m {nature} Journaling:  I’m finally seeing the regularity of a hummingbird.  It’s taken far longer than usual to see activity, but I’m glad to see it.  I was concerned we wouldn’t get any since we cut down our {lone} mimosa tree.

Co-op

Wrapping up co-op was fun! We celebrated with a Mexican dinner for all. Then the kids shopped in the maker’s market.  My kids sold potholders and Mother’s Day cards.  (My daughter quickly spent every penny she earned.) Then the kids moved over to the talent show. Both kids played piano well. (I should also say that my daughter is completely obsessed with playing “Go Tell Aunt Rhody.” She plays it multiple times each day and in every voice on the keyboard and records it and plays the recording as she walks away to do other things. As her piano teacher, I am very proud.  As her mother, I wish her piano teacher would teach her something new!)  They were also asked questions about the art they had on display.  My daughter showed great confidence in handling the mic and explaining the entire process of her watercolor painting.

Fourth Grade Highlight

My son has finally completed the Usborne Engineering Scribble book.  He’s been working through two of the Usborne Engineering books for several years now, so he was expecting the next one.  I’m not buying anymore of the series especially since he does engineering projects with his grandpa. I don’t know if he’s actually learned anything, but I know it was something that he looked forward to on the days we had it in school.

We also did a lazy mom substitution for our nature walk this week.  We watched a documentary about Hawaii’s volcanoes.  And I fully enjoyed my lazy mom substitution.  I’m getting over a respiratory virus, the rain has been unpredictable, and we’re just trying to make it through the last few weeks of academics.  The documentary was so good that we rewatched it with my husband in the same night. 

Kindergarten Highlight

I’m basically done with kindergarten.  We have a few books to wrap up and are maintaining a form of school routine, but I’m not doing all the things anymore.  I’m letting my daughter choose whether she does math or phonics, she does three little worksheets to keep her amused, she plays piano, and we read.  And I’m trying to get us outside during any good weather we may have.  I do really enjoy seeing her interest in specific parts of school light up.  I know it’s her next step of maturity and that she will be really ready for first grade when we start up the next school year.

Mom Highlight

I am in closer to the end of planning for next school year and feeling far more confident in myself in removing certain books and then adding in a few challenges.  And I’m feeling great in being able to set up all the notebooks before school is out in a couple weeks setting me up for a summer free of planning anything for next school year.

I did have a lapse in motivation.  I began to countdown all we had left and planning out each day so that we could cram it all in and finish sooner.  And then I slept on it.  We aren’t doing that.  We’ve set this course and we are sticking to it.  It’s a good course and it is filling our days with goodness.  We are completely flexible to enjoy other things if they arise.

Semester 2, Week 7

What I’m Reading: The Living Page: Keeping Notebooks with Charlotte Mason by Laurie Bestvater
I don’t know how long I’ve had this on my TBR, but I finally broke down and bought a copy.  It’s a good how-to on notebooking for the Charlotte Mason method.  Even though I already have a good handle on how to work out narrations/observations, this is an encouraging read and gave me a few new ideas I might be able to implement.

What I’m {nature} Journaling: My son discovered a tiger moth camouflaged on our back door.  It is a pretty moth and has intriguing antennae. I’ve also been seeing some interesting insects that have met their demise in the dogs’ water bowl, but I haven’t fished them out to identify them!

Co-op
We had our last co-op class day.  It was full of excitement as everyone is finally feeling comfortable around one another with better friendships…always just in time for everything to get wrapped up.  It was a busy day for me as we also had open house for new families.  I was completely peopled out by the time I got home.  We still have a few more activities planned with co-op for this school year, so we still have more to look forward to.

Fourth Grade Highlight

My son can now pretty well label a United States map.  Now we’re focusing on state capitals.  It’s always nice this time of year to see the progression of what’s been learned and accomplished over the school year.  We still have another month or so, but I feel like most things learned at this point are just icing on the cake. (I did have my son start writing out a list of things he wants to learn this summer, so the learning never ends in our house.)

History-wise Paul Revere was wrapped up and now my son is moving on to Thomas Jefferson.  I feel like I know very mixed things about him, so I’m looking forward to my son’s narrations to see if I learn anything new.

