Principled Education: Ideas

I've been taking a look at Teaching in the Branches again, where Miss Mason lays out a couple of foundational principles of education. It's obvious that she must have spent a great deal of time, not only teaching, but also thinking about teaching: these three principles really are foundational, but like all profound truths, it's pretty easy to go along for a long time without ever really being aware that they're there. The fact that she not only recognizes that education stands on these things, but can also put it into words so clearly, I suspect is the reflection of a great deal of work and thought and time on her part. Which fits with what we know of her, and is why there's a whole educational movement that takes its name from her. But as I'm thinking about it this morning, it makes me think what a truly remarkable teacher she was.

She talks about Authority, which I blogged about last time, and she threatens to talk about Habits, but doesn't actually get to it in the time allotted, and she also talks about Ideas.

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In the matter of the Ideas that inspire the virtuous life, we miss much by our laissez-aller way of taking things for granted.
-Charlotte Mason, Teaching in the Branches

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The leading brethren of the Church have, many times, spoken to this same goal of education as a means for leading the student to the virtuous life.

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The Church stands for education. The very purpose of its organization is to promulgate truth among men. Members of the Church are admonished to acquire learning by study, and also by faith and prayer, to seek after everything that is virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy. In this seeking after, they are not confined to narrow limits of dogma or creed, but are free to launch into the realm of the infinite.
But gaining knowledge is one thing, and applying it, quite another. Wisdom is the right application of knowledge, and true education—the education for which the Church stands—is the application of knowledge to the development of a noble and God-like character. 
-President David O. McKay,  Moral and Spiritual Values in Education, April 1968

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So again, as I outlined this section of the lecture, I found that Miss Mason had offered several specific techniques for coming at the principle that she's getting at:

Commonplace Book: February & March 2019

A commonplace is a traditional self-education tool: as you read, grab a notebook. Write down things that embody Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Write down notable quotes, with or without your own thoughts about them. Write down the questions you have as a result of the text you are reading. You will find the book becomes a record of your own growth, and it becomes a touchstone for memory of things you have studied in the past. This is what Mother Culture is all about: self-directed, conscious self-education. 


If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt yuo
But make allowance for their doubting, too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk to wise;

If you can dream --and not make dreams your master,
If you can think --and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make a heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them, "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings --nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours in the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -which is more- you'll be a Man, my son.
-Rudyard Kipling


Dust if You Must

Dust if you must, but wouldn't it be better
To paint a picture or write a letter,
Bake a cake or plant a seed,
Ponder the difference between want and need?

Dust if you must, but there's not much time,
With rivers to swim and mountains to climb,
Music to hear, and books to read,
Friends to cherish and life to lead.

Dust if you must, but the world's out there,
With the sun in your eyes, the wind in your hair,
A flutter of snow, a shower of rain,
This day will not come round again.

Dust if you must, but bear in mind,
Old age will come and its not kind.
And when you go -and go you must-
You, yourself, will make more dust.
-Rose Milligan



Cease endlessly striving for what you would like to do and learn to love what must be done.
-Gothe



A Psalm of Life

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream! --
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us further than today;

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's Broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe're pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act -act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Gone With the Wind: Start at the Beginning

When I was in high school, they let us choose a classic to read and write about. I thought that Gone with the Wind would be a fun book to read, and I wanted to write about... I think it was Civil War era fashions. I don't remember, exactly. Could have been something else.

So I started reading, thinking it would be like most of the books I'd read up to that point: the lead would be the hero, or in this case, the heroine.

By the end of the book, I just hated Scarlet, and I hated the book, and I just wanted to chuck it across the room. But it was for school, and I had to write that paper, so I did actually finish the thing. And put it down, and never looked at it again, just thankful to be done.

So, it came up in a book group I'm a member of, and people have been reading it, and it made me remember how much I'd wanted to just slap Scarlet silly last time around. But I also know that I am not who I was: I was right around 16 or 17 myself when I read it, and had never considered learning from books rather than just enjoying stories, no concept of how important supporting characters can be, or a host of other things I've learned about literature since I started homeschooling, and I was curious: would I still hate it as much I did previously? I don't know. I'm not the same person that I was back then; I've grown.

