If you have never heard of Bravewriter I suggest you go straight away to the Bravewriter
website. There you will find a wealth of information regarding the Bravewriter lifestyle and the Bravewriter writing philosophy. The two oldest chicks and I just finished up a 6 week course called Kids Write Basic. This course taught ME how to teach my children how to write. It allowed me to see that my children have funny, interesting, thoughtful ideas in their heads and that they CAN write if they have something about which to write. It allowed my children to see that they can write and there is nothing to fear about writing. Bravewriter is not a curriculum...it is a lifestyle that nurtures the writer in you and your children!
This weekend, our local homeschool group held their annual Project Fair. This is the first year any of my chicks has entered. Lala created 8 small felt dolls using the book Felt We Folk by Sally Mavor as a guide. Lala created the 8 main characters from Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. She took first place for her age in the Arts and Crafts category. We are very proud!
I wanted to let you all know about a great online Geography resource. It is called Mystery Class. It is a free online line "class" the purpose of which is to use the changing sunset and sunrise times to track down the location of 10 "Mystery Classes" scattered throughout the Northern Hemisphere (or maybe the whole world--I think I'd better check that out...LOL). I copied this directly from the website:
'Somewhere under the sun, kids at 10 secret sites are watching how day length changes with the seasons. We challenge you to find the 10 Mystery Class sites using sunrise and sunset clues.'
It is completely free and looks very fun. I just signed up this morning and will be working with my three eldest children to track our daylight times and graph them appropriately. Hopefully we'll be successful and solve the "Mystery'.
Additionally, the site has other programs that utilize the sightings of various harbingers of spring (migrating birds, butterflies, melting ice, etc...) to track the changing seasons. There is even a "botany" related experiment involving the planting of tulips and charting the first sprouts....unfortunately we're a little late for that one but there is always next fall.
Here it is the 2nd of August and I still don't have much energy or desire to "do" school with the kiddos. Our schedule of schooling year 'round and taking off most of August just hasn't really happened this year...We've taken most of June and July off from school...many things I had hoped to finish before we officially start our new school year in September have been left undone. And now I've been invited to join a science co-op using Jeannie Fulbright's Exploring Creation With Botany. We have this book...our goal had been to use it throughout the summer months and finish up by Christmas so we could start Jeannie's Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day come January. Well, we've only done 2 and a half chapters and I've put it on hold--for now.
Th co-op is a good one; few of the families from my local homeschool group participate. As the children study, the mom's enjoy a bible study (the moms take turns leading the lessons so no one mom misses much of the bible study). There is child care for my two littles and The Boy can work for $$ helping out in the nursery/preschool group. A perfect arrangement for us. Except that I have become rather anti-activity...I have a tendency to try do do too much throughout the week and that leaves me feeling discouraged and defeated. I always feel like we have to get "X, Y and Z" done and when we are out of the home it just doesn't happen. As it stands we are already out of the home at piano lessons one morning a week...this co-op would add another morning a week and for some reason it is SO hard to get motivated to start anything after we get home. Unfortunately, I always feel like the day is wasted if some academics aren't completed.
However, the Dear Knight thinks it would be a good idea for us...after all, it has been years since I was involved in a bible study and it would help reinforce the lessons in serving others that we are trying to instill in The Boy (even if he does get paid for it). I am warming to the idea especially after talking to my HS group's leader this morning...she has such an engaging way about her... and my girls and her girls seem to have really hit it off (a huge answer to prayer---we are finally-after almost 8 years of HS'ing-making connections with other families/children!). So I am tweaking my tentative schedule to make it more do-able and less pressure filled. Hopefully it will work and I won't end up regretting it.
When the Dear Knight and I started this homeschooling journey we knew only two homeschoolers: one family had been doing it for several years and used the textbook method and one had really just started out using the eclectic approach. Both very different from the road DK and I chose but both inspiring nonetheless. I knew I wanted to experience the same joy and delight in spending hours with my children as these families did and still do. And as I've watched these two families over the last 7 years I have noticed something remarkable--I not seen even a hint of burnout...just a joyful, pleasant desire to raise their children in the way the Lord has lead them.
So what have these families got that I/we don't...I have really struggled with burnout these last 18 months...I have tried to pray it away, read it away, pretend it away, and teach it away. Yet here it still is. Some days I just don't think I can face another page of math facts or history narrations or even fun read alouds. Frankly, I just want to crawl back into bed, pull the covers over my head and sleep my day away, pretending that my house is in order and the children will care for themselves. This is NOT the reality I envisioned almost 8 years ago.
I am not sure what I need to do to get back what I felt I've lost--denial certainly won't do it. I am not even sure a long vacation would help refresh this tired momma. New curriculum won't satisfy and adding another "How to be the Perfect Homeschooling Mom" book to my to-read list just heaps guilt and discouragement upon my head...better that I wear sack cloth and ashes that fan that fire.
But sometimes in the midst of those days when all seems either absolutely hopeless or at least a complete wash God sends me a reminder of His faithfulness---even when I have failed to lean on Him as I KNOW I should. This day and last have been those God-filled days that He graciously gives top remind me of His presence.
I have for a long time wanted our days to be filled with a peace and joy and quietness/gentleness (not silence mind you, 5 children ARE noisy) that only comes from a Spirit-filled home and life. Most days my pleas are seemingly unheard...then God does His thing!
