I really thought I was going to be without a good Language Arts spine for the fall until the folks on the Mater Amabilis Teacher Training forum talked about Emma Serl's Primary Language Lessons and Intermediate Language Lessons, both available in beautiful editions at Hillside Education.

The books were written in early 20th century America.  They contain a wonderful mix of instruction, picture study, narration, dictation, poetry, and composition broken down into many short oral and written lessons, enough to cover 2 to 4 years of instruction depending on how you use it.  The style is much more learning by doing rather than drilling on a concept.  Hillside's version is a beautiful color version, spiral bound, and updated, including a touch of Catholic content.  Straight reprints of both Primary Language Lessons and Intermediate Language Lessons are available through Amazon.

There's much more content compared to Simply Grammar, yet flexible enough to add in other sources and concepts with it--just like a good spine should be!

This year is dedicated to Saint Paul.  CatholicCulture.org has created The Year of Saint Paul website with lots of great information.  From the overview:

"Pope Benedict XVI declared a year dedicated to St. Paul, beginning on June 28, 2008, the eve of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, and continuing through June 29, 2009. The Holy Father said that the year, marking the 2000th anniversary of the saint's birth, should be used to heighten appreciation for the Apostle to the Gentiles and to his project of promoting the Christian faith and the unity of believers."

Saint Paul, pray for us.

This is our second year of buying local produce through Heaven's Harvest Farm community-supported agriculture (CSA.)  We pay for an entire season of produce in March that gets delivered mid-June through October, and yesterday was our first delivery!

This week we received:

• Strawberries
• Zucchini
• Cilantro
• Romaine and Green-leaf lettuces
• Bok choi
• Mustard greens
• Collard greens
• Kale
• A potted thyme plant

My kids immediately devoured the strawberries (I had to hold some back for Dad) and we enjoyed a green-leaf salad for dinner.  Today ds#1 ate plain bok choi while Ds#2&3 ate Ants on an Asian Log (bok choi topped with peanut butter and raisins.)  I stir-fried the leaves in oil and garlic, and threw in a few frozen shrimp--delicious!  I'm bringing the kale with me to Prudence Island this weekend so my mother-in-law can show me how to make Portuguese kale soup with authentic chorizo sausage.

My kids find it interesting that the produce comes directly from a farm.  They view it as better than other produce and are more willing to try out some of the new things.  It's a new sign of summer in our house.

Only three birthdays are celebrated in the Catholic Church.  We celebrate the birth of Christ around the time of the winter solstice, after which the days increase in length in the regions of early Christendom.  John the Baptist was born around the time of the summer solstice, after which the days decrease.  This reminds us of the words of the last of Christ's prophets:

"He must increase, but I must decrease."  John 3:30

John the Baptist is usually depicted as pointing, because he points towards Christ, as in this Titian masterpiece:

Titian. St. John the Baptist. c.1540. Oil on canvas. Gallerie dell' Accademia, Venice, Italy

Let this be true of us all.

“Education is the science of relations.”  This is the center of Charlotte Mason’s philosophy.  Facts must be presented with their informing ideas—“living ideas” from “living books”—in order for relations to form.

From the preface to her series:

9. But the mind is not a receptacle into which ideas must be dropped, each idea adding to an 'apperception mass' of its like, the theory upon which the Herbartian doctrine of interest rests.

10. On the contrary, a child's mind is no mere sac to hold ideas; but is rather, if the figure may be allowed, a spiritual organism, with an appetite for all knowledge. This is its proper diet, with which it is prepared to deal, and which it can digest and assimilate as the body does foodstuffs.

11. This difference is not a verbal quibble. The Herbartian doctrine lays the stress of education––the preparation of knowledge in enticing morsels, presented in due order––upon the teacher. Children taught upon this principle are in danger of receiving much teaching with little knowledge; and the teacher's axiom is, 'What a child learns matters less than how he learns it.'