So I called up the used bookshop and they had it. For $3.50. So I grabbed it. And started it.

It's the Same (but different) in Japanese

President Nelson asked us to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year, and I was a touch sad, thinking, "There is no way that I'm going to be able to do that in Japanese. Not that fast."

I've been studying Japanese for years, and 2 or 3 years ago, I started reading the Book of Mormon in Japanese. It was hard, much harder than reading the Spanish I did ages ago: there are no cognates. And while everyday Japanese is full of English loan words, the Book of Mormon just is not. So progress was slow: in the beginning I often read less than a single verse in a sitting. I'd worked up to where, on a good day, I could read around 10 verses. I think that my personal best, prior to Conference, was somewhere around 12 verses in a day.

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English: 
...but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hands...

Japanese:
They do not stop their eyes on the works of the Lord's hand.
-2 Nephi 15:12 (Compare Isaiah 5:12)

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So President Nelson asks us to read, and I figure I'm going to have to take a break and go back to English for a while. This is disappointing: I've worked so hard, and I'm afraid that if I break my streak I'll lose ground.

"There is no way that I'm going to be able to do that in Japanese. Not that fast."
Then, the Little Voice:

"Well, actually...."

That's all he said.
I took the plunge.
That day, I read 1 Nephi 1, the whole chapter.
I was so happy with myself. Personal best!

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English:
[Him] who should come to redeem His people from their sins.

Japanese:
that Honorable One who will certainly come to redeem His own people from
(away from) their sins.
-Alma 5:21

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The next day I looked at a schedule and realized how inadequate a pace 1 chapter a day is. Most days, my list calls for about three chapters. Some days I did it, but I started to fall behind. That's a lot of reading, and the fact is, I'm not that good at Japanese. So many words! A new language just has an unbelievable number of words and phrases that you need to recognize in order to be able to read. I know more than I used to, but...

I kept trying. Slogging along. Losing a little bit of ground every day.
I figured I could catch up with whatever I miss in English in the last week or two of the year.

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English:
For the kingdom of the devil must shake, and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance...

Japanese: 
The devil's kingdom will certainly shake. To certainly repent, they must be pressed/urged.
-2 Nephi 28:19

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Eventually, I was about 15 days behind, which means somewhere in the neighborhood of 35-45 chapters behind. Last week, I decided to take a day off of school, to try to catch up. I asked the kids for help, and they were amazing. They did all kinds of things independently and for each other, so that I could read. It was so hard. I was tired. My brain was full. And I would take a break, and then come back to it. I read 5 days' worth. It was amazing! I'd never read so much Japanese in a month, prior to the challenge, as what I read that day! And I was also a little bit disappointed: 5 days wasn't enough to really catch up. The date moved too, so I only gained 4 of those 5 days.

The next morning, I woke up with a sore throat and no voice.

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English: 
Thou shalt go before this people, and I will go with thee and deliver this people out of bondage.

Japanese: 
You shall stand at the front/vanguard of this people. I will be with you [this word is often  how they describe friends being with each other] when you go, and rescue out this people from slavery.
-Mosiah 24:17

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No voice meant no school. This was frustrating, because it's so important to keep school going, but there it was: I can't do much with no voice and no energy. Turns out, it was a blessing.

So I sat on the couch and read. We didn't even pretend to do school that day: the kids had a free day, and I read on the couch. I fell asleep, and they did quiet things so I could rest. I made up another 2 days: I was now less than 10 days behind. It was invigorating!

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English:
...and having peace of conscience...

Japanese:
"conscience" is a compound of "good" and "heart":
...having gained tranquility in their good heart...
-Mosiah 4:3

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The next several days, I made up more.
Not much, just one or two extras each day. But it added up.
I began to hope I would make it all the way, in Japanese.

It's a miracle; there's no way that I could do it on my own.
It's too big. Too hard. Too much.

But I really can do all things, even crazy things like read the whole Book of Mormon in another language, in three months, through Christ: the strength to do it is His.

