Great Artists Cont.

Entering the classroom one morning, I saw this. Adele had copied an image from one of the big art books I have been keeping out on the coffee table. It was a moment that made me smile.   

Bookmarks

Does every mother of daughters have a such an extensive and amazing collection of bookmarks?  Each of my girls in turn have gone through a phase of making book marks and I have saved the best of them. I probably have over a hundred bookmarks at this point and I actually cherish them as silly and simple as they are.  This one, an origami Darth Vader, was made specifically for their dad.   

Great Artists

We're a part of a Classical Conversation community, have been for many years.  Each year, the Foundations students study a few great artists and imitate their techniques or works.  We've got some great keepsakes because of the projects they have brought home from community day.  As the years go by, I collect art books of each artist they study from the local library sales.  And each week of Foundations, as they study a different artist, I will pull that artist's books down and put them out on the coffee table.  The books are sitting in such a prominent place, they are never ignored.  The kids pull them out and look and discuss them constantly.  Looking at great art serves to train their souls and appetites in beauty, communicates compelling ideas, and ignites and inspires their imaginations to reproduce the beauty they see.  

The Consequences of Ideas

"So the Jedi are basically Stoics." -Norah upon reading the chapter on "Augustine" in The Consequences of Ideas

 

The Wheel on the School by Meindert Dejong

Our current read aloud is The Wheel on the School by Meindert Dejong. We've read this one before when the big girls were little.  Now we want to read it again.  

Either our oldest or her dad will read.  Our youngest has been obsessed with art books, so she looks at those as she listens.  

I truly love this book.  I was laughing as I was wiping away tears last night.  

 

Challenge 3 Update

I'm directing Challenge 3 this year.  So I want to post some photos to mark this particular season (and struggle.)

The students are working through various levels of high school algebra or pre-cal. They bring problems to discuss and we usually explore some lofty ideas and/ or basic laws, principles, or formulas. 

Last semester, we studied music theory. This semester, we are studying philosophy. 

We have some deep, lively, humorous conversations as we explore several main philosopher and his ideas. 

We are translating Cicero in Latin and learning about ancient Roman history and rhetoric as a result, naturally. 

The older kids are gracious to the younger kids in our homeschool community. This is one of the things I still find remarkable about homeschooled kids.  They don't seem to be conscious or concerned about age and grade levels. 

Students are composing and sharing original poetry and reading and writing about Shakespeare. We discuss, debate, celebrate their ideas. 

The students have to memorize and deliver portions of Shakespeare's plays.  We often read and act out portions of the play as a class, too.  

We are also studying Chemistry and US History, so it's a challenging academic year, especially since I have never taught this level before.  

My oldest daughter is one of my four students and it is really rewarding to journey with her and just continue our conversations over the subjects throughout the week and then into community time. 

Being a Challenge tutor is an exhilarating, frustrating, amazing, exhausting experience.  All the meaningful learning and change I desire for my students is really God's work when all is said and done and I depend on Him. Most of the work happens at home as the students are learning under their parents.  But I wrestle for them in prayer and I prepare and I trust that God is going to use me in my place. 

Family Read Alouds

We finished all the last book of The Wingfeather Saga the other evening.  We usually only read one chapter each night, but once we got towards the end of the last book, we pushed through by reading several chapters one Sunday evening in front of the fire. It was lovely. And we were all crying and smiling, of course. We had read this series before when our oldest, seen reading to her sisters in the picture above, was a little girl.  So the two youngest daughters did not remember the story it was so long again. Therefore, we read it again.  Now we have moved on to the book A Wheel on the School.  We have read that, too, but again, we read it so long ago that no one, including us, really remembers the details.  The stories matter, of course.  They give us pictures and demonstrations of truth, goodness, and beauty to hold in our minds and hearts.  But even when you don't remember all the details, the memories of reading with family burn brightly and can warm your heart for years.  

Homemade Pizza

We made homemade pizza the other night.  It was Dwayne's idea and it was a huge hit, so we'll probably do this again soon and maybe even often.  

We just got prepared dough from the local grocer, cans of pizza sauce, bags of mozzarella and Parmesan, deli pepperoni, fresh mushrooms, etc., things we knew we didn't have that were specific to the task. 

Everyone made what they like best and some got creative. We used bell pepper and onions we already had and I had some beef and sausage already cooked and prepped for lasagna another night, so we used all of that for a combination pizza. 

One great tip is to use panko crumbs to help the pizza slide on and off of the prepping boards and pizza stones.  A combination of flour and panko really keeps the fresh dough from sticking.   