We also made a small change in dictation this week.  I’ve added in the grammar from Simply Charlotte Mason.  It’s a good review in most cases, but it’s also some new lessons we haven’t gone into depth with.  The way I laid out the week also gave my son more focused chances to study the spelling.  I was giving him a lot of this on his own before, but it’s become more challenging.  I can see that we need to work on better habits. 

Grandpa engineering was this week.  They learned more about energy, potential energy, and pendulums.  They applied this to real life with my son on his bike.  Then my son built a car.

We finished listening to By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  It was good, not quite as enthralling as some of the other books.  It was fun to hear Laura’s very first mention of the Wilder’s crossing her path.

Kindergarten Highlight

My daughter had her very first lesson in math about place value.  I’m not quite sure how much of that actually got across to her.  I guess we’ll see the next time we do math!

Phonics/reading is going well.  My daughter is looking forward to her summer challenge.  I don’t think she quite understands what it entails, but I guess that’s what bribery is for (bribery is anti-CM).

Mom Highlight
I’m feeling far more encouraged about school this week.  I guess it has to do with getting over that middle hump.

Semester 2, Week 6

What I’m Reading: Spring Magic by D.E. Stevenson
What a delightful read.  I saw this book mentioned in a book subscription and put it on my TBR.  I ended up getting a copy while I was ordering school books. I found out that D.E. Stevenson is related to Robert Louis Stevenson of Treasure Island.  What a neat connection!

Frances goes to Cairn for her first real holiday.  Her choice isn’t to do anything in particular but because she once saw a picture of Cairn and thought it would be a nice place to visit.  That’s my kind of travel! She goes there at the same time that troops are coming in (WWII) and befriends several of the wives.  She also befriends some locals, but there isn’t very much a focus on them as a particular young gentlemen who is stationed in Cairn.  It’s definitely a love story, but I found that there was so much more depth as she described the places and people.

I was pleasantly surprised at the richness and recommend this book wholeheartedly.  (I read a couple of the Miss Buncle books about a decade ago when one of them was free on kindle.  I enjoyed it very much but have never read anything else by Stevenson thinking they may all be too light.)

What I’m {nature} Journaling: Baby blue birds and irises.  The baby blue birds have hatched in the bird house.  I saw mama bird bringing a worm while papa bird looked on from the fence.  My irises are blooming too.  I thinned them out in the fall, so it’s so nice to see them growing all nice and straight and sans aphids. 

Fourth Grade Highlight

Right now my son is reading about Paul Revere in his independent history reading.  I like hearing him make some connections to other people we’ve discussed. 

I’ve noticed in the past with other assignments that my son’s reading comprehension isn’t always spot on.  I’m not sure if it’s a maturity thing or something we need to focus on a bit.  Narration is helpful for me to hear what he knows, and I try not to ask too many leading questions.  This summer we’re participating in the library reading challenge but I’m also setting up a reward system of my own for the kids.  I’m hoping this will help me better guage where my son is with his independent reading comprehension.

Kindergarten Highlight

I’m having so much fun listening to my daughter learn how to read.  She really likes Bob books and is not going to be left behind in our reading challenge this summer.  We finished one of her nature books this week, so she asked when she can start picking her chapter books like her brother does.  I told her she’ll get to do that more as she learns how to read, but it’s also coming up in the next school year and I bought a few for to choose from this summer.

Mom Highlight
We (mostly I) needed a school reset this week.  We are half way through our semester (not counting exams), but it’s feeling like February.  And technically, we should have been where we currently are by the end of February. We have had quite the school year.  I drastically reduced our school load, but it seems like we haven’t made any headway.  I’m sure by the time I do our evaluation, I’ll feel differently, but I’m in a will we make it through the hump funk.  We have also received some discouraging news about a close family member who has a cancer battle in the upcoming months.  It’s been a lot. 

Thus, a reset in the form of a nature walk.  I realized while we were at our favorite nature preserve that’s been a year since we’ve been.  I can’t believe it.  We enjoyed a slow walk, stopping at every bench to eat snacks.  We saw so many things that we’ve been studying in recent years.  We saw mushrooms, wildflowers, spring blooms, working ants, butterflies, a caterpillar, nesting birds, chirping birds, bees, deer, nuts.  We also brought along a picnic.  The kids always love running around afterward looking for pecans and walnuts.  You know what we didn’t see? Squirrels and chipmunks.  That’s a first.