Every day I find little gems. As many times as I have read the Book of Mormon, this is almost like having a whole new book of scripture. (What a blessing that would be, if He gave us more of His words again!) I'm building up quite a collection of things to put in my scripture journal when the reading is done; I'm not even trying to do that right now, just putting in a little tag, since I'm reading on my phone: this lets me listen and read at the same time, and it turns out that I know some words by sight, and others by sound, but when I follow along as the phone reads, then the Holy Ghost helps me remember things, and I am spending less and less time in the dictionary.

It was crazy to try.
I think it's going to actually happen.

I'm so glad I took the leap.
What a blessing this has turned out to be.

And it's not even done, yet.

Dealing With Prereading

This past year has been the first year where my oldest had significant quantities of reading in books that I assigned based on the curriculum we're using (Ambleside Online) but that he read independently in a book that I had not previously read, or that I'd read so long ago that I couldn't remember what happened. In the not-too-distant future, I'm going to have three kids reading challenging books, and I'm going to need to be able to have intelligent conversations about these books, and also keep the household running.

My strategy is to keep a prereading notebook. It's just a regular composition notebook, which I covered first with scrapbook paper and then with contact paper. That's what I do with most of my notebooks, and they are practically indestructible: my scripture journal has been with me for five years, most weeks drug to church and back in my backpack, and it's still beautiful. Which means that I can count on this notebook, which will see lighter use, lasting nicely as well and plan on it not falling apart before my youngest is reading these same books. Also, being pretty helps me to like it, and want to use it, and that helps me to get the job done. It's remarkable how much difference it makes to have an attractive notebook, even if it's just a composition book that I got for $.50 in back to school sales at the end of summer.

Ezekiel 13: Peace-- But There is No Peace!

I have long loved Patrick Henry's address to the Virginia Convention: the "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech. Someday, I want to use Benjamin Franklin's method of studying, and this speech is the first thing that I want to dive into (probably followed by George Washington's Farewell Address). But tonight, in reading to Hero from the Bible, I discovered an allusion that Henry made that makes that final, powerful paragraph even more powerful.

Here's the end of the speech:

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It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

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Tonight, as we read in Ezekiel 13, I noticed this:

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Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar:
-Ezekiel 13:10  (emphasis added)

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The Gospel at 30,000 Feet {Book Review}

I always love Brother Uchtdorf's airplane stories, both because he's an excellent storyteller, and also because he's got a knack for turning the airplanes that he loves so much into fantastic parables and allegories that clearly and effectively teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. So it's not surprising that only few pages into his new book, The Gospel at 30,000 Feet, which I was sent to review, I was reaching for my commonplace book.
 

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To follow Christ is to become more like Him. It is to learn from His character. As spirit children of our Heavenly Father, we do have the potential to incorporate Christlike attributes into our life and character. ... This leads me back to my aerodynamic analogy from the beginning. I spoke of focusing on the basics. Christlike attributes are the basics. The are the fundamental principles that will create "the wind beneath our wings". 
-page 4-5

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The airplane story here is fun (aren't they always?) but the things that he's saying about the importance of the basics really resonate. It's the same way in the martial arts: the "magic" is in the basics. You master those, and you master the art. It's very much easier said than done! Likewise in the gospel, the basics are what makes the indelible marks upon your soul.

Bessie's Pillow {Crew Review}

Bessie's Pillow, written by Linda Bress Silbert, is a historical novel, based on the true story of the author's grandmother and her immigration from Lithuania's Jewish ghetto to escape persecution, which we were given to reveiw. After reading the excerpt on the publisher, Strong Learning, Inc., website, I was hooked, and when it arrived (finally!) I sat down and started it.

By the end of the day, I'd read half the book.

If I hadn't been trying to get over the flu, I would have been seriously tempted to stay up late and finish it. Instead, I finished the story before noon the next day. It was a beautiful story and a page-turner. I added this excerpt to my commonplace book, from an exchange Bessie has with her father early in the book:

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"No, Tateh, I am afraid," I say, and begin to cry.
"Boshka," he replies, "There will come many times in your life when you are afraid. In these moments, you must surrender your fear and go wherever [the moment] takes you, and trust that you have the strength to do what you must to survive." 
-Bessie's Pillow, p36

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I think this piece of timeless wisdom, all the more poignant for having come from a rabbi in a ghetto who, knowing he will never see her again, sends his daughter away to safety, encapsulates the message of the book. The story is the story of how she lives this counsel, over and over and over again throughout her life.

