On Classical Education: Repetition is the Mother of Memory

This post is part of a series:

Character is the True Aim
Cultivation of Godly Character
What is a Student? 
Make Haste Slowly
Much Not Many
Ordered Affections
Repetition is the Mother of Memory (this post)
Repetition and the Habit of Attention
Embodied Learning (part 1)
Embodied Learning (part 2)Songs Chants and Jingles
Wonder and Curiosity
Educational Virtues
Contemplation
By Teaching We Learn
Classical Education is Like a Table

Between the time I've been spending working on Scripture Memory Work ideas for By Study and Faith, and listening to various podcasts dealing with memory work and recitation, and also doing our first effort at having end of term exams, I've been thinking a lot about memory and memory work lately. In listening to Dr. Perrin's lecture, Education and Memory: Repetitio Mater Memoriae, one of the striking things he said, paraphrasing John L. Gregory's book, The Seven Laws of Teaching, is this:

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The last law is the law of repetition, the Law of Review... he says, "knowledge has been thought into the minds of the pupils, and it lies there in greater or less completeness, to feed thought, to guide and modify conduct and to form character, what more is needed after we have taught children? The teacher's work seems to be ended, but difficult work remains, perhaps the most difficult. All that has been accomplished lies hidden in the minds of pupils, and lies there as a potency, rather than as a possession. What process shall fix into active habits the thought potencies which have been evolved? What shall mould into permanent ideals the conceptions that have been gained? ... The law of confirmation and of ripening of results may be expressed as follows: the completion, test, and confirmation of the work of teaching must be made by review and application." And he says that, unless we are reviewing, we're really not teaching. He says that we should be reviewing as much as one third of the time. That's how important it is, to make learning permanent.

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When we had the kids in violin lessons, we were fortunate enough to have fantastic teacher who used a fantastic method: the Suzuki method. The more I learn about Suzuki, the more that I like it. I've been listening to a number of things that Andrew Pudewa says about memory, and one of the things he talks about is the time that he spent in Japan, studying with Dr. Suzuki. And he tells a story about an Australian student who came in, and was given a bowing exercise, and asked to do it 10,000 times. The student, of course, presumed this was hyperbole, and did nothing of the sort. But at the next lesson, Dr. Suzuki stopped him after he'd played only briefly, and asked him if he'd done it. Upon hearing the admission that it had not been done, Dr. Suzuki's response was simple: "Please do." Mr. Pudewa later asked one of the Japanese students if she thought that Suzuki was serious, and genuinely wanted a whole 10,000 times of practice on this little bowing exercise. The girl said that of course he did. I imagine that, if you did a bowing exercise -or anything, really- 10,000 times, you would have made that learning permanent. Inspired by this story, I started doing certain martial arts exercises and counting them, with an eye toward eventually reaching 10,000 repetitions. I've done more than 5,000 now, and this is a powerful way to really master the fundamentals!

Mr. Pudewa then talks about the difference between the Eastern approach to repetition and the Western approach. In English, we have a couple of sayings that deal with repetition:

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If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. 
  -and- 
Third time's the charm.

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So, third time's the charm, but after that, we tend to view things as drudgery. Unnecessarily beating a dead horse. In the Eastern cultures, they deal with repetition very differently. Mr. Pudewa shared a proverb he'd learned during the three years he spent in Japan studying with Dr. Suzuki:

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一万回分かり始まります。
   -or-
10,000 times, then begins understanding.

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The reason that we return to the classics -or to scripture- is that there's more there than can be learned in an afternoon. If, in looking at the Bible, we say, "Oh, yes, I read that," and then think that we are done, we have missed the most beautiful things scripture has to teach us: it is only through returning and rereading, pondering, and letting it soak into us, that we begin to understand its teachings. Likewise, it is foolishness to think that, after a single sheet of math facts our child has mastered them. Sure, he can show comprehension of a math topic in a single afternoon, but if we think we are done and never revisit the exercise then it's not going to stick. The learning will not be permanent, and he will not be able to call upon it to assist with later, more complected problems. Which is why our family does timed tests: 100 problems in 5 minutes takes a lot of repetition to work up to. The problems must be automatic, or they can't do them that fast. And automatic, permanently learned, perpetually available out of his own head, is exactly what I'm looking for with math facts. Interestingly, Hero(11) has learned a number of important character lessons in doing his timed tests. For instance, he will tell me now, as he's sitting down to take a practice test, about how if he stresses about going quickly, he knows that it will slow him down, so he just takes it as it comes, and tries to stay relaxed under pressure. I had no idea that making him learn addition and subtraction facts for timed tests was going to teach that, but it's a fantastic lesson. And he knows those math facts really really well.

As is the case so often in a Classical Education, the "academic work" is as much a vehicle for learning life lessons and character lessons as it is an end unto itself: being well prepared to meet adult economic goals is almost a fringe benefit. The most important parts of education all happen in the soul.

Here's a short clip from a moving talk that Elder Scott gave in Conference a few years ago: 


The same benefits that Elder Scott talks about from memorizing scripture, that of having it available to use, to be of comfort, to assist us in time of need, is also true of other things that we memorize.

