Charlotte Mason Discussion Group

The Importance of Eating Outdoors

Considering the wonderful weather we were having, I thought it would be a nice experience to have this discussion group outside. I live in a quiet neighborhood in a small town and had images of birds chirping in the background with a nice fire going in my chimenia while we nibbled on little "finger food" type snacks that would be perfect for any picnic.

Despite my best laid plans, my neighbors who live on both sides of me decided that would be a good night to cut the grass. So much for a peaceful evening.

Chapter 37 in Karen Andreola's book A Charlotte Mason Companion was a short one, but one worth discussing.

Eating outdoors is probably one of the easiest things to do to get you started on a Charlotte Mason lifestyle. If you don't regularly eat outside, purpose to take your lunch outside to your yard (or porch or balcony) to eat once a week. Any lunch, whether you heat it up in the microwave or eat sandwiches - take them outside.
While eating outside, you will be forced to slow down a bit. Observe what is around you. Birds chirping, leaves blowing in the wind, lawn mowers next door (lol). As you observe, discuss your observations and encourage your kids to do the same. This will cause you to eat slower which is a healthful habit.

You can take a picnic anywhere. Your back yard or a park are the first places that come to mind. If you have a busy day and you must eat lunch away from home, pack it in a cooler and find a shady spot in which to eat. It may be on a bench on a busy sidewalk or on a curb in a quiet parking lot.

Once in a while, my kids and I will have an impromtu picnic. We run to the grocery store in between stops (because we have to stop and get lunch anyway) and get a bag of cheese cubes, some fruit like apples or grapes, a jar of pickles, some multi-grain rolls and some bottled water. Sometimes I will let them get the salad bar at the grocery store. Still cheaper and healthier than eating at the golden arches. We take that to a local park to eat before we are off to the next activity or errand. They love it.

The less messy the food, the more enjoyable the picnic. Our family prefers finger foods so we don't have to worry about silverware. However, picnics are the best places to eat crusty bread and have little to clean up. Just brush the crumbs onto the ground and you're good to go.

If you plan a picnic, you may take along some poetry or drawing paper and some pencils. Taking a nature journal wouldn't hurt either.

Eating outdoors is good for you. You eat more slowly and fresh air and sunshine are good for our souls. I hear that all of these things are good for our physical bodies as well. Being together in such a way is also a bonding experience with our children.

Charlotte Mason Discussion Group - Nature Study

"...special Nature Study lessons aren't always necessary. As you know, young children will discover toads, butterflies, beetles, earthworms, robins, thistles, squirrels, mushrooms, berries, and run into thorn bushes on their own, without any prodding from us."

- Karen Andreola on Nature Study in A Charlotte Mason Companion (page 253)

I find the above quote to be most appropriate. We don't need any special expensive curriculum or textbooks in order for our children to learn about nature. They are naturally curious and if we were to force them indoors with a textbook to learn about such things, they would resist.

A nature notebook can be any kind of notebook. A book with blank pages (either lined or unlined) is great or if you prefer, your child can take a clipboard with some loose paper on it to record observations and put into a 3-ring binder.

How to Start

Take your children outside and tell them that they will sit still for 10 minutes (or 15 or 20 minutes - you decide what they can handle) and see what it is that God wants to show them. It could be a blade of grass or a cloud formation or a bird. Perhaps God is reminding them of a Bible verse or giving them a new poem to write. They should record this on their paper. They can draw pictures or write words. It should remain open ended to see what God has in mind for them during that time.

This could be done once or twice a week - again depending on what your kids can handle.

As your child creates new entries in his journal, he is creating a keepsake. Something that he should be able to look back through for years to come.

Got Nature?

Nature study can be done in the city as well. There are parks and zoos to visit. You could have a pet such as a cat or fish. Sowing potted plants is also another way to observe God's handiwork.

