I just wanted to write a word about the music selections which are playing as you read this blog.  We are studying Bach this term, so I have found a couple of Bach selections.  Our hymn study for this month is "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" by Bach, so that is the first selection playing.  You will probably recognize this tune (even if it is a bit fast in this rendition).  It is often played at weddings and in movies.  It's a simply beautiful piece of music! 

Tucked in between the two Bach selections is this term's folk song.  My girls love "Follow the Drinking Gourd".  They love the history behind it.  There were saddened and appalled to learn about slavery in this country.  We enjoyed reading about the underground railroad.  They even acted this song out for us in a play soon after we began this study. 

I love how these songs and stories impress them so much and become a part of them!

I hope you enjoy these selections as much as we do :-)

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I was reading Teresa's blog last night and stumbled across an easy way to add music to my blog!   Believe me when I say this was easy!  I did it while eating breakfast this morning.

I'll be putting music from Ambleside Online's  current composer, hymn and/or folk song selections.  This month, we are listening to music by composers Camille Saint-Saens and Hector Berlioz, from the early romantic period.  Our hymn selection this month is "A Child of the King" and this term's folksong is "An Emmigrant's Daughter."  Unfortunately, neither the hymn nor the folksong could be found at Playlist. 

Enjoy listenting to the composers, though!

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None of our duck eggs hatched.  We found abandoned and destroyed eggs two weeks after our initial discovery, but no ducklings survived.  We have no idea what -- or who -- the predator was, but we were all devastated, especially the girls.

So you can imagine how excited we were to learn that our neighborhood geese were better -- and more discreet -- parents than were their duck cousins.  We never even knew they had a nest!  But they certainly are better at hiding and protecting their young!

We found the proud family taking a leisurely swim in the pond when we went to visit yesterday.  My oldest daughter called out to them, "Congratulations!  Your babies are beautiful!"  And Mama Goose honked back and swam a little straighter, apparently very proud of her little family!

So sweet!  Mama and Papa Goose seem to be very good, attentive parents.

We couldn't believe it!  She was bringing them closer!

And even closer!

She brought them right up to us!  Even with the toddler with us.  I'm not sure if she's instructing her goslings, or mine ;-)

Have you ever seen anything so cute?

So that was our afternoon at the duck pond.  Well worth the trip!

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I may have mentioned before that I'm a city girl by nurture.  I always fancied myself a country girl by nature, though.  This is probably one reason why the Charlotte Mason philosophy was so attractive to me.....it gets kids out into nature from the beginning.

We are now bonafide suburbanites, and I am happy to say that we have found ample opportunities for nature study in our own small subdivision.  I was thanking God last night for bringing us to this particular little community, where it has been so easy for me to get my kids into nature.  It's certainly not why we bought our house, but God saw the fringe benefits and brought us to the perfect spot!

Two days ago, we made our semi-regular trip to the neighborhood duck pond.  While I was helping my toddler feed the ducks and geese, the girls ran to the far side of the pond trying to catch fish with a plastic bread bag.  I just love the enthusiasm and faith of children! 

Instead of fish, they brought back an even more interesting catch.  Tadpoles!  I was as excited as they were.  I feel like I am reliving my childhood through my children.  We never caught tadpoles when I was a kid....there are no tadpoles on a city block. 

I'm always a bit apprehensive about these things, initially.  Thank goodness for the Handbook of Nature Study!   We easily found the section on amphibians, particularly on tadpoles and creating a tadpole habitat.  Right there on my kitchen counter!

We now have a dozen tadpoles swimming in my glass salad bowl.  But it's worth the sacrifice to watch these little guys morph into toads or frogs.  We've added more pond water and more pond rocks, but I couldn't get a clear picture of that, so this is our initial habitat. 

It would be dishonest to say that I'm doing this for the kids.  I'm as excited as they are about this stuff!  I am so glad we homeschool and can share these experiences together!

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We were driving out of our subdivision, minding our own business, when out of the corner of my eye I spotted it.  Grayish-brown, beaver-like, unexpected on that kudzu-infected hill, the creature crawled down on all fours, its full tail trailing behind it. 

I stopped the car and demanded that the kids look.  (Oh man!  My camera was at home!)

The creature must have suspected it had been spotted.  It stopped moving and stood still.  Very still.  If I hadn't known it was there, I never would have seen it.  I could not, for the life of me, get the kids to discern its position.  Blasted camouflage!