Mr. Pudewa talked about how he would ask his violin students to continually be reviewing their old pieces, and that the result was that, once a student had completed the 10 book series, they had some 15+ hours of music memorized: they were constantly reviewing the old songs, with the result that if a Book 8 student (college level) was playing a Book 1 song, they would play it like a Book 8 student - much more beautifully and musically than what they had done when they were a Book 1 student. Additionally, having that much music internalized like that, he said, would give them an edge in activities like improvising and composing: it gives them a deep well to draw from when they want to become creative. After listening to this, when I was working up exam questions for my kids this week, one of the things that I am having them do is I'm having them play all their old Suzuki songs as well as all the folk songs they've learned. Although we haven't been perfectly diligent about review work, and certainly not systematic about it, when I had Hero play his Suzuki songs for me, he was able to get through all but one of them. I made note of the ones that were a little less polished, and we'll make those review songs that get focused on in the next term. I'll also have him play the folk songs he's learned before we complete our exams. Our usual practice routine for violin is that they should practice one new song, an old song, and an exercise, and that's the minimum that it takes to say they have "practiced". Perhaps it's not so surprising it's working so well: that that falls right in line with Dr. Perrin's suggestion that we ought to spend around a third of our time on review. Honestly, I wish that when I had been learning piano, I had done this. I spent years and years studying the piano, but if I don't have music, I can't play: I seldom memorized, and songs that had been "passed off" were seldom ever played again; in many cases, once they were passed off I returned the music to my teacher and never saw it again. The difference between that style of teaching and Suzuki teaching is already striking; I'm seriously considering working on memorizing more piano music, and it's definitely informing the way that I want to approach my banjo learning.

All this repetition, however, must be approached correctly: if we beat the information into the student, but in the process, beat the love of learning out of them, then we have failed. Miserably.

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"The only way to produce a scholar is to produce a student who loves to learn!"
-Andrew Pudewa, "What Are We Really Doing Here?"

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It's ok to use worksheets to practice your math facts, particularly if you have a child like Dragon(7) who asks for them. But if your child hates them, then it's ok to find other methods to practice math facts: we need to know our students well enough to be able to present things palatably for them. But we also need to know them well enough to recognize when they are not yet mature enough to realize, not just the value of a certain skill they will need later in life, but the beauty of a truth that we are presenting them.

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Knowledge of truth, combined with proper regard for it, and its faithful observance, constitutes true education. The mere stuffing of the mind with a knowledge of facts is not education. The mind must not only possess a knowledge of truth, but the soul must revere it, cherish it, love it as a priceless gem. 
-Joseph F. Smith

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Our use of repetition needs to be aimed to assist them to learn to love the truth that we are teaching, to assist them to see the beauty in the regularity of the patterns of mathematics, the wonders of the natural world, the heritage of beauty we share in the folk songs or classical music and art. It's ok if they don't start out loving math; part of the purpose of education is to order the affections, to learn to love the truth -- and math is full of truth. If loving the good, the true, and the beautiful  always came naturally we wouldn't need to be educated! So it's ok and even expected that there will be resistance at times. The teacher's job is to help the student see past their initial distaste.

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Learning new truths is an exhilarating experience and a good teacher awakens that joy.
-Elder John A. Widstow, quoted in Teach Ye Diligently by Boyd K. Packer, p 194

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Distaste for lovely, true things (such as math) is a problem with us, not the math. But how we meet that resistance, as we work through the teaching and reviewing that we do, it matters. In addition to overcoming distaste -teaching our students to love the lovely- we also need to help guard them against other pitfalls, such as pride.

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When a tool we are using sends a child the message, "I know," and builds up that pride, and kills curiosity, and the desire to learn more, then something has malfunctioned. ... Something has gone wrong at that point. Even if it's just the interaction of that particular child with this particular tool of learning. 
-Brandy Vincel, The Late Great Memory Debate

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I think that one way that we can try to avoid building up pride is to be choosy about what we memorize, and to remember the purpose for which we do it. It's not really about knowing all the Presidents or all the States and Capitols (though those may be useful); it's about educating the heart. We should choose how we spend our time with that in mind.

It's also interesting that Miss Mason didn't talk about memory work -the phrase actually doesn't appear in her volumes- she talked about "recitation", which she felt was accessible to all children. 

Photo credit: David Vandagriff; used by permission.

I suspect that, not only is it accessible to all children, it's far more accessible to adults than we would like to think: we know, we have memorized, vast amounts of information. Every word you speak or write in your day has been not only memorized, but internalized to the point of being able to call on it mostly without thinking, at any point. Most of us can say what's on our minds with a great degree of nuance. There is a sizable body of memorized knowledge that you use to accomplish your usual daily tasks. Stories that you know, from the Three Little Pigs to the most difficult texts, if you can tell about them without looking at them, then you have them memorized. The same with the hymns you hum while you work, the songs on the radio, the sayings that your mother told you and that you now tell your own children. All these things are drawn from our memory: they are memorized. Most of them in the course of just living life. The trick, when intentionally self-educating, and in educating our children, is to harness those organic processes and use them intentionally. I think this is why Miss Mason chose to focus on recitation, rather than memorization: it pulls the things learned more towards the every day. She's signaling her intent that students should plan to use the things they are learning by heart.

64 Scriptures for LDS Children to Memorize

Our family has greatly benefited from the Scripture Memory System that Simply Charlotte Mason has explained so well on their site. The original system calls for working on this 7 days a week, but the reality is that we do better planning to do it only 5 at our house. We have slowly, verse by verse, hidden the word of the Lord in our hearts, starting with a single verse, and adding one more as the kids are ready. We've learned doctrine together, addressed behavior issues, and leaned on the Lord to solve problems that our children face. My kids love it when they hear "their" verses in church meetings and General Conference -- and however little attention it looks like they are paying, they seldom miss it when a speaker uses on of their special verses. We've started with the shortest, simplest verses spoken in baby lisps as soon as they can speak the words, and day by day worked our way to longer passages. We're now returning to some of those very short verses to learn them in Japanese. I don't remember how I found this Scripture Memory System, but I am eternally grateful that I did; it has blessed our whole family over the past 10 years.