Finally, your own back yard can lend itself to the study of nature. Currently, our family lives in a neighborhood where we have 1/5 of an acre and we find plenty to observe here. We have a bird box attached to our deck that is visited by birds each year. We are able to lift the lid to look in at the eggs and watch as the birds hatch and grow. In the past, I have taken pictures of the birds in the nest every couple of days. We took the pictures and lined them up to see the changes that happened in such a short period of time. We also have tulip bulbs in our yard as well as Black-Eyed Suzies and maple trees.

Indoor Nature Study

What about those days when it is just no fun to go outside? Can we still do nature study?

Absolutely!

One of my daughter's favorite things to do each month is a page on the Flower and Gem of the Month. A quick web search will help you to find this month's flower and gem. Try to find interesting information on each for the children to add to their pages. For example: February's gem of the month is the amethyst. We found out that Nubian Queens were fond of amethysts and legend has it that men gave women heart-shaped amethysts as a sign of affection in the Middle Ages. We were also able to go to Potomac Bead Company and buy a small amethyst for less than $1. We put it in a little plastic baggie and taped that to the page. Along with public domain pictures printed from the internet, you can find catalogs at jewelry stores in the mall that highlight the gem of the month to cut out and paste on a page. I like to find pictures of the gem before and after cutting and polishing.

For your flower of the month, it may be possible to find seeds of the flower to put in a baggie to tape on your page.

Other indoor nature studies could include animal studies.

This past year we have been learning about all sorts of owls. We have the common name and find the scientific name, the range, diet, and any other interesting facts and make a page with that information. After studying a few owls, we had the opportunity to go to our local state park to dissect owl pellets. Photographs from that experience can be included in a nature journal.

You don't have to study owls. You can study just about any animal you wish.

Books I recommend:

• Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Comstock
• The Beginning Naturalist by Gale Lawrence
• The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thorton Burgess (free download)
• Parables from Nature by Margaret Gatty (free download)

Sample Nature Notebook Pages

These are flowers from our yard...

...and flowers found on a trail at the local community park.

Notice the little baggie of REAL Amethysts on the February page. This was my daughter's favorite part because they are the REAL THING!!!

This is a page I created for our owl studies. If you would like a blank copy, make your request by leaving a comment on this entry that includes your email address or you can email your request to homeschoolmarm@yahoo.com

Other resources for nature study:

• Check out Harmony Art Mom's Outdoor Hour Challenges.
• Tanglewood Curriculum has a very inexpensive Nature Notebook download that I have used for years.
• Check your local state parks for summer classes. In Pennsylvania, your local park may develop a class if you call and request one. Codorus State Park has done this for us in the past.

CM Discussion Group: History

Our discussion group was small this month, but very dynamic. We discussed Chapter 32: History from Karen Andreola's book, A Charlotte Mason Companion.
These are my notes from the evening.

Imagination is so important to children, young and old. The power of imagination is a "delight in one's childhood and remains a pleasure in adulthood." When a child uses his imagination, it helps to build the brain to become stronger in all areas.

When teaching history, it is not beneficial to teach just facts. At a young age, history should be presented in literary language to help secure the child's interest in the topic. He will use his imagination and start acting out scenes that he has read (or has been read to him). This is what helps him to remember what was learned.
As he grows older (about 7th grade up) and starts thinking about social and political issues, then history may be studied at a different level. Then discussions can take place about political views and why a group of people may have a certain viewpoint.

According to Andreola, it's a mistake to make children learn an overview of history. It is better to focus on one person or one small period of time and become intimate with it. The goal is for the child to know the thoughts of the person or to be at home in the ways of the period. In learning these small pieces, the child is actually learning about the entire scope of events around that person.

Biographies are good for this. In learning about George Washington, the child will learn all about the beginnings of our country. Or in learning about Harriet Tubman, the entire Underground Railroad will unfold.

For young children (kindergarten - 2nd grade level), you may wish to start with 50 Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin. This is an excellent resource that tells stories about historical figures. The Baldwin Online Children's Literature Project offers many more books that can be downloaded for free.