I felt far better after our morning out.  We still took it easy with school work since I had to be away for a day and we needed a work day to go through all the kids’ clothes.  I’m not sure how my attitude is doing going into the second half. I’m still feeling a little discouraged that we aren’t farther along, but I also don’t feel like we have so much that we can’t make it through.  I’ve been trying to look on the bright side that school going into June at least gives us some routine. I would love to just be done, but I also really think our curriculum is worthy of our time.  I wouldn’t be soul satisfied if we were to leave things undone.  It’s too good to neglect.

A day has passed since I wrote that.  I received a message from a(nother) friend who is researching Charlotte Mason.  I kept my affirmation brief in reply, but it’s so hard because that’s how much I love CM.  I could talk about all the things we do and the philosophy and the soul feeding we’re doing every day.  My little explosion of how lifegiving our schooling is was enough to encourage me for these upcoming weeks.  Yes, it’s not been a breezy season of school, but school isn’t a burden. If we were to set it aside right now, it would be a break but we would just be seeking these same things to fill our days.  When we miss tea and poetry or art or nature walks or our variety of books and subjects, the kids are sure to be asking when we’re going to do it again.

Semester 1, Week 5

What I’m Reading: An Experiment in Criticism by C.S. Lewis
I don’t know what prompted me to finally read this.  I’m so glad I did.  I thought it would be a very difficult read.  While there were parts I didn’t understand, I got the gist of what he was saying.  I think it also helped inform my view of grace on other’s reading (and entertainment/educational) lives.

What I’m {nature} Journaling: Spring is quieter than usual in the backyard this year.  I am not planting my usual wildflower garden or attempting vegetables.  The puppies are too busy exploring every nook and cranny and below every nook and cranny.  We cut down our only tree in the fall.  Our backyard is a bleak mire of mud and weeds.  Sad, rather.  BUT in the midst of the bleakness, there are small reminders of life.  Many of our native weeds are flowering.  I have spotted grape hyacinth, orange fameflower, baby blue eyes, and sweet William.  I also saw the first hummingbird of the season the first week in April (later than previous years). That is still the only day I have seen a hummingbird at the feeder.  I assume I won’t see as many due to the loss of our mimosa tree and complete lack of flowers.  

We also watched the eclipse.  It wasn’t quite as amazing at 2017 since we weren’t in totality.  However, it was still really cool to watch it get twilight over the hour.

Co-op

We had class day four.  I pulled double duty assisting in my son’s first class and then teaching his second class.  It’s a watercolor class, so it was pretty easy finding a project for us to follow.  The kids painted a coneflower.  I loved all their interpretations and color choices.

Fourth Grade Highlight

The major highlight of the week was finishing The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis.  This was the reigning favorite of mine when I last read the series.  I still really liked it, but currently The Silver Chair is my new favorite.  My son also really liked this book.  He says it’s one of his favorites right now, but I don’t know if I unduly influenced him or not.

Kindergarten Highlight

All is going well in the kinder land.  Spring is a pleasant time to be outside picking all the weed flowers!

Mom Highlight We’ve had kinda a crazy week.  I’ve had more requested of my time and attention than usual, but I know it’s a very temporary season.  And today I finally have a little respite.  When I have these times, I do my best to maintain a routine and set aside time for reading or knitting as a bit of rest. The downside of these times is that I usually start reading too many books at once because I have a shorter attention span.

Semester 2, Week 2

What I’m Reading: Howards End by E.M. Forster

I’m reading this to follow along with The Literary Life Podcast.  This isn’t a book I would have chosen on my own.  I didn’t particularly like it, but I didn’t hate it.  I didn’t really like the style of writing jumping from one event to the next and not always understanding the timeline of going fast and slow; it didn’t have a great flow. The really compelling part of the book was the story of the classes and place/home. Forster wrote a clear picture of the middle and lower classes in their social/educational/working life but also the cultural story of where we find refuge or sanctuary and ultimately ourselves.