In telling people about it, one of the most frequent questions has been, "How do you know what verses to put in the box?" I want to share how I decide what we work on learning, and then share a collection of verses that my kids have learned. Each of my kids has their own box, and while there is so overlap, each collection of verses is also unique.

As I am deciding what to put in the boxes, here are some of the things that I consider:

1. Plain and simple truths of the Gospel.
I look for verses that teach the principles of the gospel in straight-forward language that young children will be able to understand. It's ok if they don't understand every word at the beginning; the process of memorizing and reviewing it gives us plenty of opportunity to discuss it again and again. Because I started my children as soon as they could talk, some of the first verses were very short.

2. Verses that the Holy Ghost directs us to include.
Romans 1:16 has a permanent place in the daily section of all the kids' boxes, because the Holy Ghost directed that it should stay there. Though they have long since learned it, this verse they repeat every time we do the boxes. This is the most dramatic example of direction from the Holy Ghost regarding our boxes, but there are other verses that it has seemed important to include.


3. Verses that relate to life experiences.
Prior to baptism, I have added verses that relate to that ordinance. My boys are both beginning to learn about what makes a good priesthood holder, and as they get closer to ordination, we will include the duties of the offices they will hold. We have also included verses that help to calm fears, and you could include verses that deal with death, with learning in school, with conflict management, with learning to be a good leader... the list is practically limitless.

4. Passages the kids need to learn for Primary.
This has included the Articles of Faith, as well as verses that my kids chose to learn for talks they were giving in Primary.

5. Verses that address behavior problems.
This is my favorite way to deal with things like lies and contention, and other similar problems. It takes the teaching out and away from the moment of stress, which is never a teachable moment, and into a the context of a pleasant routine. It emphasizes that our family's behavior standards are not arbitrary rules that Mom and Dad made up, but they are standards set by the Lord. The kids know that the Daddy and I are also subject to the law of the gospel. Additionally, it is slow and persistent: they may recognize that a verse has been added because there's been a problem, but that sense of a problem gradually falls away, and there is only the memorization of the verse. Typically, the closest I will come to using our verses in discipline is to quietly move an already learned verse up toward the front of the box (I don't announce it; I just move it), so that it is reviewed more frequently. Because I do not want scripture to be associated with punishment, I seldom if ever ask the kids to repeat or copy a verse as part of the consequences for bad behavior.

6. Longer passages.
While we start with very short single verses, we don't stay there. As they mature, passages naturally become somewhat longer, and when they are ready for a little bit of a challenge, then we have tackled somewhat longer passages such as the 23rd Psalm and the 10 Commandments. Down the road, we may try doing whole chapters, such as the Word of Wisdom, at some point.

7. Verses and passages that my children choose.
It's important to me that my kids' boxes are their own, and so when they tell me that they want a certain passage in the box, I honor that request, though if they already have several verses that they are working on I will ask them if they want to start right away or to wait until one of the existing verses is ready to move back. In the end, though, I've almost always gone with what they wanted to do with it. 


It would be easy to get hung up on the number of verses in the box, or how quickly you can learn your passage, but this comment from Simply Charlotte Mason has always stood out to me:

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It doesn’t matter how long the passage is. In fact, your family should memorize longer passages regularly. Simply once or twice each day read the entire passage through until everyone can recite it together. Don’t worry about how many days it takes for everyone to memorize the selected Scripture. Hiding God’s Word in your heart is not a race; it’s a lifelong habit. (emphasis added)

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While I have a box for myself, I don't use it regularly right now. I find that, in the process of helping my kids with their verses, I am learning them too, and while I can't always get them word perfect, I can do a very close paraphrase, and sometimes I have them fully learned, just through the constant exposure. For now, this is enough. I'll get my own box out when my kids don't need me to manage theirs anymore. Looking toward that day when the kids will be managing their own scripture boxes and more fluent in the use of their own paper scriptures, I do ask them to remember the "numbers part" -- the verse citations. I'm hoping that will help them to be able to find their verses in their print scriptures when they are adults.

One other thing we do is we are just starting to memorize verses in our second language. We're starting over at the very shortest of verses, and these tend to be learned more slowly than any but the very longest of passages. We talk about what the words mean, but just like we learned the verses when the kids were tiny, before they truly understood them, we are learning them in Japanese now, while we're still "babies", and understanding grows both while we memorize them, and also over time as our fluency grows. 

Between the three kids, here are some of the verses and passages that we have in our boxes right now, plus a few that I would like to add in the near future. Please bear in mind that these were added one or two at a time, as each child was ready, and don't feel like you need to start with them all; this represents nearly 10 years' worth of scripture memory work in our family.



Knowing Christ

1st Article of Faith
We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

Isaiah 9:6
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Mosiah 4:9
Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.

Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Luke 2:6-7
And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

8th Article of Faith
We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

9th Article of Faith
We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.



Plain and Precious Truths

Matthew 22:36-40
Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart, and with all thy soul, and with all they mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

2 Nephi 32:8-9
...the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray. But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always...

7th Article of Faith
We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues and so forth.

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

1 Nephi 3:7-8
And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them. And it came to pass that when my father had heard these words he was exceedingly glad, for he knew that I had been blessed of the Lord.

10th Article of Faith
We believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes. That Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth, and that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisaical glory.

John 14:15
If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Romans 8:16
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.

6th Article of Faith
We believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive church namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.



Finding Comfort

Matthew 11:28-30
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies, thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.

Ether 6:7
And it came to pass that when they were buried in the deep there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being tight like unto the ark of Noah; therefore when they were encompassed about by many waters they did cry unto the Lord, and he did bring them forth again upon the top of the waves.