Then, feeling a false sense of security, it began to move again.  Six-year-old Anna spotted it this time!  Poor Claire, though, was devastated.  I rolled down the window and the creature stopped moving again.  After a moment, it moved again, and this time disappeared in what must be its den. 

I was sure we had lost it forever.  Claire and Audrey were crushed.  Drew was blissfully ignorant, though a bit impatient that we get moving!  Then, it popped out of its hole in the ground.  It stood on top of the den and had a look around.  And finally, Audrey, then Claire, spotted the creature.  It bobbed up and down a bit, looked around, did a bit of grooming, then moved back underground, not to emerge again.

Reluctantly, five minutes after stopping, we moved on.  We tried guessing at what this creature might be.  The girls thought it was a mole and I couldn't convince them that it was just too big and, well, un-mole-like.  Then they insisted it was a beaver.  But it was living on land, across the street from the pond.  And, though its body did look very beaver-esque, its tail was definitely not of the beaver variety.  A raccoon?  No, wrong coloring, wrong face, wrong body shape.....raccoons even this city girl can identify! 

My guess was a groundhog.  I had only really seen a groundhog before in the movie "Groundhog Day".  I love that movie.  (My husband thinks I'm nuts!)   But I'd never seen one crawl down a hill before. 

Sure enough, when we got home, we googled various rodent-type creatures and, lo and behold!, it was indeed a groundhog.....which is the same as a woodchuck, and is also sometimes called a land beaver.  So in a way, the girls were right in their beaver assessment!

Not bad, for a midmorning trip to the store!  You just never know when -- or where -- you'll enjoy nature study!

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Today was a very good school day!

First, Anna read a very difficult sentence all of her own doing (see entry below).

Then, Claire made some wonderful connections during her literature and history narrations.  She began her narration of Pilgrim's Progress in the usual way. 

Then, suddenly, as she began to describe Christian's encounter with Apollyon, the lightbulb went off over her head:  "I just thought of something!  Christian's journey is just like everyday life for us!  Everyday we face danger and trouble and life-threatening destruction, just like Christian."

Yes!  She got it!  I've tried to explain that Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory, but it just went over her head.  Today, she figured it out on her own!  Christian's story is our story!  What a revelation! 

Then as we were reading today's history lesson from A Child's History of the World, another revelation, another connection was made.  The Turks guarded the gates of Jerusalem against the Christian Crusaders, just like Apollyon guarded the gates of the City of Destruction against Christian.  Not only that, but she read the entire chapter aloud to me by herself, because I have laryngitis this week! 

What a rewarding day for a homeschooling mom!  So many days, I wonder if we're making any progress.  So many days, I get more complaints than rewards.  The toddler is fussing, wanting my full attention, and the preschooler is interrupting, while I'm trying to read a history or science lesson, or supervise copywork, or teach math to the older two.  It seems so fruitless so often.

Then suddenly, I have a day like today, where both my students really got it on several fronts! 

Days like these make me realize anew why we do this! 

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The public schools in our county are on spring break this week.  This wouldn't normally affect us, except that I have been babysitting for the past couple of months.  So for two days this week, I have four extra kids.  In case you're slow at math, that makes eight kids I'm responsible for this week.

Under normal circumstances, people comment on our "large" family.  Four children in this day and age is about two more than most people seem to have.   The reaction to our family has generally been positive, though.  Four children is larger than most, but not too absurd for the average person to accept  .

So I was amused at some of the looks I've gotten as I took eight children, 10 and under, on a nature walk to our neighborhood duck pond this morning.  One elderly man slowed w-a-y down as he passed us in his car, obviously counting heads.  Even the oldest girls were amused by that.

We had a good time at the pond.  Our most interesting discovery today was as we threw bread to the ducks.  More than just ducks and geese joined the feast!

Unfortuately, I didn't get very good shots of the fish that greedily gobbled up our bread.  I suppose a better camera or a sunny day would have helped.  But we enjoyed ourselves!   And apparently the fish were glad to see us! 

Claire's favorite goose was there again today.  She calls it "Hope" because it obviously has hope for a good future in our pond, despite an obviously maltreated wing.

There you have it.  Today's nature study in a nutshell.  Something even our public school friends enjoy!

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I've finally found something that we enjoy -- that really works! -- for memorizing scripture!

I stumbled on the idea of using this Scripture Memory System over at Simply Charlotte Mason.  The system is very simple:

Buy an index card box, a couple of packs of index cards and dividers.  Label the headers:  Daily, Odd, Even, one each for Sunday - Saturday, and then one each labeled 1-31.  You write down all the verses your family already knows, and place them behind individual dividers.  Then, you put the new verse your family is working on behind the "Daily" divider. 