What I’m {nature} Journaling:  We have had so much rain building a natural pond of our backyard that I got to observe a wonderful bit of nature the morning we finally had sunshine.  I could visibly see the evaporation happening all over our backyard, deck, and neighbor’s yard.  The shear volume of moisture plus the perfect rays of sun made for a magical five to ten minutes of vapor swirling rise.

Co-op

We went on a field trip to a local bread factory.  It was amazing.  We had fun watching the entire process of loaves of bread and buns being made.  By the entire process, I mean everything.  We heard the flour being sifted in the silos, dough being lifted into the final mixer, the mixed dough being dropped and then processed to the pans, the oven, the cooling rack, the slicer, the bagger, and finally the loaves being loaded for delivery. (I’m leaving out steps but only because we saw this on such a giant scale that it’s difficult to remember things in order.)  We also left with a loaf of bread and a bag of donuts.

Fourth Grade Highlight

My dad and son complete an engineering project together once a month.  The previous month my dad left a packet to read along with questions for my son to answer.  He’s slowly been chipping away at it.  It’s a completely different task for him as I have never had him do reading comprehension worksheets before.  This does not fit into a Charlotte Mason education, but I do think it’s a good skill to learn how to research, find pertinent information amongst all the other information.  I don’t know if he’s actually assimilating any information.  I do like that my son is writing out some definitions.  I would prefer that he could see these things on his own and want to put them in his science notebook.  However, he hasn’t quite caught on to the significance of keeping such information.

Kindergarten Highlight

My daughter is finding more moments for independent play and crafting.  We opened up one of her birthday presents of jewel crafting.  After a little help getting her started, she can finally do it on her own.  She also started weaving her first potholder this week.  She’s not completely independent on it yet, but she has caught on quickly.  It’s a matter of practice to make her better.

Mom Highlight

We took the puppies to our vet for the first time.  The kids were very helpful since the puppies aren’t quite ready to be on the leash.  Both pups are growing quickly and getting into everything!  It’s like having the days of a newborn and a toddler mixed into one.  Their cuteness covers over a multitude of teaching moments. 

We also finally made it to our living library as a family.  I accidently checked out the wrong Roosevelt book, but I told my son it was a good opportunity to learn about a different Roosevelt than the one he intended.  My daughter found plenty of princess books and a really good one about dogs that both of the children enjoyed. 

Semester 1 Exams

We made it! *huge sigh of relief*

I did not know how exams would go this time.  Our semester has been so spread out that I wasn’t sure how much my son would remember. He did so well, and I am so proud of him.  I don’t if it’s because I kept better track of what we learned and asked better questions, if he just remembered everything, if he’s getting the hang of exams, or if spreading out the academics benefited his mind.

All of our memory work celebrations went very well.  My son was able to recite all of the Scripture and poetry passages from memory with no problem.  We had a great time singing all the songs and going back and reviewing last year’s memory songs too.

All of the exam questions were from the Bible, The Chronicles of Narnia, ants, fairytale retelling, history books, and recalling lessons from art lessons, engineering, and nature observations.  He also had to demonstrate tying a knot, wrote out a passage from Chronicles in cursive, and painted Raphael’s “St. George and the Dragon.”

Semester 1, Week 13

What I’m Reading: Dracula by Bram Stoker
Over Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the new year, my husband and I listened to Dracula and the accompanying podcasts by The Literary Life Podcast.  This is most definitely a book I would NOT have read of my own choosing.  Sometime last year, we (my husband and I) had a lengthy discussion about his reading/education of Frankenstein in high school versus my recent reading/education of the book.  Wow, what a difference.  This sparked interest in Dracula as we repeated this conversation.  We both decided to set aside our perception of the book to read it together.  We were changed by this tale of the dragon, the princess, and the hero. We had lively discussions and praiseworthy revelation. You should read the book, but you should also listen to the podcast.

What I’m {nature} Journaling:  Friends, it’s cold outside.  We did walk in the cold, but I didn’t write a single thing down about it my nature journal! I felt like we had neglected our insect portion of our journals this semester, so I had the kids find an insect from a book to copy into their books. I was excited that my son read through a lot of the insect book as he chose what to draw; usually he’s rushing through his nature journal assignment.  I had plans to do the same, but again, I didn’t write in my journal.  I guess I need to pick up my resolve.

