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We Have a Winner
Yesterday, our local homeschool group had their spelling bee, for which I’m the coordinator. We have two bees, one for grades 1-4 and another for grades 5-8. I’m pleased to announce that my own dear Serenity won 2nd place for Grades 1-4. I’m so proud of my little girl and all the kids who participated. It’s hard to get up in front of everybody and take a chance that you’ll spell a word wrong. There were kids there who probably can spell fairly well but was out on the first word. Nerves can do those kind of things to you. Serenity is pretty quiet but yet she was brave enough to…
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What Does a Charlotte Mason Education Look Like?
I think a CM (Charlotte Mason) education will look different in each persons home simply because we each have different demands upon our time. We are the teachers, while also being mother, wife, homemaker, friend, and _________. (You fill in the blank.) Also, to be able to homeschool exactly as Miss Mason suggested would be almost impossible. She encouraged mothers to take their youngsters out each day, not send them out, but to go with them outside for at least a few hours each day. In her schools they taught 6 days per week. Can you see from these two suggestions how it might not be possible to fully adhere to…
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Who was Charlotte Mason?
I would like to start a series of entries explaining, to the best of my understanding, the Charlotte Mason way of educating. I hesitate to do this because I don’t want to set myself up as some kind of expert on Miss Mason. But I do have a purpose, and that is to help those who might read this blog to understand this way of "living" (educating). Miss Mason, whose full name was Charlotte Marie Mason, was born January 1, 1842 and died January 16, 1923 at the age of 81. She was an only child and lost both parents within a year of each other. She became an orphan at age 17. …
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Learnin' to Love All Veggies
Admittedly, swiss chard is a rather bitter vegetable. I have only served it a handful of times at my house because I know that everyone’s reaction will be less than enthusiastic. But I want my dear ones to learn to like everything. Things would get a bit monotonous if I made the same things over and over. We need all our veggies, not just the starchy ones. 🙂 Sometimes, you have to cultivate a taste for things, like swiss chard. Mmmm, doesn’t it look good? Okay, okay, your brain may not be sending that message to you. But not only do I think it looks good, I thought it tasted good, really good. Of…
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Keeping Track of Accomplishments
You may have read on Doug Phillip’s blog this entry about chronicling the Providences of God that occurred in your family in the past year. One morning around the breakfast table this week we discussed this and I (as the family secretary ) wrote down my family’s replies. I plan to type it up and place it in a notebook. Then, hopefully, each year we will add to it. Doing this got me to thinking about what books I had read in 2007 and what projects I had completed. I was very disappointed that I could think of very little. Yes, maybe I forgot a few, but I could only think of 2 books that I…