Grey Hair and Some Gold

My niece, who was a flower girl in my wedding approx. twenty years ago, now has a toddler and a baby of her own!  And she's an excellent mother, already nurturing and teaching her girls diligently and age-appropriately. Watching her actually encourages me in my motherhood, though I am at a different place in my journey. The other day, she and I were texting and the subject of handwriting came up, and I knew just where to go in The Well Trained Mind for the advice I wanted to give her.  I felt like an old pro for once.  It seems like only yesterday that my sixteen year old was an infant in a carseat and I was reading this book for the first time, trying to figure out how I'd homeschool.  I knew even back then that I was called to it.  And God has faithfully shown me a thing or two since then. I have learned a lot through trial and error and the hard way, so it was really nice to have something good to confidently share with a younger mother that I really love and want to bless and serve.  It makes me rejoice at the years that have just flown by. I have many grey hairs now and some gold to share.    

Raising Brontes

My two oldest daughters are writing novels and they like to talk about world building and story craft, etc.  I took this photo of them one morning as they were both typing away. I often joke that I'm raising Brontes, and the girls will smile. But I'm not really joking. By the grace of God, they'll be equipped for any and every good or even great work they are called to. 

Handwriting Progress

 

Adele is finished with her printing/ manuscript book and now she is on to cursive.  We took a picture and saved one page from the workbook she just finished for a keepsake. We threw the rest of that workbook away. This is standard procedure in our house, so there were no tears. As she threw it away, her older sister made some wry comments and they all shared a laugh. 

For now, Adele will often ask to do several pages of cursive practice in a day.  At this point, I don't discourage it, knowing that the newness will likely wear off cursive writing soon, but the skills she is building will remain. 

A Note About Handwriting

I have been surprised to find that my oldest daughter and her classmates have so many occasions to use manuscript and cursive handwriting skills every single day of their upper high school years. 

From making original poetry notebooks 

to leading class discussions on the whiteboard 

to creating visuals for class presentations 

to making quick, detailed notations in lab journals 

to handwriting answers on timed Blue Book exams 

to taking notes in class that need to be legible later on, 

my oldest and her classmates have to use their handwriting skills all the time. 

I find that if a student has neat enough handwriting, handwriting is almost entirely forgotten, basically a non-issue. 

But if he or she does not have neat enough handwriting, then that becomes an issue all the time.  

Imagine a teacher reading a lab notebook and needing to assess the student's work to assign a grade...

Imagine a student speaking from handwritten notecards to make a presentation in history class...

Often, an assignment's success or failure greatly depends upon how well it can simply be read, either by the teacher/ parent or the participant herself. 

So I find that handwriting becomes essential to success after all.  

At the very same time that I find my students have to handwrite more often, they also have to type on the computer more every single day. So I am not negating the necessity of typing skills. Many of their essays and lab reports need to be typed and they need to be produced quickly, too, since their workload is increasing at this age.  

So I am not discounting a student's need to type, I am merely saying that in my experience, handwriting doesn't become less important after all, which is what I expected and what I was told to expect. I have actually found that handwriting becomes as important as typing in the upper high school years.  

And when I consider this, it makes sense, after all, since upper high school students are entering the poetic stage of learning. They are not only capable of creating for themselves more often; more often they are called upon to express themselves creatively and they actually desire to do so.  

Years ago, when my oldest left elementary levels and went into the middle school levels of learning, handwriting began to seem redundant, unnecessary, and even excessive, especially given all the other more challenging work she had to begin at that point like Latin, logic, rhetoric, etc. 

But now, seeing how handwriting has become so very important again a little later on in her schooling journey, I may encourage my younger daughters to do a little more handwriting through their middle school years in order to stay in practice.  

Maybe they can keep a simple commonplace book of quotes from the novels they read. I see now that the time comes when they will need their handwriting skills and indeed, so much more will depend on the simple neatness of their handwriting in upper high school.

Starting Cicero

This blog is like a journal or photo album that I have kept for many years now.  I have often been able to use it to recall seasons of my life and mark the progress I make in different areas.  So that is why I am sharing this picture here now. We have started translating Cicero in our homeschool.  Someday Cicero may be quite easy to me just as Latin declensions are easy to me now even though they were quite challenging a few years ago. I may see this post in a few years and rejoice at the progress I have made. For now, my daughter is much more proficient and even poetic with her translations than I am. This is because she has done exponentially more Latin exercises as a student than I have done in the past four years as the teacher who has so much else to do. But I have two more daughters to take through six years of Latin each total, too, Lord willing. So Cicero should be easy enough to me in a few years. As Lewis says, "poetry replaces grammar, gospel replaces law, longing transforms obedience, as gradually as the tide lifts a grounded ship."  Perhaps I will be sailing through Cicero when I meet this post again a few years in the future.  

God's Spinet

Me: Lord, I long to be capable of worshipping you in proportion to your glory.

God: You are the instrument.

Me: Yes, but our old spinet is so inferior. So am I. It is already out of tune again. 

God: Do you think that if Mozart sat down to your piano, he could not make it brilliant? 

Me: No. He could make it sing. 

God: Even so. I am your Mozart. 

Me: "You have this treasure in jars of clay..."