Isaiah 41:10
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Alma 60:13
For the Lord suffereth the righteous to be slain that his justice and judgement may come upon the wicked; therefore ye need not suppose that the righteous are lost because they are slain; but behold, they do enter into the rest of the Lord your God.

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear...

2 Timothy 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Mormon 5:23
Know ye not that ye are in the hands of God?

1 Nephi 1:20
But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance.




How to Treat People

Ephesians 4:32
And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Doctrine and Covenants 42:88-92
And if thy brother or sister offend thee, thou shalt take him or her between him or her and thee alone; and if he or she confess thou shalt be reconciled. And if he or she confess not thou shalt deliver him or her up unto the church, not to the members, but to the elders. And it shall be done in a meeting and not before the world. And if thy brother or sister offend many, he or she shall be chastened before many. And if any one offend openly, he or she shall be rebuked openly, that he or she may be ashamed. And if he or she confess not, he or she shall be delivered up unto the law of God. If any shall offend in secret, he or she shall be rebuked in secret, that he or she may have opportunity to confess in secret to him or her whom he or she has offended, and to God, that the church may not speak reproachfully of him or her.

Matthew 25:40
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Alma 43:36
Inasmuch as ye are not guilty of the first offense, neither the second, ye shall not suffer yourselves to be slain by the hands of your enemies.

Proverbs 14:5
A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies.

Matthew 18:21-22
Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times: but, until seventy times seven.

11th Article of Faith
We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men, the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

Proverbs 16:32
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.

Numbers 30:2
If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear and oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.


Missionary Scriptures

Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.



Priesthood

Alma 13:3
And this is the manner after which they were ordained -- being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore, they having chosen good, and exercising exceeding great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to a preparatory redemption for such.

Doctrine and Covenants 42:12
And again, the elders, priests, and teachers of this church shall teach the principles of my gospel, which are in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, in the which is the fullness of the gospel.

5th Article of Faith
We believe that man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.



Faith, Repentance, and Grace

3rd Article of Faith
We believe that through the Atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

Ether 12:6
... faith is things hoped for and not seen; wherefore dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.

Alma 60:11
Behold, could ye suppose that ye could sit upon your thrones, and because of the exceeding goodness of God ye could do nothing and he would deliver you? Behold, if ye have supposed this ye have supposed in vain.

Doctrine and Covenants 95:1
Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I love I also chasten that their sins may be forgiven...

Moroni 7:41
And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.

Ether 12:27
And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.


Baptism and the Holy Ghost

Doctrine and Covenants 33:11
Yea, repent and be baptized, every one of you, for a remission of your sins; yea, be baptized even by water, and then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost.

Alma 7:15
Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth besest you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism.

4th Article of Faith
We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.


Virtuous Character

13th Article of Faith
We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul -- We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

Exodus 20:1-17
And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal.  Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.


Ephesians 6:1
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Doctrine and Covenants 42:42
Thou shalt not be idle; for he that is idle shall not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer.

Proverbs 12:22
Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight.

Leviticus 19:11
Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another.

1 Timothy 2:2
...that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

Malachi 3:10
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Doctrine and Covenants 109:7
...seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom, seek learning even by study and also by faith.

12th Article of Faith
We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

Alma 46:12-13
And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it -- In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children -- and he fastened it upon the end of a pole. And he fastened on his head-plate, and his breastplate, and his shields, and girded on his armor about his loins; and he too a pole, which had on the end thereof his rent coat, (and he called it the title of liberty) and he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto hi God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren, so long as there should a band of Christians remain to possess the land --


In Praise

Psalm 119:103
How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth.

Luke 2:14
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.



Obviously, this is not a complete list of verses and passages that would be great for learning with our children -- no list like this ever is! Family favorites, verses from favorite talks, and verses that the kids themselves want to remember are all great candidates for inclusion. Don't feel bound to any list -- and don't feel like you have to add them all, or all at once. Trust the Holy Ghost; our Heavenly Father will guide you to find the verses that your particularly important for you and your family to know. No time spent learning scripture is ever wasted time!

A Day in the Life

A pretty typical day in our life. The kids are 5th grade, 1st grade, and preschool.

4:00am - Wake up (I heard the Daddy's alarm) and send him off to work. It's really early.

4:20 - back to bed.

8:00am - Wake up again, still tired. I think that I'm anemic, so I'm thinking about what I can have for breakfast that will help with that. Look at my phone -- text helps my brain to focus.

8:10 - The kids attack me for snuggles. Hero asks if he can make mac n cheese for breakfast. Gross. I say yes, but there's no way I'm eating that. They laugh; they're used to me hating it. We snuggle a few minutes, then I get up and try to think. I hate being anemic; makes morning time really rough, no matter how much sleep I get. Hero shows me the dragon he drew this morning.

8:40 - Hero's got the mac n cheese almost done. I'm putting up today's list of things that need to happen. There's cool art on my markerboard again; I try to make the list around it, so that it doesn't get erased too soon. I also move last week's Brahms piece to the bottom of our playlist so that we can listen to a new one first this week. Dragon asks for his Legos down.

9:00 - I'm done messing with the computer, and inspect a transformer Dragon made on my way to turn on Brahms.

9:15 - I have the Duplos off the floor, and I'm enjoying the Brahms, about to do some yoga. Hero turns up with his violin, and I ask him to do that after we've had a few more minutes with Brahms. He decides he'd like to vacuum for his chore today instead, so I put off my yoga and ask him to do the computer room as well as the living room. And I remember that one of Dragon's books grew legs yesterday and walked away. Gotta find that book, soon, or something else that will work in its place.