Travel: We do not have co-op this month (minus a mom meeting), so we are filling our time with travel and appointments (and another illness…).  We have traveled around the southern states.  It’s been cold.  It’s been beautiful.  It’s been great getting home to snuggle in the warmth. We especially liked our extended stay in North Carolina as we visited the mountains.  The kids enjoyed the toy stores.  I enjoyed the Battery Book Exchange in Asheville and bought some lovely editions of Penrod by Booth Tarkington, The Dean’s Watch by Elizabeth Goudge, and The Santa Fe Trail by Samuel Hopkins Adams (we just finished up one of his other Landmark books, The Erie Canal).  I was happy to find all three.  I have an original of Penrod and Sam that was my husband’s grandfather’s book.  Finding a hardback edition of Penrod was a special find for me even though it wasn’t a first edition (I’m only into collecting for reading’s sake). I bought the Elizabeth Goudge book since I have a new interest in her.  I read checked out The Rosemary Tree from the library a couple years ago after several podcasts mentioned it.  I was so moved by the book that I ended up buying one on my Kindle so that I could take my time reading it.  Her writing is so perfect as a before bed read.  I’m trying to shift over to more physical copies of books this year that this was my favorite find of the day.  I waivered in buying The Santa Fe Trail.  Now that we have access to all the Landmark books through our living library, I’ve been holding off on some of my book buying.  I have already read The Tree in the Trail with my son.  It’s such a great book for explaining the Santa Fe Trail that we don’t need to read anything else.  However, I was thinking I may read the book for myself when it’s time for me to read The Tree in the Trail with her in a couple of years.  Even though the Landmark books are written for older children to teens, I find that many of the stories are captivating, far less dry than history books written for adults, and tell very compelling stories.  I was more convinced to buy this edition since it was in perfect condition, had a dust jacket, and was a good price. 

Fourth Grade Highlight

We finished The Erie Canal by Samuel Hopkins Adams. His grandfather helped build part of the canal, so he had firsthand access to stories and letters and did other research to write the book.  Parts of the book were rather dry.  I read the highlights of the book aloud to my son so that he would get a general overview of who, what, why, and how.  We read this because my history plan of choosing Discovery biographies from our living library was thwarted during an extended illness.  We’ll go back to my original plan during the next semester as we will have full access to the library again. I do have a small pile of TBR Landmark books in my son’s TBR, so we may still pick one of those up before the end of the school year.

We finished reading Hans Brinker by Mary Mapes Dodge and then watched the movie.  I always have my son draw a picture of his free reads for his notebook.  He mixed in a little Star Wars delivering the silver skates as the prize.  Definitely not a true rendering.

We’ve started The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis.  It is so good so far.  I read this book in college, but I don’t remember anything about it.  I do think it’s one that took me a long time to read the first time because I didn’t find it interesting.  Total opposite this time!

Kindergarten Highlight

We finished reading the first Betsy-Tacy book. I’m enjoying this series.  It’s fun having a chapter book series to read with my daughter.  When my son was this age, we read the robot in the wilderness series and the Ralph mouse series.

Charlotte Mason Arithmetic is going slowly and I’m not sure how well but still on track as we haven’t given up. Phonics has picked up a little as my daughter is recognizing certain words as we’re driving and from a book she checked out at the library this week. She also received some kindergarten workbooks for Christmas to keep her busy when she’s asking for school but I’m working with her brother.  The scissor skills book is especially nice as she colors, cuts and then creates new art work with the glitter glue and stapler she also received.

Mom Highlight

We’re almost there, folks. I can almost see the end of our semester.  I’m about to plan out our exam questions and need to print out our second semester family folder.  If we take zero breaks we’ll finish school before Memorial Day.  I know that won’t happen, so I’m feeling more positive (as in happy and in full knowledge) that our completion in June won’t be so bad afterall.

Winter Rhythms and Mental Health

Our autumn season was punctuated by coziness. Now we’re hunkering down for winter.  I am actively pursuing positive mental health to keep my family and myself not only afloat but buoyant in our winter rhythm.