Once I had read the book myself, I knew that it wasn't suitable for a family read-aloud, which is what I had first planned for it: my younger two are not ready for all of the challenges Bessie faces. Bessie is fortunate to be able to travel first class, and to have well-off friends and family to assist her when she arrives in America as a refugee. But she comes from the Jewish ghetto, where the pogroms -mobs that attacked the Jews- go on violent rampages with torches and weapons, where parents try to protect their daughters from rape at the hands of the pogroms, and  and where the Russians conscript Jews and send them, poorly clothed and often unarmed, to the front lines of the war. Most of the Jewish conscripts do not come home. It's a harsh life, and the author does her readers the favor of showing the reality of it. At one point after coming to America Bessie takes a job for a few days in a sweatshop sewing factory, where she is locked in with all the rest of the women who are sewing, and treated very poorly, before she is unjustly fired. Bessie also sees the harsh realities of tenement living. And the author remains faithful to her family history when scarlet fever takes the two of Bessie's children, only a day apart. All this is done tastefully, and it's particularly good and timely to have this kind of story when there are so many refugees in the world right now, and immigration is such a hot topic. It's good to have stories of why people become refugees and immigrants, even if it's only part of the book. But I think it's a little much for Dragon(6) and Peanut(4). However, Hero(10) is old enough and mature enough to begin to see the hard realities of the world, and this book did nicely as his next lesson on that point, both in the lessons of seeing the things that Bessie saw, and also in terms of Bessie's own reaction to these things, which was uniformly compassionate and caring. She really was a remarkable woman.

At that point, having read it myself, it was time to give it to my son. I talked to him after he'd started it, to make sure that he understood why it was worth it to Bessie's family to send her away like they did: he hadn't. Although he knows something about our Church's history, and the mobs that our people faced even here in America, I don't think that it's terribly real to him yet, and he didn't understand this either. So we had a conversation about that. And he kept going back to the story. I'd asked him to read the first three chapters (they're short; that was about 15 pages), and he just kept going: he was hooked. It didn't take him a lot longer to read it than what it took me. I know that he kept thinking about it, though, because a week or two after he'd finished the book, he was sweeping the kitchen and commented on a part of the story where Bessie chases someone with a broom. I like a book that keeps us thinking, even after it's done. That's one of the marks of good literature.

Because we got sick (and that was so fun we did it again), we didn't really dig into the extras that the author has collected on her site, as we've spent a lot of this winter just trying to keep our heads above water on the basics while we caught Every Cold Invented. But there are some really fun-looking resources on there: radio shows, dance steps, recipes, all kinds of things to help you place Bessie in her historical context in a more visceral way. There are also other resources for looking through Ellis Island immigration records, and information about the ships that Bessie and her brothers traveled on, the Hamburg-American line, including fun things like diagrams of the ships and menus for what they ate on board. I think that, if you get a chance to read other reviews (click the banner below for a list of all the Review Crew members who are reviewing this book), that some members of the Review Crew even found that they had ancestors who came through Ellis Island!

Voluntary Reading

One of my favorite homeschooling milestones so far is that point where they finally get good enough at reading that they discover that reading is delightful, and you start to see voluntary reading. Dragon is there. And it's just so much fun to see him read -- and read to his little sister -- and enjoy it so much.

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

Voluntary Reading!

I think one of the most exciting milestones in learning to read is voluntary reading. That's the part when you can tell that they are gaining enough skill to begin to see what all the hard work of phonics is about, and it just might be my favorite part of teaching the kids to read.

Dragon is reading today, without being asked. He asked for a box of Bob Books, and started out reading to the Daddy, but when Daddy had to go do other things, Dragon kept going. There are several books from that set that are lost now, but what was there, he read. 

Then he came looking for another box. 

But I think the best part was when he commented that practicing the Bob Books will make it easier to read the scriptures. 

Yes. Yes, it will. And that is a worthy goal for a little boy.