9:30 - Hero's done with the vacuuming and moves on to reading; Dragon is working on some 100s chart games on the computer. I give him a couple patterns to color on his chart, he makes up a couple patterns, and then chooses some other educational games. I text the Daddy a couple times -it's his break time- and then go try again with the yoga.

10:05 - Yoga's done, and it went well. I started working on Crow Pose about a year ago because I read that it was a good beginner arm balance. I have no idea how long it usually takes people to learn to balance (though I've read the scoliosis makes it harder to do - and mine was bad, before I started yoga), but I'm super happy to finally hold it for a second or two today. This is the first time that I'd say that I was actually able to balance in the pose for a second or two; that feels good.



When I'm done with yoga I look at Dragon's game he wants to show me, then remind him that (although Christmas lights games are cool) he's supposed to be playing math games. He heads back to do some dot-to-dots when I tell him his math time is almost up. Peanut is sitting next to him, watching what he's up to, and commenting on the pictures he makes. "That's a purple dinosaur!" 

I pick up a towel left on the floor last night, and straighten out the bookshelves, hoping that I'll find the missing book -- which I do. Hero starts practicing his violin. School ran late yesterday, almost till bedtime, and he is not looking for a repeat. We try to finish everything early, but it seems like every now and then the kids need a reminder of why that's a good idea.

I put my clothes in the bathroom, planning for a shower, then tell Dragon his math games are done, and help get Peanut some day clothes. 

10:30 - Dragon and I finish reading about ancient Egyptian gods and mummies. He narrates beautifully. Hero is setting up our calendar and wants to do Morning Basket next. Works for me. 

We start with our calendar, which we do in Japanese. Mostly. Except for the part where I tell Dragon to stop acting crazy. That's English. 

The Wise Man and the Foolish Man, in Japanese, with actions. We skip the new one, Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree. Up next: poems. Those are a fan favorite. All of the kids have their own set: Peanut gets Nursery Rhymes, and then as usual, insists on looking at the pictures in her book; Dragon is in A Child's Book of Poems; and Hero's meeting Emily Dickinson. They each get one:

I Saw Three Ships
I saw three ships come sailing by,
Come sailing by, come sailing by,
I saw three ships come sailing by,
On New Year's Day in the morning.

And what do you think was in them then,
Was in them then, was in them then,
And what do you think was in them then,
On New Year's Day in the morning?

Three pretty girls were in them then,
Where in them then, were in them then,
Three pretty girls were in them then,
On New Year's Day in the morning.

One could whistle, and one could sing,
And one could play the violin;
Such joy there was at my wedding,
On New Year's Day in the morning.


The Friendly Cow
The friendly cow, all red and white,
 I love with all my heart;
She gives me cream with all her might,
 To eat with apple tart.

She wanders lowing here and there,
 And yet she cannot stray,
All in the pleasant open air,
 The pleasant light of day,

And blown by all the winds that pass
 And wet with all the showers,
She walks among the meadow grass
 And eats the meadow flowers.

The Bee is Not Afraid of Me
The bee is not afraid of me,
I know the butterfly;
The pretty people in the woods
Receive me cordially.
The brooks laugh louder when I come,
The breezes madder play.
Wherefore, mine eyes, thy silver mists?
Wherefore, O summer's day?


We also do our memory work - most of it fast and yelling, and do the scripture boxes. Dragon's attention is going fast today, and he ends up in a timeout near the end, but recovers quickly. We've had three days or so of rain, and he needs to be outside; it shows.

11:00 - I eat some peaches and to leftover deviled eggs, set Hero up with reading Age of Fable, then take his narration. And finally get my shower. There's voluntary reading going on; I like that, and don't interrupt it.

11:30 - When I get out, I announce that everybody needs to get shoes on and go outside for 20 minutes. In the middle of the happy scramble, there's a squirrel out front that needs to be watched, so they pause and do that. Hero goes out the door with a book in his hand; that must be my kid.

While they are outside, I work on this blog post, and start gathering up some easy crockpot recipes I promised a friend of mine. I've got a timer set so that I don't get too involved and sabotage the kids' efforts at doing school efficiently today.

11:55 -- There's tears outside; Peanut got too close to an active swing. Everybody comes back inside and has a cheese stick. I need to do some lunch. Probably with black beans, since they have iron. Hero grabs our Japanese text and we finish off the first unit; next time we'll be in chapter 2! We're moving slowly, but I think it's working pretty well. After that, he reads some stories to Peanut. Dragon is playing with his Legos again. 

12:30 - Hero wants math. I'm trying to get lunch, but stop and get him started. I persuade Dragon to get out his violin. He does a nice job once he settles into it. 

Peanut builds a cool circle track for the "train-train" -- all by herself!

Next I have Dragon work on his hiragana (Japanese alphabet) using flashcards today. He's doing a really nice job, and getting better at recognizing the exotic letters -- and reading them. I am pleased. 

1:15 - Lunch is getting close. I have got to get better at doing it earlier. Our new schedule is still foreign-feeling, and hoping that the Daddy finds something better, soon, isn't helping me adjust. I put some biscuits in the oven to go with the chili, and check Hero's math. He needs more practice on multiplying; I send him back to correct his work. He's really ready to do something else. I tell him to finish. And warn Dragon and Peanut that fighting over trains will lose them the trains. Peanut gets sent to her room to finish whining.

1:30 - Lunch is on. It's tasty. Soup - the first soup of the fall - and biscuits. After the prayer, I read Lamb's Shakespeare to the kids; we're working on Comedy of Errors, and everyone is doing really well with it. I am surprised at how much I'm enjoying it; Shakespeare is a new experience for me, too.  This is our second play, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how funny it is. The boys do a sort of tandem narration, with both of them contributing bits, and they're following it quite well.