Since nothing else was really working, I decided to give this system a try.  And I have to say, we have been very happy with the results!  Even my 4yo recites the verses as we quickly go through them each day!  We started with our family verse: 

And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.  Ephesians 4:32 (NKJV) 

We add about a new verse a week and the kids quickly learn it, just from us pulling out the card once a day and reciting it once or twice together.  By the end of the week, everyone has it memorized!  When it is memorized, we move all the verses back and begin learning a new verse together.   Everyday, we review the verses behind the designated tab (e.g. today is Friday, March 28, so we did our daily verse, then reviewed the verses behind "Even", "Friday", and "28").  Actually, my kids beg to review all the verses, everyday, so we haven't really stuck to the prescribed way of memorizing and reviewing.....we review every verse everyday LOL.

I'm thrilled to think that 21mo Drew will grow up having known nothing else but this "easy, schmeasy" system.  Memorization is now gentle and easy......natural!   The kids know these verses well and will recite a verse spontaneously to fit a situation throughout the day.  It's wonderful!  We spend less than five minutes a day doing this, and the kids are hiding these verses in their hearts!

How wonderful!

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The girls received some art books from their grandparents for Christmas. They have been having so much fun with the pastels!

Even though our official focus this term is Rembrandt, the girls seem more interested in pastels and remember their past artists better.  Six-year-old Anna instantly recognized paintings by Degas and da Vinci that were showcased in the instruction book that came with the Pastels set.

The girls have each created several works of art, but they wanted to display some of their favorites for the camera:

Here's Audrey, who obviously really gets into her art!

And Anna, who created an entire sequence for her "Stormy Spring" collection:

And Claire, who just plain loves to draw:

Who said studying artists wasn't fun?

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Sunday was another beautiful day.....and even better because Daddy was able to take a nature walk with us!   The girls were eager to show him their river. 

Claire found a clam shell.

Here is Anna sitting on the river bank.

Then we backtracked and took the "upper" trail, the trail we haven't explored yet.  Those looking down, not up, were greatly rewarded on this nature hike!  First, we found several of these tracks:

We're pretty sure those are deer tracks. 

Then, we found more tracks!  I'm still trying to identify these.

And then, even more tracks!  These could be racoon tracks.

And then we found these.  I'm pretty sure these are little girl tracks......

Specifically, these are Audrey tracks ;-)  She was so excited to look down in the sand and see hearts from the bottom of her shoes.  She even said, "Look, Mom!  Heart tracks!"  It was good to see that she was enjoying the track-hunting sport so much!

Audrey was also thrilled to find life bursting forth from some of the branches that seemed so dead a week ago:

I'm not sure what kind of tracks Drew was trying to make, but we're thinking it has something to do with sand angel tracks:

It was a fun nature walk, full of discovery!  And the best part of all, it was shared with Daddy!  Here we made our own stroller tracks as we left the woods.

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Today, we went on another nature walk.  Funny, how all of a sudden I'm seeing so many opportunities for nature study in my own neighborhood.  Such a daunting task has become as easy as stepping out of my own front door!

Just a block down the hill our subdivision has its own little duck pond.

So we walked down there today.  My plan was to just toss some bread to the ducks, then go to the nature trail we discovered last week.  The kids, however, did what they were supposed to do!  We discovered all kinds of things this morning!

Drew pointed out all the ducks.  He even learned two new words today:  Duck and Geese ("Gee").

In a small copse of trees, the girls found a bunch of ducks just sitting around.

Then, find of all finds!, they discovered a duck egg:

No wonder all those ducks were just sitting around in the trees!  Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that ducks nested in February!  Yet here is proof.  And no wonder we never saw any ducklings last year.  We moved here in April.  The ducklings were hatched and mostly grown by the time we saw them, I'm sure.  But it certainly will be fun to see as these eggs hatch and the ducklings grow into ducks this spring and summer!

Here's a duck that I have not been able to identify:

We have a bunch of these red-headed ducks and I can't find them in our field guide.  If anyone knows what this duck is called, I'd certainly appreciate it!

***Update 2/19/08***  Thanks to several wonderful fellow bloggers, my duck has been identified as a Muscovy Duck.  You can read more on this breed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscovy_Duck.  I appreciate the help!!! ******

We left the duck pond well over an hour after we arrived.  Then, as we walked home, we discovered a new trail up behind our subdivision.  So we walked up the trail and followed it for awhile.  The kids collected several rocks and we all got very dirty from the red clay that disquises itself for dirt in our area.