Commonplace Sampler: September

Little, in fact, had either the Vatican or Galileo comprehended just how serious a rival Jupiter and its moons are to Earth and Luna. They are more fairly compared to the entire solar system. We now know that Jupiter comprises two-thirds the mass of all nine planets and it is the biggest of the so-called gas giant planets, a class that also includes Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Unlike the inner terrestrial planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars - these planets lack solid surfaces. Instead, they are made from the same stuff as stars: hot gas. ...

So, too, many of the Jovian satellites are more like planets than moons. The terrestrial planets only have three moons among them - Luna and Mars' satellites, Phobos and Demos. But the gas giants are surrounded by swarms of smaller bodies. Jupiter has the largest entourage, with eight regular moons and more than 60 so-called irregular moons. These moons are categorically different from teh terrestrial variety: Luna is probably a chip off Earth's block and the Martian moons may be captured asteroids. In contrast, the regular Jovian moons likely condensed from spare material around a proto-Jupiter, much in the same way as the planets coalesced from leftovers swirling near our newborn Sun.
-The Moons of Jupiter, p11


The Asters are the second largest family of flowering plants, surpassed only by the mostly tropical Orchid family. Worldwide, there are about 920 genera and 19,000 species, including 346 genera and 2,687 species in North America. Aside from lettuce (Lactuca), artichoke (Cynara), and endive (Cichorium), surprisingly few genera are cultivated for food.
-Botany in a Day, p 163


You can employ the same techniques. When a student asks a question, be careful lest you answer it! Or more emphatically, be careful lest the teacher answer it. How easy it is for a teacher to respond quickly to simple questions, to close a conversation that might have ignited a sparkling and lively discussion. The wise teacher deftly and pleasantly responds, "That's an interesting question. What does the class think of this?"
-Boyd K. Packer, Teach Ye Diligently, p 68


God left the world unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity in the cloud, the oil in the Earth. He left the rivers unbridged and the forests unfelled and the cities unbuilt. God gives to man the challenge of raw materials, ... not the east of pictures unpainted and the music unsung and the problems unsolved... That man might know the joys and glories of creation.
-Thomas S. Monson, quoted on Facebook


O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger, neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure. Have mercy on me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed: but Thou, O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies' sake.
-Psalm 6:1-4


You cannot exercise faith in God until we acknowledge that He exists and we have a correct understanding of His character, nature, and attributes. So the beginning of faith starts in the understanding of Christ.
-David A. Bednar, quoted on Facebook


The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart, this you will build your life by, and this you will become.
-James Allen, quoted by Shiloah Baker in "Training Mother Helpers"


Here [Helaman 6:7-9] we find one of the (extremely) few times peace existed between these two groups [the Nephites and the Lamanites], and the narrator lists for us a few resulting and related benefits. The first product of peace mentioned is open migration between the inhabitants of each distinct civilization. Free intercourse and commerce have special mention, and are corollaries to the unrestricted ability to travel and reside where one pleases. Second, the record notes that this exchange between the individuals of each group yielded increased prosperity for all involved. They became “exceedingly rich” and had “an exceeding plenty”. As with other scripture, this one can and should be likened unto us.
-Conner Boyack, Immigration, Individual Rights, and the Constitution


You’re not self-governing if you can’t rule yourself. Classical education is the means to freedom, the sine qua non of a free people, because it trains people in self-governance, in perceiving and living with the truth.
-Andrew Kern, quoted in "In The Common Core Era, Families Flock To Its Opposite"


More than once I have scolded members of a class just a little when they seemed to ridicule in one way or another a question asked by one of the group. And I have repeated with some emphasis the statement that there is only one stupid question: the one that isn't asked. Every student should have an open invitation to ask questions all of the time.
-Boyd K. Packer, Teach Ye Diligently, page 74


We make it a consistent practice in our family to respond to the questions of our children, an in doing so, we find that they ask many questions. If parents are not careful, they can dam up the quest for knowledge.
-Boyd K. Packer, Teach Ye Diligently, page 74


"All those antagonistic questions he asked you; it was just marvelous the way you handled them.  He was so antagonistic and bitter and yet the interview itself was successful."