1:45 - My best friend calls, and I invite her over to join us for lunch. She says she'll be here in 20 minutes, so we quit Shakespeare and I grab Secrets of the Woods. Officially, this is Dragon's book, so he's the only one that narrates, but we don't get far because I realize that he doesn't know what it means to "tap a tree", so we're off to YouTube to learn about that.

2:00 - I get Dragon to take out the recycles for his family work - he's delighted with the job and does it in the noisiest way possible. It is very loud. My friend arrives, and I banish the kids to the yard. Dragon is still experimenting with how loud he can possibly be. Peanut joins him. I tell them no water; it's not warm enough. Go. Out. Side. My friend and I exchange stories of our days - mine with the kids, hers driving school bus. We laugh and shake our heads at Dragon's antics.

2:30 - The Daddy calls; he's done with work, and do I want anything from Walmart? I do - Hero wants an Optimus Prime cake for his birthday campfire party tomorrow, so I need sugar to make frosting. My friend and I continue chatting.

3:00 - Daddy's home! He joins the conversation, which is delightful. Tells about today's antics from the powers that be at work. It's amazing they stay in business. Dragon asks for some computer time; Hero is reading. Peanut finds her purple boa and is prancing around with it.

3:45 - My friend has to leave, and the Daddy heads out again to do some home teaching.

4:10 - Dragon and Peanut request play-doh. And all the play-doh tools. Hero is playing a video game; he asks me to set the time for 30 minutes, which is about half his screen time. I set up the play-doh, then go look for the cake pan Hero requested. 

4:20 - More dishes. Only, I need to do some laundry. So I get that started first. {Can I just say how much I love me a labor-saving device!}Back to the dishes While I work, I set up some Japanese YouTube videos for passive listening; passive exposure makes a huge difference in our language study.

4:25 - My sister called. Yay!! We chat for a while, she wants to know about how the new job is going; I ask about her kids. And tell Dragon, "Go find a thing to do," about 4 times in the half-hour conversation. When it's done, I turn the Japanese back on. And try to get a few dishes done. And do a thing for a kid. And wash a dish.

Dishes are the job I used to throw tantrums over when I was a kid. They're still not my favorite. But that's not why they're not getting done very efficiently today. I have actually learned to enjoy a clean kitchen -- enough to put forth the effort necessary to get it there. But I have a hard time staying on task. {sigh} One of these years, I'll have a clean house.

5:10 - The Daddy calls. His home teaching people asked for a little help, so he's slower than he anticipated. I love when he calls; I know very well that he doesn't have to do it, but it's so nice. I work very hard at not dropping the phone into the water -- I'm holding it with my head while I attempt to get a few dishes clean.

5:20 - The Japanese is back on, now that I'm not on the phone. (Nobody's paying attention, including me, but it's amazing what the brain does in the background, as far as sorting patterns, when you're not really paying attention.) I just want a nap. Which reminds me: I still haven't looked to see if I've still got iron supplements, or if they're still good. I need to do that. And it's about time to move the laundry. And I've got to make that cake. Which means butter needs to be out warming up...  I feel like I'm not getting any closer to the bottom of my to-do list... which just might be getting longer. All I want is a nap.

Hero is building Poke-balls from cardboard to play with his friends tomorrow. 

6:00 - I found the iron. It, along with a good collection of other expired stuff is now in the trash. I flipped the laundry. And finally made some progress on the dishes. {When we finally fix or replace the dishwasher, it will be nice.} But the kitchen is looking almost reasonable, and it shouldn't be too bad to keep it that way while I make dinner. I hope. 

After a while the Daddy came home again. Dragon enlisted his help cutting out a Poke-ball of his own. 

I remembered that Peanut hadn't practiced her violin yet. She was delighted to do it, and she's making really good progress at fingering. After that she gets a shower.

7:30 - One pizza made; two warmed up, and a birthday cake in the oven. We settle in for some Avitar: Last Airbender. 

8:30 - Show's over; ice cream is eaten. The cake is out and looks good. Hero is super excited about; totally worth the effort. 

8:40 - Family scriptures and prayers.

8:55 - Kids head upstairs to brush teeth and stuff. Everybody is tired. There's tons of things still on my to-do list, but I feel pretty good about most of the day anyway. Somehow, there's always more tasks than time, but the important stuff gets done most of the time.

9:00 - Personal scriptures and prayers with the boys; Peanut barely made it. Since she's not wearing diapers to sleep anymore, I send her potty one last time. She looks asleep by the time it's her turn for scriptures, but when I go to leave, she manages to mumble, "I not asleep..." So I kiss her and read her two verses. 

9:25 - All the kids and the Daddy are asleep. I sit in the dark and do some Japanese flashcards and make a move in my chess.com games.

9:40 - Downstairs again. The house is delightfully quiet. I check on the baked goods, but some of them aren't cool yet, so I play Minecraft for a little bit, have a drink of water, and listen to some clawhammer banjo.



10:15 - I'm itching to play my own banjo, so I turn off the tunes, and get mine out, just for a couple minutes. Can't do long; it's getting late.


Day In the Life Aug 2015
Day In the Life Nov 2011

Volume = LOUD

Loud, but enthusiastic today as he was practicing his memory work. I think we'll have to work on the "polished performance" part some...





In case you didn't quite catch what he's saying, here's the words to the poems.

Caterpillar
by Christina Rosetti

Brown and furry
Caterpillar in a hurry
Take your walk
To the shady leaf or stalk.

May no toad spy you
May the little bird pass by you
Spin and die
To live again a butterfly.