12. But, believing that the normal child has powers of mind that fit him to deal with all knowledge proper to him, we must give him a full and generous curriculum; taking care, only, that the knowledge offered to him is vital––that is, the facts are not presented without their informing ideas. Out of this conception comes the principle that,

13. Education is the Science of Relations; that is, that a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we must train him upon physical exercises, nature, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books; for we know that our business is, not to teach him all about anything, but to help him make valid, as many as may be of

     'Those first born affinities,
     'That fit our new existence to existing things.'

The benefit of homeschooling is that we can individualize our curriculum for our children.  Textbooks and prepared curricula take the Herbartian approach, so relying upon them diminishes the science of relations.

I read about “spines” and “living books” but I got so caught up in doing my math, science, spelling, and grammar curricula, and reading the large history book in chronologic order that I never developed that science of relations.  The made-for-the-masses textbooks and programs kept me separated from it.  Finally, I understand Charlotte’s ideas; I call it Thinking Outside the Textbook.

For most subjects I will use a “spine,” that is, a living book that covers a variety of topics on a subject.  Just reading from the spine will be enough if my children are not inspired by a topic; if they are inspired, I’ll add in living books and activities until we’ve followed that interest to its end before moving on in the spine.  We won’t have topic deadlines we must meet to stay on schedule.  Our weekly schedule will list blocks of time to spend on a subject without detailing what will be covered during that time (for that, too, would be Herbartian.)

What about holes?  To me, this is the inside-homeschooling equivalent to “What about socialization?”  I know what you mean—I had that same fear.  Consider the following:

1. You can never present all the information on a topic, much less know it.
   
   
2. Public school goals are greatly based on utilitarian values in terms of making children into productive citizens.

While there is nothing wrong with productive citizens, that is not the ultimate goal of my educational philosophy.  As Charlotte Mason states, in agreement with Hebart, “…the knowledge of God is the principal knowledge, and the chief end of education.”  As the old Baltimore Catechism states: I am made to know, love, and serve God.

So why did I put so much stock in making sure my kids learned the “facts” that institutional schools taught?  Oh, I glance at my state’s frameworks to get ideas of what I should cover; they are more skills-based in the early years and I don’t pay too much attention to years.  My child may seem “behind” in some area compared to an institutionally-schooled child, but that child will be behind my child in other areas.  And which one is more likely to have a love of God and a love of learning?

This is an example in my favorite subject: science—check back to AtHomeScience for posts about spines I like.  I’ll be posting my approach to other subjects here.

The weather is beautiful and the schedule is light, so we joined some friends to explore their backyard inspired by the One Small Square--Backyard book.

Here are some of the specimens we found in the square and on a nature walk afterwards

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:  "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"  Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever."  John 6:51 -58

Jesus Christ in the eucharist--body, blood, soul, and divinity--is unique to the Catholic faith; it is, in fact, central to it.  During the Last Supper Christ shows us how to fulfill what He says in the above passage.  The priests of the Catholic Church have repeated it continuously ever since.

The Truth of the eucharist is what brought me fully into the Catholic faith.  The Church, the Body of Christ on earth, will stumble, but it will never be abandoned by the Holy Spirit; people will sin, but we will never be separated from God.  I, too, forgive and am forgiven, endure and am renewed because of the eucharist.Here is art depicting the eucharist:

 The Institution of the Eucharist by Joos van Wassenhove,
c.1474 (50 Kb); Oil on panel; Gallery of the Marches, Ducal Palace, Urbino, Italy

Disputa (Disputation over the Sacrament) by Raphael, 1510-1511. Fresco. Vaticano, Stanza della Segnatura, Rome.

Saxon, Horizon, Math-U-See, Singapore.  Why is it that we CMers do not teach our children math? We read chapters and endless posts on literature, grammar, history, foreign language, nature studies.  What was the last great discussion about teaching math?  Great math literature is extensive, so much so I would suggest that it is more plentiful for the younger years than any other subject.  Just look at Livingmath.net to see.  You could easily make a math lapbook or notebook or narration.  We do not curl up with great books, we do not combine kids, we don't skip ahead much.  We leave it to the textbooks to teach our children math.