These last two days have been all that I've wanted for a long time...the older chicks did not spend their entire waking moments arguing as is the morn around here. Baby cakes did not spend her entire day crying and fussing as is her norm. And Tink did not spend her days trying to wreak every bit of havoc possible in as short a time as possible. there has been peace and gentle ness (as much as is possible with 6 distinct personalities all living in the same home). We read aloud for over an hour yesterday morning--I can't tell you the last time we read for more than 5 minutes without some horrendous disruption from Babycakes and Tink. The older girls and I completed two science projects. And the older girls did a few math pages without tears (well, only a few and they were quickly dried). And today we read aloud TWICE!--once this morning and again after lunch! As I sat in the chair reading I looked up and there was The Boy building his newest LEGO set (he works hard around the house and for Grandpa in order to have spending money for LEGOS and hockey gear), LaLa was in the kitchen mixing up a batch of our favorite chocolate chip cookies, Mimi was at my desk drawing pictures of whatever struck her fancy, Tink was quietly (will wonders never cease) watching The Boy and drawing her own pictures and Babycakes was, and still is as type, napping. I could hear the fountain right outside our family room window and the ceiling fan was creating a gentle cooling breeze.
This is what I pictured so long ago...a sense of peace and tranquility. A sweet life that seems hard to find most days and yet I'm sure is actually very close...I intend to savor these moments and hide them in my heart...I know this season of my burnout is not over but I do hope these days have been a harbinger of what the future holds.
I have not always enjoyed poetry beyond that of the nursery rhyme genre. I do remember, however, in first or third grade perhaps , being given a booklet of poems for young people. The cover was gold and brown and the booklet itself was rather small and thin. However, it contained the words to the only poem I committed to memory (aside from the aforementioned nursery rhymes): "Down, Down, Yellow and Brown". The only other poem I vaguely remember spoke of "eating peas with honey. " I loved that little booklet and yet, my mother hated it for reasons unknown to me then and now. I recall her using the words "stupid" and "vulgar" whenever I attempted to read from it to her. I soon learned to not bother my mom with my recitations. My heart was broken the day I came home from school and couldn't find my little book. It wasn't where I kept it; not in in my room or on the bookshelf--it had vanished. Now as an adult I am sure my mother had something to do with it, but as a child I was just heartbroken. I did not have any interest in poetry after that...not reading it and certainly not writing it. I even managed to get through high school with only having to write a haiku or two...not bad I thought. Fast forward a few years and as I contemplated homeschooling my brood of (then) 3 chicks I read of Charlotte Mason and of the Classical approach. Poetry it seemed was actually good for children...not vulgar and stupid (although I am know some poety DOES fall into that category). During our first year home educating I purchased "The Harp and the Laurel Wreath" to use for copywork and memorization. In second grade, the Boy memorized Frost's "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" (as did his then-2 year old sister who learned it as he practiced it out loud) Even now this is one of the chicks favorite books. This year I added to our collection of anthologies by purchasing "Poetry for a Lifetime", "Favorite Poems, Old and New" and the "Oxford Book of English Verse" (by far my favorite). We also started and are about to complete a 12 week study of poetry entitled "Classical Writing-Poetry for Beginners". All the chicks have enjoyed this study and have done a wonderful job analysing and imitating various works. And just for fun this year we implemented "Tea Time Tuesday"; simply and hour or so out of our busy schedule to slow down, enjoy a cup of tea and read poetry. The only rule is poetry reading is mandatory if you want a treat...works like a charm for the sometimes reluctant Boy. The chicks have enjoyed this very much, especially Tink...not a day goes by that she doesn't ask, "Is today Teatime Tuesday?" All this rambling does bring me to what truly wanted to blog about...If you have a reluctant poet in your house...just throw out this title and see if it doesn't catch his or her attention:"On a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes". That "Tub of Goldfishes" is of course referring to actual fish and not the cracker variety as The Boy first thought!!I stumbled upon this peom in the Oxford Book of English Verse...I think this is now my favorite poem...or at least my favorite title...ever!!
The Company Porch here at HSB is having a contest. All you have to do is post a comment about what you've done this week for science with your children. To find out more about it read this post--you won't be disappointed!
The rain is raining all around,
It falls on field and tree,
It rains on the umbrellas here,
And on the ships at sea.
~~Robert Louis Stevenson
This is the first poem that Tink has memorized...and considering how rainy it is this lovely February morning I thought it apropos to post it!
Here we are, my little chicks and I, trying to shake off the winter doldrums that have recently descended upon us. Our freezing cold, record-setting dry January is over and done and February is starting out wet and lonely, save for the feathered folk that visit our yard daily. What we need is some lightheartedness in our day. I know we are not alone, my dear sister-in-Christ and good friend, Ann V. of Listening, has mentioned to me that her brood could do with a dose of fun in their everyday learning. But how do we provide it and what does this "fun" look like? How do we add that spark when we get lost focusing on the "must do's" and the "hurry, hurry, hurry" of just getting through the tasks set before us? In light of that question Ann and I decide to brainstorm a list of things that can add some fun and enjoyment to our daily lessons...and we have thought we could include all of you--surely we aren't the only one's suffering from this malaise...so keep watching here and at Listening for more details and possibly even a button to add to your site for all to see showing that you are experienceing the Wonder of learning!
Well...here are the results of week two of the chicks art classes: Mimi's unicorn Lala's horse OK, so I'm a little biased but I think they did marvelously well!!!
Just the simple thoughts on life, children, books, nature, and God (to name a few) of an imperfect Christian momma as she ventures forth in search of the Sweet Life...