Cottleston Pie
by A.A. Milne

Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston pie
A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly
Ask me a riddle and I reply,
"Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston pie"

Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston pie
A fish can't whistle and neither can I
Ask me a riddle and I reply,
"Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston pie"

Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston pie
Why does a chicken? I don't know why!
Ask me a riddle and I reply,
"Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston pie"

Teaching Virtues

We've been using our scripture box for about a year now, created with instructions on Simply Charlotte Mason. We haven't added the 31 numbered cards for the days of the month because we don't have enough verses learned well enough for that yet. Even after a year. And that's OK.

---

Don’t worry about how many days it takes for everyone to memorize the selected Scripture. Hiding God’s Word in your heart is not a race; it’s a lifelong habit.
-Simply Charlotte Mason

---

This box has surpassed my wildest expectations. I thought it would be a good thing. I anticipated that he would learn some scripture verses. But I didn't know the half of it.

---

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
-Ephesians 6:4, emphasis added

---

One of the hardest things I've had to do as a parent is to teach my son to control himself, rather than trying to do it for him. Not only to get him to tell the truth, but to understand why it's important, to show him the value of truth, honesty, and integrity, or any other virtue I hope to see in him, so that it becomes important to him.

---

I teach correct principles, and they govern themselves.
-Joseph Smith

---

I believe that this sort of teaching is absolutely essential to helping our children to act, rather than to be acted upon. I also believe that moral agency - that is, the freedom to choose - is one of the greatest gifts of God to His children, next to life itself. Just as I would never endanger my children's lives, so I must guard against endangering their agency. This principle poses some substantial challenges to the parent hoping to see their child live a godly life! To make it work, I cannot be content to see proper behavior, I need to somehow ignite proper motivation. If Monkey sees the value in what I am teaching then the decision to comply becomes his, as it should be. One of the things that makes this difficult is, the heat of the moment is not a teachable moment.



Enter the scripture box. When I notice that Monkey is developing a habit that is not in accordance with scripture, I will often put a new verse in the scripture box that teaches the governing principle. Most recently, Monkey has discovered that by telling us he brushed his teeth already, we would move on to other things, even if he had, in fact, not brushed his teeth. When we discovered this, he happened to have just mastered the Articles of Faith we recently added, so there was room in the scripture box for teaching about honesty. I chose this verse to add to the box:

---

...that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty.
1 Timothy 2:2

---

Learning this verse gave us the opportunity to talk about a number of virtues, including talking about what is honesty and why is it important. Since introducing it, Monkey has begun to learn to value honesty, and thus the lies have dropped right off. Because this teaching has happened outside of the moment of conflict, as a natural part of our established bedtime routine, frustration and defensiveness are reduced or eliminated. And because it is a part of our bedtime routine, we can revisit the idea of honesty several times and make sure it is really understood.

---

Giving a man a fish feeds him for one meal. Teaching a man to fish feeds him for a lifetime. As parents and gospel instructors, you and I are not in the business of distributing fish; rather, our work is to help our children learn "to fish" and to become spiritually steadfast. This vital objective is best accomplished as we encourage our children to act in accordance with correct principles - as we help them learn by doing. "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God" (John 7:17). Such learning requires spiritual, mental, and physical exertion and not just passive reception.
-David A. Bednar
Watching With All Perseverance

---

Another wonderful thing about the scripture box is that it does all this good stuff within the confines of a young attention span. Because of the nature of the box, we began with a single verse, and have gradually built up to doing 4-5 verses a night. But because we are constantly rotating through verses previously learned, we've covered a great deal of ground with minimal effort or fuss. I like that too.

Weekly Wrap-up

So, my good intentions last week, regarding putting up a Weekly Wrap-up, came to exactly nothing. Though we had a great week. We did really well with school on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, spent most of Thursday doing that pesky grocery shopping, and Friday we went with Nana and Grandpa to see Elder Christofferson speak at church. That was a real treat! But I never did get it all written up. This week, I'm doing it by the day, as we go along, so when Friday comes it's nearly finished and I can just push "publish" and be done!



Monday:
We read from The House at Pooh Corner, our current read-aloud. We're getting far enough into this that I'm starting to think about what to do next. I'm thinking about doing either Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or borrowing Farmer Boy from a friend. I'm currently leaning toward Charlie though, just because I won't have to worry about giving it back in a timely fashion! We have some time before I have to make a final decision though.

We also did some patterning with the eManipulatives that Math Expressions has on their website. We have backed way off doing the actual math curriculum, because there's just so much writing in it, and Monkey's not ready for that. But I'm still trying to figure out ways to do some math with him, and he really likes playing with this webpage.

We also read a few verses from the Book of Mormon. We're getting close to the end, but seldom get more than a few verses a day because Monkey want explanations of what's going on. I'm happy to help him understand! But it does mean that our progress is slow.


Tuesday, we had a great trip to a new nature preserve. We saw many more animals than usual, and I was so happy with a number of the pictures I took. This one is my favorite:



Tuesday night we played the penny game, and Monkey was doing very well with blending, even though it was right before bed. He's not very excited about the Bob Books; he says that he'd rather read "regular" books. So we'll keep practicing with the games. He's making progress.

We also had more slow progress through the Book of Mormon. I'm debating if we should turn around and start the Book of Mormon over, or read the four Gospels once we finish. Of course, at the pace we're going, it's going to be quite some time before that decision becomes urgent. Four to six verses in a sitting takes a while to get very far!


Wednesay, Monkey was up in the night puking all over the place. It seems wise to take things easy. I pretty much let him watch his fire-fighter movie all day. Poor little sausage was so miserable!


