Grab a cup of hot cocoa and slide your feet into some fuzzy slippers then sit back, relax and enjoy!



OUTDOOR GROWING TIMES
"It would be well if all we persons in authority, parents and all who act for parents, could make up our minds that there is no sort of knowledge to be got in these early years so valuable to children as that which they get for themselves of the world they live in. Let them once get touch with Nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life."
Charlotte Mason Vol. 1, pg. 61


Kim from YellowHouseintheWoods shares with us how they manage nature time when the weather is not co-operating.

Barb at HandbookofNatureStudy challenges us to learn more about one mammal in particular, the squirrel, during our nature time and gives us the tools to do so with video clips, website links and instructions. (My kids and I watched her video clips several times, they are very entertaining!)

Candace from CandaceMercyIsNew shares the birds that have been gracing their backyard this winter.

And Makita of 4TwinklingStars tells us how her family joined in a community "weed pull" while on vacation and what they discovered while helping out.

Barb at HarmonyArtMom also shares with us the impact her family's bird window is having on their daily lives and gives us ideas for learning more about another bird lover, John James Audubon.


INSTRUMENTS OF EDUCATION
"We see, then, that the children's lessons should provide material for their mental growth, should exercise the several powers of their minds, should furnish them with fruitful ideas, and should afford them knowledge, really valuable for its own sake, accurate, and interesting, of the kind that the child may recall as a man with profit and pleasure."
Charlotte Mason Vol. 1, pg. 177

Cindy from OurJourneyWestward shares with us how she plans to beat the winter blues around her house using Winter Learning Centers. A good reminder that sometimes our children just need the right encouragement.

Jessica (me) shares with us how she has incorporated composer and picture study into Year 1 in her busy home.

Jacci at UnderstandingCharlotte gives us great insight and instruction for applying copywork in our school time through a series of links to previous posts.

Shannon from MountaineerCountryWV writes the specific copywork passages that she chose for her daughter from the most recent book that they finished reading.


BOOK REVIEWS FOR MOMS AND KIDS ALIKE
"...no education seems to be worth the name which has not made children at home in the world of books, and so related them, mind to mind, with thinkers who have dealt with knowledge. We reject epitomes, compilations, and their like, and put into children's hands books which, long or short, are living."