After reading Math: Facing an American Phobia by Marilyn Burns, I can see that our education system has turned a large segment of our population into math phobics.  We are not taught to understand math, only how to do math (a problem exacerbated by standardized testing.)  It goes beyond just learning math in context; when we fail to understand the whys we are unable to teach math to others.

I have been using Math-U-See, and my children have mastered it quite well.  I realized, however, that we spent 30 weeks on Alpha, and all ds#2 really learned was how to add and subtract without regrouping.  In Beta, he is learning to regroup.  Yes, they use manipulatives and focus on place value and do word problems.  But now that I have seen someone teach it, I realize that it really is not that hard at all.  Ds#1 has completed Gamma.  He knows multiplication and division well, but he does not have good mental math skills.  Mental math requires an understanding of underlying number patterns.

While I am considering the idea of teaching math the way I do science (good books and good experiments) I have decided to give the Math Enhancement Programme a try.  Anybody using AO knows about this free curriculum.  I have used it for one week and it is quite obvious that this book focuses on concept comprehension and mental math skills.  I have actually started ds#1 and ds#2 at the same level to try it out over the summer.

One of the "drawbacks" of the program is that it involves a lot of parent preparation and participation.  There's not that much preparation as much as participation.  I sit and teach my children math just like I do with science; we even use the chalk board, LOL! Just consider, how can you practice mental math from a book?  If you work through part of it, you either have to keep struggling or look at the answer because no one is there to give you a little help through a rough part.  This is where a teacher really is key.

So far my kids really like it because each lesson has such variety in it.  You build many skills in a lesson instead of drilling one skill.  For my very fidgety kids, this is a good approach (after figuring our what they could do with themselves while waiting for the other to finish, but that's another struggle.)  I could see, though, if you had a large family and had to spend the time individually with each child you would spend the day teaching math.  Older children could easily be the teacher for younger children, though.  I may try bumping up ds#1 and teach both at the same time.  It may take longer than each individually yet less time than consecutively.

I still may just put aside all math curricula until my sons reach 5th or 6th grade.  At the top of this post is a picture of my kids getting inspired by a book called Math Adventures: Firefighters to the Rescue by Wendy Clemson.  Living books and dry erase boards go far in primary math education.  Isn't that so very "Charlotte Mason?"

The Stokes guide is a wonderful resource. It is small, so it is easily carried; yet despite its conciseness, I have easily found every bird I have seen in our yard. It has them arranged by color, which really simplifies identification.

The bird feeder with the one-way glass is back in our living room window. We have had many of the common visitors we love return again.

Earlier in the season we had a pair of goldfinches:

Yes, I dusted off the Handbook of Nature Study and actually put it to use.  I thought the section on trees would be the easiest place to start, having a deciduous woodland in our back yard.  She describes how to make leaf prints using printer's ink and rubber rollers, neither of which I have.  I do, however, have washable black paint and a sponger roller brush, so I sent the kids into the woods to collect a variety of leaves so we could give it a try.

Note the crystal cake stand as our inking glass (after I cleaned the dust off it.)  I suppose you could use a glass cutting board as well.  First roll the paint onto the glass.  I thinned the paint a little; it actually works better on the thicker side.  I used a defective bottle of Tuxedo Black paint--more like teal green, eh?

Put the leaf/leaves on the inked glass and then roll ink onto the leaves.

Carefully remove the leaves and place them onto a sheet of white paper--we used bright white heavy weight (28) printing paper.  Be careful to have the leaf land without wrinkles so you don't have to adjust it and smear the paint (this was difficult.)

Place another paper on top of the leaves and run a roller once over the leaves.  I used a pizza roller to do this, though a rolling pin would probably by fine, too.

Lift the sheet, remove the leaves, and you have two sets of prints!

After three kids each take their turns, you have lots and lots of prints:

I think I'll have ds#3 find the matching prints.  I will hole-punch them and put them into a nature notebook.  We're off to a great start!