By Thursday Monkey was doing much better, but I could still see little signs that he wasn't quite himself yet, so we still took things easy. I read some more of The House at Pooh-Corner. We didn't make it all the way through the chapter because Monkey wanted to go back to the "tiddly-pom song." So we went back and re-read several of Pooh's poems. It was charming to hear him mumbling, "Coddleston, Coddelston, Coddelston Pie..." as he went to sleep. I told him that we'd work on remembering it when he wakes up, and he was excited. I am too: this will be our first effort at memorizing poetry! Fortunately, I've just had a conversation on the LDS Mom's Education group about how some other families adapted the memory boxes for use with larger things by putting their poems and things in page protectors and then in a binder. Hopefully Monkey's enjoyment will continue and we can make this a semi-regular thing. I don't know very much poetry, but in addition to several fun ones in the Winnie-the-Pooh books, there are quite a few lovely verses in Pocketful of Pinecones. Robert Louis Stevenson also had some fun ones. Maybe I do know a little poetry. I think I've learned some things since I started this homeschool thing!


Friday we had to do some housework. That was the main thing that we accomplished. But I did sneak in some phonics while we were reading Green Eggs and Ham. Monkey does really well reading one word on a card while we're playing the penny game, but when it's in a book it's suddenly much more difficult. I'm not sure why that is. But to help with it when we read I'll sometimes have him read a single cvc word. This time, we noticed "and" all the many times it's used in the story.


Also, I took a belly picture (Monkey helped) and posted it. I'm really learning a lot about photography from I Heart Faces!

Sunday Scripture

In case you had a hard time hearing him, as we haven't even begun working on the whole "speak slowly and clearly" thing, he's saying Romans 8:16. Sorry the video's so dark. We need to find some lamps that we like so it's not so dim in our house at night.

Another Week

OK, this hasn't been our best week ever. We were sicker than last week, so we got less accomplished. But what we did was good.

Reading: We tried out the Bob books; Monkey's not quite ready. But he's close. Oh so very close! Sadly, we then got sicker still, and haven't done anything with practicing blending all week.

Math: I got my Math Expressions teacher's edition last week, and I've read a good chunk of it now. Who knew that reading a teacher's edition was so engrossing? It looks like much of the manipulatives I can make for the felt board - things like the "tiles" with dots that I mentioned last week. They do "daily routines" that I'll need to make up some sheets for. I think those can be covered in contact paper and put in a sturdy folder or a binder, though I haven't decided for sure what exactly it will be. I still need to get a copy of Anno's Counting Book, which is on the agenda for this afternoon, and then once that gets here we'll be full steam ahead for math. He's already much more secure in his concepts of what the numbers are. ME focuses on 1-5 for a long time, then 1-10. But it looks like we're going to have fun. I have got to get some video of him jumping in circles and doing animal noises to practice counting! It's just sooo funny. He did a picture of one today:



One interesting thing that I'm seeing is the value of Charlotte Mason's council to do short lessons, but insist on doing it well - perfectly, if possible. Here are her words:

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“[N]ever let the child dawdle over a copy-book [penmanship] or sum, sit dreaming with his book before him. When a child grows stupid over a lesson, it is time to put it away." (vol.1 p 141)

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With Monkey, this idea means that when he's no longer engaged, we put it away. My Mom gave me very similar advice, once upon a time, to put away toys before they're uninteresting. This keeps things fresh for Monkey, and keeps me from getting so very frustrated with normal 3 year old behavior, and also gets the lesson I'm trying to teach into his head. Works for me!

Read Aloud: In the Book of Mormon we're in 3 Nephi 14 - just finishing up the Sermon on the Mount, as given in the Americas. Monkey knows the song "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man" and wanted me to sing it today after we finished reading. I think that he's really going to enjoy reading about the life and ministry of the Lord when we finish the Book of Mormon. I had hoped to be working on that by now, but we're not. However, we are making steady progress to the end of the book, which is something.

We made a little progress in Little House on the Prairie. He loves to look at the pictures in the book that we've got. And he's clearly engaged in the story, which I love. I find the language intriguing. Laura Ingalls Wilder has an interesting turn of phrase and it's got a lovely rhythm to it. I remember enjoying the story when I was younger, but I hadn't realized that the language itself that she uses is so spare and effective.

Nature Study: Nothing. We were all too sick to go outside much. Though I did try to use some of the nature words in conversation with Monkey so that he'll remember them. He knows that the "oval" moons are gibbous moons. We talked about the mallard ducks we saw last week. I'm making manipulatives for him to use in making his pictures of numbers, and the current batch is birds we've seen. He recognized the mallards and named them without prompting, which pleased me to no end. But as far as getting out there and being in nature, not so much. We'll do better again next week. We may even get some done tomorrow, in our yard. We really need to put the gardens to bed for the winter.

Memory: Monkey is finally able to say Romans 8:16 end to end, though he likes it better if he can get away with just saying the end: "We are the children of God. Romans 8:16." I've been trying to teach him the meaning of front end of the verse, and I think that it's helping. But with or without the first half, it sure is sweet to hear him say "we are the children of God!"

Mom's Ed: I'm taking a fondant class. And I'm reading Nourishing Traditions, which is an interesting read.


Happily, everyone but Daddy is on the upswing now, and feeling better. Hopefully Daddy will follow quickly! Next week should be better. And in the mean time I'm learning that I'm going to need to cut back on outside activities: it seems like doesn't take much to derail the whole day of school. Which is ridiculous. We're not doing that much for that long. But you add very much extra into our day and things don't get done. Important things. So I'm going to have to learn to say NO. That, I think, is going to be a tough lesson for this mama. Though I find I am more and more of a home-body all the time. Home is nice.