We had a great time and expect more great times to come.  Who would have thought nature study would be so exciting!

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For a very long time, I've struggled with how to implement Nature Study.  It seemed like such a daunting task, packing up four kids, driving somewhere to find "nature," keeping the nature out of the baby's mouth. 

And where to go?  I'm a 'fraidy cat by nature.  Maybe it's my own nature, maybe it's having grown up in a big scary place labeled "The Murder City" the whole of my growing up years.  Whatever the reason, I have this unhealthy fear of being alone in "nature," fear of the unknown, fear of predators -- human and otherwise. 

A few weeks ago, I had a lightbulb moment.  I was driving out of my small subdivision via a route I usually don't take when I realized that the paved road ends and a dirt road continues.  That dirt road goes on and on -- through THE WOODS!  Following the RIVER!   WOW!  There is actual NATURE within a block of my house!  And I never realized it until three weeks ago. 

We spent two and a half weeks battling the flu.  Today was the first day that everyone is well and itching to get out of the house.  So I made a quick decision:  No school work this morning!  Nope, we're going on a Nature Walk!  Right in our own neighborhood!  I rallied the troops.  Everyone was dressed and shoes found and on feet.  We pulled the double stroller out of the garage and buckled the youngest two in it.  

And we were off!  I admit, I felt uneasy at first, as we passed around the gate the separates the paved road from the dirt road.  There was no sign indicating such, but I felt like I was trespassing:  Trespassing on Nature.  

The kids were thrilled.  What an adventure!  We had stepped no more than two yards into Nature when my oldest daughter made her first real discovery:  DEER TRACKS!  A block from our house!   Then we came to a steep uphill incline which forked into two directions, reminiscent  of Robert Frost's poem:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Fortunately for us, we can choose the other road next time we go on a nature walk.   Today, we stuck to the path that follows the river.  What a delight, peeking through the naked trees to see the water flowing to our left.  Every time they caught sight of the water, the kids were thrilled!  They were beside themselves with glee when they discovered a place where we could walk right up the bank above the river.  They absorbed the gurgling sound of the flowing water.  They tossed sticks to the dog, who showed her Labrador side by eagerly retreiving stick after stick out of the water.

They observed the evergreens amid the "dead" trees all around.  How fun it will be to watch this wood come to life in the next couple of months! 

Several places the girls studied with great interest.  Those arched branches with vines wrapped round, perhaps, could truly be a fairy portal.  Yes, these spots will be studied carefully in the coming months, hoping for a glimpse into Fairy Land.

We were gone for an hour, ambling about the road through the woods. 

It wasn't a true Charlotte Mason Nature Walk, perhaps.  I, in my eagerness to be part of Nature, pointed out as much as the children did.  I'll get better at masterly inactivity as we go along!

But I think it was a successful first venture out into Nature!  And so much easier than I had ever imagined.....just steps from my own front porch!

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I feel compelled to confess something here:

I have been using the Charlotte Mason method of education with my children......but I have never actually read Charlotte Mason's own writing.  I've gleaned everything I'm using from what other people have written about her.

Oh, I've considered reading her original Homeschool Series.  I own the books.  I even opened the first volume late in my last pregnancy.....but I couldn't comprehend a word of it. 

Here's another confession:

Pregnancy makes me stupid.  Really.  We moved during my last pregnancy.  I couldn't remember my new phone numbr for an entire year!  Once those pregnancy hormones begin to leave my body, I'm a reasonably intelligent, college-educated woman again.  But woe to my mental capacity while pregnant.

Back to my original musing.

I picked up Volume 1 a few days ago.  Imagine my surprise -- and absolute delight! -- when I realized what a wonderful book this is!   The writing style is wonderful -- not at all incomprehensible, as I dreaded it might be. 

So I am now happily reading the six volume series by Charlotte Mason herself, and I am even more excited about using her tried and true teaching methods with my own children.

As I read, I may feel compelled to share thoughts in my blog.  I usually feel compelled to record a profound thought or revelation, only to be disrupted by my walking 11-month-old.  He's adorable -- but he's all boy and into everything!  So I may actually share more of my thoughts on Volume 3 or 4 or later....when my baby is less destructive! 

But let is suffice to say that I am thrilled to be reading Charlotte Mason's actual books.....and can't wait to implement her ideas even more "purely" into our own homeschool.

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