Several years ago I read a few books that had underlying themes of enjoying the cold or dreary seasons. I’ve since taken the advice to heart and sought out joy or wonder in ordinary, forgotten, or neglected portions of life.

Last spring as we were wrapping up our school year, I focused heavily on creating different seasonal rhythms within our school and home.  Those same rhythms have continued to pull on my heart through autumn and now that it’s winter.  Much of our Christmas break is carrying over into our new year.  While I typically strive to wake up early to get started on our day in a timely manner, I’ve set that aside for this season. I’ve turned off my alarm, and I’ve been letting the kids watch a little extra tv – Tuttle Twins and The Creators for the win! I’m more willing to cook up a warm breakfast or lunch for the children and myself.  I linger over my cup of coffee and time in the Bible.  I brew copious amounts of tea. And I run the space heater.

Routine for Mental Health

We’ve thrown out a rigid routine for this season, but we haven’t thrown out our routine altogether.  We all benefit from a routine and challenging ourselves with hard things.  This is not a season of rest. Routine gives us sense of purpose and place.  We are still going to maintain making beds, brushing teeth, getting dressed, and devoting ourselves to school. But maybe we’ll stay in our pajamas if it’s a rainy day.  Maybe we’ll watch an extra movie or documentary so that we can spend a little extra time snuggling under warm blankets.

Movement for Mental Health

I absolutely have to go out of my way to make it a point for us to get outside.  I’m NOT a fan of the cold, but I know how beneficial it is for us to get outside.  A brisk walk or nature observation is incredibly good for our mental health.  I also have to prioritize indoor exercise.  That is also not my favorite.  When I’m outside exercising, I don’t view it as work, but I sure do when I’m inside.  I open all the blinds to help motivate me, but it’s not quite the same.  I’m also becoming very aware of the types of body movements I’m making.  I’m someone who is often lost in my thoughts and find myself clasping my arms as if to protect myself and my soul.  I’ve been trying to do the opposite – making big movements – big strides, outstretched arms, lifted hands.

Reading for Mental Health

I’m taking more classes through The House of Humane Letters again this year, have a list of books to read along with The Literary Life Podcast, and another long list of books to read for learning and for fun.  I have found that I’ve recently been reading several non-fiction or very heavy fictional books.  I want to have a little more balance, so I’ve thrown in a mystery to help.  I’ve even changed around a few of the books I’m reading with the kids. 

Every year our church spends three days reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  People in the congregation sign up for 20 minute blocks to read where the last person left off.  There is something very powerful in reading Scripture out loud. 

I’m also reading my Scripture cards out loud in the morning and evening.  I have stored up anxiety (hello, living in your mind) that I am actively using ALL my senses to release and heal by storing up new memories and stories.  I also actively pursue at least two if not more daily activities that I know contribute to this new story – movement, cooking, art, knitting, tea drinking.

Music and Art for Mental Health

I cannot quote the book word by word since I don’t have it in my possession, but I read quite a few good things in the book Rewire Your Anxious Brain by Catherine Pittman.  While I already knew that singing was good for you, there is science behind why it’s good for you.  I’m making it a point in this season to sing… a lot… out loud… and often.  Did you know there’s also science behind artist study within the Charlotte Mason method? It’s good for your mind’s attention and for your soul’s rest.  The attention you are giving with your eye movements are triggering rest in your brain.  Again, I don’t have the exact study or brain names, so you’re welcome to link in the comments to some such things if you so desire.

Education for Mental Health

During 2023 my husband was pursuing the phrase “out with the old, in with the new.”  Our spring/summer was ruled by “rhythms” and our autumn by “cozy.”  I planned to be quite a bit further along in school this year.  How are we only at week 13 when we’ve been doing school since August?  As I reflected on what we have and haven’t done, I saw just how much we HAVE done.  We’ve traveled every month; we’ve had sickness every month; we’ve followed our rhythm every month.  Now that I see that our school year is going to linger into June (far later than I planned), I’ve come to the conclusion that we need a goal or mantra to keep us going.  We’re going to use the philosophy of Charlotte Mason and remind ourselves that education is a life. We will keep filling our days with academics but mostly with what is feeding our souls in this moment and for our future. 

Whatever season you are in, I hope you will take full advantage of your winter.