I have never forgotten his answer. He said, "I never pay any attention to the questions - that is, if the interviewer is antagonistic. If he doesn't ask the right questions, I give answers to the questions he should have asked."
-Boyd K. Packer, Teach Ye Diligently, p77


There is another important matter we should discuss. A teacher naturally wants everyone to be satisfied and in agreement with him. That is not always to be. Often in the best teaching someone is left unsatisfied, perhaps even upset. Particularly this is true if we have an encounter with someone who is antagonistic. A mature teacher will know from the beginning that when the conversation is over someone will be unsettled and upset. Let it not be the teacher.
-Boyd K. Packer, Teach Ye Diligently, p83


In many churches of the world a doctrine is taught that holds that men are basically evil; that they are earthy and carnal and devilish, conceived in sin and possessed of a tendency to be wicked. This doctrine holds that the corrupt and evil nature of man must be conqured. It holds out the meager hope that by an extension of grace man may, on occasion, be lifted from his evil, carnal,and groveling state. In simple terms it avers that man is, by his very nature, inclined to be bad.

That is false doctrine. ... The doctrine is not only false, it is very destructive. ...

How glorious it is to have the revealed word of God, to know that we have a child-parent relationship with Him. If we are of His family, we have inherited the tendency to be good; not evil. ... God is our Father. We therefore are inherently good.
-Boyd K. Packer, Teach Ye Diligently, p88


I am fully aware that in the world there are individuals whose basic motivation seems to be contrary and disruptive and evil. I know this exists, but it is against their nature.
-Boyd K. Packer, Teach Ye Diligently, p89


For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.
-Patrick Henry, Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death speech before the Virginia Convention, 1775.


If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.
-Attributed to Roald Dahl on Facebook


The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.
-Haldir, Elven guard of Lothlorien, Fellowship of the Ring, p 452


Man's greatest happiness comes from loosing himself for the good of others.
-Attributed to David O. McKay on Facebook.


He understands. He can give pardon and bring peace. THE SPECIALTY OF THE SAVIOR IS MERCY. And He requires that we be specialists in mercy.
-Marion D. Hanks, "My Specialty is Mercy" October Conference 1981

 

Weekly Wrap-up: Holiday break

I say weekly, but the fact is, I'm terribly inconsistent with these. But I like to do it, when I can create enough time. So here one is.

Christmas was fantastic. We had a very quiet New Year - most of the family didn't stay up, even though we're habitual night owls and it's not that late. My sister got married between the holidays, and she looks like she's deliriously happy, as she should be days after her wedding. Unfortunately, I couldn't go; the plans came on a bit suddenly, and it just wasn't in the budget for us. But I sent happy wishes!

We didn't do much school, it being the holidays, but after Christmas was over, I found myself missing the structure, so we did do a little bit. I am amazed at how quickly Dragon is learning to read! He's still in the early stages, and only reads limited vocabulary readers, but he's getting more comfortable with them all the time. It's so fun to watch! Hero's really coming into his own with reading. He's about to finish off the last of the Harry Potter books. He spent a lot of time curled up with those big books this past couple of weeks, and has been enjoying them immensely. I had him do a little bit of writing, just to keep his hand in as well. His writing has come so far in the past couple of months.

I actually got out and visited a couple of blogs, and that was really nice. I always find that so inspiring. People do some amazing things with their efforts to offer a good education to their kids. I came across a new blog, Golden Grasses. And she was talking about this cool concept: memorizing timelines. It doesn't sound cool to just say it, but when she was talking about it, and the benefits they see from it, it made me rethink my disinterest in memorizing the dates.

And that's pretty much it for school! We'll be starting up next week with some more. What are you up to? Leave me a comment - and a link to your blog. I'd love to come visit.

 

Success!

I knew there had to be chapter books dealing with heroes! It's such an obvious place to do some merchandising. But I've been having a terrible time finding them. No more. We asked the children's librarian, and he's got three. And he sat right down to read them. He was excited. That is worth the effort I've been putting in, trying to find those silly things. 

Hero read, last night, while I wrestled with the little kids and the nebulizer. And while I was trying to herd Dragon into his bed, Hero was finishing one of his books. And he ran downstairs to grab the other. 

For the first time, he missed what I was saying because he was that engrossed in his book. You should have seen the dirty look I got when I asked him to find a stopping place. 

I see more of these DC Heroes books in our future. Hopefully Marvel has some as well. 