Having a timeline somewhere in your home is a good idea, but not always practical. A timeline book is a good alternative since it's also portable. Keeping a Book of Centuries in addition to a timeline is good. In the Book of Centuries, you will keep written narrations and drawings or pictures of people and events the child has learned about.

You can get a downloadable Book of Centuries from Tanglewood School Curriculum, Inc. for only $2.25. This provides a good outline and once you purchase it, you can print out all the pages you need as often as you need for your family.

You can also find pages to use in your Book of Centuries from NotebookingPages.com. She has several free pages that you can print out and use.

To get this type of learning into your portfolio is easy. If you keep a Book of Centuries, make photocopies and place the pages in the portfolio.

Be sure to take photographs when learning spills over into play. Those photos can be put on a sheet of paper and the child can write a caption or quick paragraph to be put in the portfolio.

Imagination is key. If they can imagine it, that means they have learned it.

Here are some samples of our timeline book and Book of Centuries.

Timeline book page 1850AD to 1899AD

Front cover of Book of Centuries

218 BC - Hannibal used elephants to attack Rome.

1894 AD Hershey's Chocolate Company is founded.

Vocabulary, Spelling and Grammar

During this school year, I have been hosting Charlotte Mason Discussion Groups at my home once a month. The discussions are based on Karen Andreola's book A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on The Gentle Art of Learning.
Our discussion this month was about Vocabulary, Spelling and Grammar.

I started with a quote from Karen Andreola:
"The Maker of Heaven and Earth chose words to make himself known to us. When a believer is 'in the Word' we are closer to Him (I John 1). We worship Him with our actions, our intenetions, aour hears, and with words. Words are wonderful!"

This tells us how important words are to God. Our discussion lasted almost two hours (as usual) and I can't get every detail here in this post, but here are some of my thoughts after the discussion was over.

Vocabulary development starts from birth. How we talk to our children is reflected when they begin to speak. Karen Andreola suggests that we "talk up not down to children". I take this to mean that we should expose children to language that is not dumbed down. We can do this by speaking to a child like he is a person (no baby talk) and by exposing him to quality literature.

What is meant by quality literature?
Junie B Jones, although funny, is what Charlotte Mason would consider "twaddle". The back of the book indicates that it is written for a 2nd grade level. On the other hand, Ambleside Online suggests reading books like The King of the Golden River to children who are about 2nd grade level.
Here are a couple of quotes from these books:
Junie B Jones: "After school was over, me and my bestest friend named Grace walked to the bus together."
The King of the Golden River: "Gluck was so perfectly paralyzed by the singular appearance of his visitor, that he remained fixed without uttering a word, until the gentleman, having performed another, and more energetic concerto on the knocker, turned round to look afer his fly-away cloak."
No matter how cute she is, do we really want our children talking like Junie B? These two examples are on opposite sides of the spectrum, but given a choice, I would rather hear "he remained fixed without uttering a word," from my children rather than "me and my bestest friend."

Karen Andreola suggests in her book to not introduce formal grammar lessons until about age 9 or 10. (4th or 5th grade). I couldn't agree more.

Exposing young children to good literature and speaking properly to them will increase their vocabulary and their use of the English language better than any language arts textbook will.

Without a textbook or a workbook, how will we get these subjects into our Pennsylvania mandated portfolios?

Pennsylvania Law states:
"At the elementary school level, the
following courses shall be taught: English, to include
spelling, reading and writing..."

As you can see, once again, the law allows for a great deal of flexibility. In the "English" section of your portfolio, you can include copywork. This covers the spelling and writing (it doesn't specify handwriting or compostion). The reading part is covered by the book list you keep.

If you do not have it, I strongly encourage you to pick up a copy of Karen Andreola's book. You can skip around it and read just a chapter or paragraph at a time to be inspired. It's a book I refer back to often.