God: Yes. 

Me: I am the clay. 

I look down at my body where I am sitting and seem to see and feel intense light piercing a plain, earthen vessel. 

Me: Yes, I see. You are already here! It is already apparent this surpassing greatness is from God and not from myself. 

Chapter Books Galore

Adele is reading chapter books now.  She's devouring our collection of Magic Treehouse books and constantly combing our shelves for other books at her level she might be able to read.  I will often help her find something that fits. Her big sisters make lots of book suggestions, too. Yesterday, she came home with a Horse Diaries book her classmate let her borrow and her nose was in that right away, which was adorable to see.  It seems like yesterday that her oldest sister, Norah, was reading these books and I was collecting them one or two or three at a time from the thrift store and hardly ever fast enough to meet demand. I am thankful that I have been able to teach each of my children to read.  It has been a delight to witness each of them progress from basic phonics to simple readers to chapter books and beyond in due time.    

Out of Doors

My daughters love to play outside in fresh snow.  Our woods are especially beautiful and magical in winter.  Can you see the girls in this picture?  They are near the edge of the woods on the left. They shared a sled and bailed off right before they hit our beloved but very wild berry bushes (with thorns) that line the edges of the woods.  I heard them laughing and talking excitedly as I took the photo.  Time out of doors is precious to the formation of their imagination.  When we read of Narnia, the girls will have been there already.  

Wild Turkeys

This time of year, the wild turkeys graze in our yard daily.  Living in the middle of the woods means we get to enjoy a great deal of wildlife by simply looking out of our windows.  

New Years 2021

On New Years Eve, Dwayne decided to make a cake. He used the same recipe that was used in our wedding cake almost twenty years ago.  We played Scotland Yard, a game that he grew up playing.  On New Years Day, we had friends over and shared a simple meal of deli sandwiches and delectable desserts. We just enjoyed a few days filled with delightful leisure making the holiday very restful and celebratory at the same time.  

Asimov

Norah's reading Foundations.  She recently read Dune. She's always rereading Sanderson and Poe and Wells and Shakespeare and Esolen and so many others. Many of the books she reads were assigned as part of her homeschooling, originally. But many books, like Asimov's Foundations, she has come to as avid readers do via other books or conversations with other readers. It has been heartwarming and rewarding to watch her go from book to book to book through her childhood and now into her young adulthood. 

Friendship

 

I pray for my daughters' friends. (I also guard their lives diligently and quite unapologetically.) I am grateful for the friends God has provided to my daughters. Interestingly, their friends' mothers are also the friends God has provided for me.  With friends, my daughters will translate Cicero, play chase, talk about books, share books, celebrate each other's gifts, and spur each other on in various good works. (And it isn't so different with the grown ups.) Iron sharpens iron at any age.  Seen in the pictures above are the gifts my oldest daughter gave/ received from her precious co-op classmate.  

Reusing Giftbags

 

I save a lot of money and time by reusing gift bags, tissue paper, ribbons, etc. from birthdays and holidays. Sometimes I still need to purchase gift wrapping supplies like tissue paper. But most often, I can go months, even years, simply using what I have saved.  Over the years, our gifts have actually tended to look better and better, since we have more and more gift wrapping supplies on hand to use to adorn the gifts we give.  Most of the time the only things I have to buy are the gifts themselves.  But to be successful at saving wrapping supplies, you have to store them almost immediately and in such a way that they look as new as the day you received them. In order to ensure the supplies don't get damaged or wrinkled while in storage, I use a selection of shallow boxes that I have collected over the years to keep the items neat. And I keep all the gift wrapping materials together in a hall closet, so I can use them throughout the year.   

Books I Read in 2020

Books I read for the first time in 2020:

The Roar on the Other Side

Apologia's Chemistry

The Patriot's History of the United States

Listening for Heaven's Sake

Peacemaking

Something They Will Not Forget

Jayber Crow

The Rector of Justin

Anna Karenina

Gawdy Night

Brave New World

Passing

Rebecca

Dante's Paradise

Homer's The Iliad

Books I reread in 2020:

The Office of Assertion

The Question

Northanger Abbey

Frankenstein

Hamlet

Phaedrus

The Horse and His Boy

Macbeth

Much Ado About Nothing

Julius Caesar

Norms and Nobility

Robinson Crusoe

The Scarlet Letter

Jane Eyre

Persuasion

A Tale of Two Cities

Amos Fortune

Up From Slavery

Books I read portions of in 2020:

A Beginner's Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy

Paradise Lost

Caesar's Conquest of Gaul

Miniatures and Morals

On Reading Well

Till We Have Faces

Books I started in 2020 and I am still currently reading:

The Brightest Heaven of Invention

The Consequences of Ideas

The Fellowship of the Ring

Phantasties

The Brother's Karamazov

How to Read Literature Like a Professor

How to Read a Book 

Rythmn of War 

A Mathematician's Lament