Required Reading

He hasn't made the leap into chapter books, so meanie that I am, I pulled out a couple and told him that I'm requiring that he choose one. He announced to me when he'd read the whole first page, and the second, but after that, it appears that he's too engrossed to be bothered with such things. 

Oh darn. 

Voluntary Reading

Hero has started to make the leap into voluntary reading! Early in the week I asked him to put a couple books away but he got distracted and sat down to read one. No complaints here! I've been hoping for this for quite some time!

Later in the week I conned him into trying a chapter book. It happened like this: we were chatting and I told him about the Magic School Bus, and how they shrink and grow and fly and so on. He seemed intrigued, so I also told him about the Magic Tree House books. Then I grabbed one to show him. When I flipped it open, I was pleasantly surprised to realize that it was well within reach.

"You can totally read this!"
Skeptical Look
"No, really. Here. Try it."

He's a good sport, so he did. About three pages in (which is huge that he went that far), I shut the book.

"But you don't have to read this. Reading is hard and boring..."
His stuffed animal started "attacking" me about this point
"...and you don't like to do it, so we can just stop..."
He's protesting at this point, because he's hooked on the story. So we keep going. And in the end, he read 6 pages. Sure, I helped him with some of the multi-syllable words, but there wasn't that many. We're reading book 3 - Mummies in the Morning. He wants me to find the first two books in the series. I plan to work on that ASAP!

Weekly Wrap-up: a good week

It's been a busy week, but a good one. Our house is on the market, but nobody has come to look so far. On the one hand, that's a bummer; on the other, it lets us get more stuff done so that it should be more ready. And I get time to practice keeping things really clean. I don't love that practice, but it's good for me.

We're getting closer to being ready for the baby to come. I need some socks and a few long-sleeve onseis (the boys were both summer babies, so I don't have any with long sleeves), and we'll be set for newborn clothes. I don't have a dresser at this point, but if the house doesn't sell we have hatched a plan to have a bedroom for our baby. It'll mean that the kids are upstairs and we are downstairs, and I hate that, but if we can't sell then we'll have to do something. In the mean time, I'm starting to think about what needs to go into my bag for the hospital and onto my playlist for labor. And I need to decide on a going home outfit. Such a silly, unimportant thing, but I care anyway.

School has gone reasonably well too. Hero got cashed in his coupon for November's Book It! pizza early on this week (I didn't think to take pictures, but he was really happy with it), we made cookies, we did a bunch of math and finished off the Math Expressions 1st Grade vol. 1 book and started the second volume. I gave him the unit test as a pretest for the next unit and he tested out of about half of it. Happily I have the Grade 2 books on hand and ready to go. It'll be a bit, but if he continues to test out of half the materials it won't be that long.

We have been reading from Beowulf, and the boys both love it. I think that Dragon likes the rhythm of the words, but Hero is able to follow the story with a little explanation of some of the big words. We also have this narration to show for the rest of the week's history:

 

 

One of the reasons that school was such a success this week is that we actually managed to do both History and Science... in the same week. So we've got a really nice narration from Science as well. We've been working our way through Seymour Simon's book, The Solar System, and I'm having Hero narrate on each object that they cover. We'll continue to work on this narration next week. The pictures are ones that he's selected from the internet.

 

 

Hero is suddenly flying through the lessons in All About Spelling, and while the writing is still challenging, the words are spelled correctly.

We're still working on writing, and it's getting better. I keep reading that reversals are perfectly normal for six years old, so I am carefully not worrying about them. All the drawing that he's been doing is helping the fine motor skills, but I can see from the spelling work that we need to do more handwriting practice. And that's fine. Once we finish this trip through the alphabet my plan is to do a combination of copywork and more focused practice on problem letters. We'll continue like that for as long as it takes to get the letters solid.

Of course, what the big guy does, the little guy needs to do as well, so he had a spider paper that he worked on too. I was really quite surprised at how well he did. Dragon watched carefully to see what Hero was doing, and then he tried to do the same. He didn't quite manage to make an S, but he did make something that looked very much like a 6. He then colored in and around it, but you can still kind of see it. I was impressed.

 

 

 

Find out what other families have been up to: