Amplification Plus Antithesis

Avril reads her latest Lost Tools essay to me... Me: "Wait. What's this?! 'I think Brother Luke should have helped Robin...' None of this 'I think' business. Just make the statement and then support it with evidence. Be bold! You know your own mind, right?" Avril nervously laughs: "Okay." Me: "Okay. Read on." Avril reads on... gets to the end, "This story teaches us that whether there are clouds of sickness and death or beautifully peaceful skies of life over the world, never put fear of sickness or death over the need to serve or help others." Me: "Woah now! What's that?!" Avril: "That's amplification PLUS antithesis." 

A few years ago, I bought myself a parrot, because I love birds and I had always wanted a parrot. 

For a while, my parrot loved me best. 

I was definitely the first person he bonded with. 

But after a few years of being in/ around our family all day every day, my parrot gradually decided he loves my youngest daughter best of all. 

So at this point, he is always with her, and will not stay with anyone else for long (unless the youngest isn't home or is still asleep.) 

But even then, the bird will cry out to wake her up (if she's asleep) or he will cry out to make sure she's no where in the neighborhood (if she's not in the house).

It's definitely somewhat comedic, since the bird has no issue making you or anyone but her feel like chopped liver. 

He rides along with her for morning chores. 

He sits with her while she reads. 

He will literally fly around you and anyone else to get to her. 

Of course, I am trying not to be bitter about how things have sorted themselves out. 

I'm looking at the situation rationally: 

This is helping with my sanctification.

There's probably a pecking order around here, and naturally, the bird probably feels most comfortable with the youngest and smallest (at the bottom) rather than with me (admittedly, somewhere very near the top). 

I love my daughter, so I can see how I ought to be thrilled she has a strong bond with a pet. 

And of all my children, she has a special place in her heart for animals. 

So though he was supposed to be my bird, I can't say I blame him for choosing her after all. 

I mean, she's pretty adorable. 

And aren't they adorable together? 

 

 

A Verse

My youngest came up to me and said, "I wrote a verse," and quietly handed this to me. 

I was stunned. 

As her homeschool mom, I know:

She's been using how-to-draw books and sketch pads to learn how to shade. 

She's seen me learning how to letter, and she's asked to read my lettering book. 

She's been reading her Bibles more.

She has an illustrated Bible that she loves, and she also has a Bible with coloring pages that she uses on Sunday mornings. 

Both these Bibles are bringing her to and into the Word more for herself and they are fostering a growing Biblical literacy in her. 

She has also been hearing hymns at church and learning hymns on the piano. 

She also reads more poems now. We all do. 

And of course, we read lots of stories silently and aloud. 

Even the writing program I use with her teaches alliteration... 

I see evidences of all those good things here. 

As a parent, you can tell whether your children's soul is well by the things they do and say and make. 

I give glory to God for this small but powerful verse, the overflow of a healthy heart, mind, and soul. 

College Decision = Made

Our oldest is going to New College Franklin in the fall. It was her first choice, our first choice for her, and definitely, most importantly, God's perfect will for her. We are very happy and thankful. We only wish we could go to school there, too. Their book list is a thing of beauty. Her dad and I are buying some of the books and we will be reading them. Maybe she will be willing to talk to us about them when she comes home for breaks. 

February in Books

February has been the month of reading books my daughter has been insisting that I read for some time. 

I so enjoyed Dune. I'm surprised by this, but my daughter loved it, so that spoke volumes to me. At this point, I really trust her taste. As much as I liked Dune, and I really liked it, I am not sure I'll read any of the other books in the series yet, since I have many other books I want to read. 

I also finished The Fiddler's Green, another book my daughter loves. I may have cried almost the whole time. It is the second book in the two-book series. It's full of adventure and has heartbreaking moments. But it's also heart warming and in total, it is a redemptive story. I think this one would be a good read aloud for a family with later elementary, middle, and high school aged kids. 

I was lettering while my middle daughter was coloring while my youngest was sketching for an hour or so on this last, lazy Saturday afternoon. We left a beautiful mess on the table and we shared moments I'll treasure. 

 

Practicing Definition

 

 

At this point in her Challenge A journey, my middle daughter is drawing various body systems and defining the terms (or parts) of those systems.

But the definitions for the terms aren't provided for her in any textbook. 

In Challenge A, students are supposed to read a variety of sources and compile their own definitions for the parts of the body systems. 

When my first daughter went through Challenge A many moons ago, I remember that I really did not understand why the curriculum would not just give students (and parents) the right answers.

Why are they asking students compile definitions from various sources? 

Where is the textbook? 

This is so much more troublesome than just asking them to copy and memorize the correct definitions. 

Why not just provide one, singular, authoritative text or document with all the right definitions?

Ugh! 

Why make students go to so much more trouble and effort to formulate their own definitions from various texts?

How am I supposed to know if the definitions are correct?

How inefficient! 

How frustrating! 

Isn't the point for students to learn the actual facts?!

Why make it so much harder?

Learning is hard enough!

Homeschooling is hard enough!

...These are just some of the thoughts and questions that went through my head when my first daughter was defining science terms in Challenge A. 

I had not been Classically educated myself, but I was attempting to give my daughters a Classical education. 

I have had an ongoing dialectic in my head and with other educators about how and why things are done they way they are done. 

Back at the beginning, I was frustrated at times that I did not have an official answer key that I could use to check my daughter's answers by, but I submitted to the process, understanding enough, and trusting where and when I did not fully understand. 

I still felt insecurity over her definitions. 

She felt insecurity, too. (But interestingly, maybe she was just picking up on my insecurities back then.) 

My oldest certainly did not feel competent to come up with her own definitions back then. 

Neither did I.

I was no expert in science. 

Are not the experts the only ones who can speak with authority?

What right did she or I have to come up with definitions for terms? 

It's been several years since these questions, and I've learned a lot more about Classical education since then. 

Now, my oldest daughter is in Challenge 4, so I can see where it's all leading and I can say with confidence, "Behold. It's very good." 

This time through Challenge A with my middle daughter, when I saw that stack of simple science books she had taken off the shelves and was using to find definitions to the parts of the body systems, I smiled to myself.

Now I have more understanding and answers for all those questions and concerns I had before. 

Now I am not at all frustrated over how the curriculum works. 

Now I see the beauty and potential in the exercise of creating definitions. 

By reading the books and finding the information there, my middle daughter usually defines most of the terms for each body system without much trouble. 

But there have been a few terms that weren't bolded, weren't explained within the text, weren't at all mentioned in the books that we have...

What to do then?

We have no textbook or answer key.

That's when I go over and read over her shoulder from the books and help in various ways: 

In the first case, I helped her see that a definition for the term she was looking for was actually there. 

It wasn't bolded, but it was explained within the text of the paragraph/s describing how that body system works.

I showed her how to write her own definition based on what she comprehended from the text. 

In another case, a term was totally absent from the text, not mentioned at all. 

In that case, we already knew something about the term, so I showed her how to use the definition exercise from her writing program, The Lost Tools of Writing, to think through her own definition for the term. 

In yet another case when we couldn't find any information about a term from the books we had and we didn't know enough to form our own definition from what we knew, we ended up going to Webster's dictionary. 

I showed her how to a dictionary's definition of the term for ideas and words to formulate a definition her own.   

Note: I told her not to use Webster's unless absolutely necessary, since she'd be shortcutting herself, not learning the thing she's really meant to be learning, which is how to define for herself from a variety of sources. 

A Challenge A student isn't just learning facts about the body systems and science facts related to them, though a student will learn those, too.  

That's not even the most important thing they are learning.

All the time and effort spent creating their own definitions is subtly teaching some critical things: 

Firstly, students are learning that there isn't just one official source where all the answers come from. 

I think that's a falsehood subtly (or not so subtly) implied by modern education with its textbooks and certifications and teachers who lecture and students who passively receive information and are never engaged in the process of truth-seeking. 

As if a human being made in God's image and filled with God's Spirit can't glean understanding for herself and she need experts to give her the right information about everything.

This is how I had been trained to think in school and college, and I am certain now it was partly why I struggled to understand why CC did things they way they did. 

This is the sort of thing I needed to unlearn as I taught my daughters at home. 

Secondly, aside from learning that there isn't just one place or person with all the information, students are learning the life skill of defining something for themselves from various sources available to them.  

This is something adults have to do all day everyday.  

We have to get information from a variety of different sources available to us: the news channels, articles, the Bible, spouses, friends, politicians, celebrities, pastors, podcasters, teachers... 

And it's not always obvious how a source of information is actually defining a term at first. 

Then once we do figure out how different sources define something, we have to determine who is the best authority on that subject, and how far their authority extends, and how correct their definition is.  

Thirdly, students learn how to weigh different authorities on a topic to come up with the best definition possible. 

Don't we adults have to do this all the time, too? 

There are a lot of "experts" out there, lots of people claiming authority, giving informed, semi-informed, or totally uninformed opinions, clamoring for attention and devotion, but we adults have to "divide the word of truth" for ourselves. 

We have to listen carefully, read, comprehend, pray, reason, wrestle, and formulate our thoughts for ourselves. 

There's no official answer key for all the decisions we have to make in life. 

Even the Bible, God's revelation, has to be righty interpreted, since it doesn't give specific instructions for every single situation we face, and interpreting the Bible takes dialectic skill.  

Fourthly, students are learning how to learn and how to teach themselves. 

Having them define terms is one powerful way to teach students how to learn for themselves. 

And the ability to learn for themselves is so much more valuable and lasting and useful than any singular fact or definition of a specific body system or even all the facts and definitions about a body system. 

And that's what a Classical education is all about. The program is for equipping parents to equip students for life and a future where they can learn for themselves and not have to be spoon fed by "experts." 

We want students to be able to decide what to think for themselves, so they can discern the truth and can follow God with their own two feet. 

We want to them be free. 

Students with this kind of Classical training in definition (and other skills) will have practice in how to think for themselves. 

Of course, Classical educators/ homeschool moms want kids to learn the facts about the body systems, too.  

But even more importantly, we really do want our students to be able to find the facts and define the terms for themselves. 

Interestingly, I have noticed that my middle daughter hasn't asked for an answer key. 

Of course, she did express concerns when those few definitions weren't there in the books we had on hand. 

But, remarkably, she hasn't asked for an official answer key.

She doesn't expect one. 

I am not even sure she knows such a thing is even supposed to exist.  

This is a sign to me that we are in a much different place as a learning family than we were when my oldest was in Challenge A. 

She may not have asked for a key simply because I have not expressed any desire for a key, because I have never implied to her that we need one. 

At this point, I am much more confident that she and I can figure it out ourselves. 

God has given us as humans the ability to reason and that's what students are actually meant to be practicing as they practice definition by defining science terms in Challenge A. 

Interestingly, too, my oldest daughter is in Challenge 4 now, and she is currently writing her Senior Thesis. 

Her topic is education and one of the first and most important things she has to do is formulate a definition of education for herself. 

What is education? 

You'd be surprised how many people have a definition for that term and just how various those definitions are. 

Or maybe you wouldn't be surprised at all, since you may be a homeschool mom like me, engaged in an intense dialectic about how to educate kids at home just like me. 

I can see now that what my oldest is capable of now as she writes her thesis goes all the way back to Challenge A when she was defining terms for the body systems for herself without any textbook. 

I'm glad I asked those tough questions back then, expressed my doubts, sought understanding, wrestled with the method, then trusted the process when it didn't feel totally comfortable.

To some extent, I was doing what my Challenge A students are doing now. 

I was gathering information, listening to all the authorities, weighing their words, and ultimately, coming up with my own definition and understanding of how to teach Classically. 

As you can see, my daughters are not the only ones getting an education here. 

Winter Walk

We took a walk on Saturday afternoon. The girls took their remote control truck along.

We found a nutgall! Avril learned all about nutgalls as she did the research for her recent Science Fair project on invisible inks.  

 

We called this "Ratty's hole" (from Wind in the Willows). 

A snow squall came up behind us as we walked home, but we were already in our driveway by the time the snow started falling heavily and the wind picked up. 

We started a fire and warmed up with hot chocolate (marshmallow lovers). 

Visit to Mom's and The Realities of Adulthood

Our Classical Conversations community had a scheduled break week, so that gave us an entire week off of our regular homeschool schedule. With the break, we'd basically have two weeks to do one week's worth of our school work, so I took some of the extra time to fly out and visit my widowed, elderly mom for a few days. 

My husband, sister, and I are supporting my mom in various ways so she can live in peace in a clean, safe, nice one-bedroom condo, have what she needs, and enjoy her retirement in ways she desires like trips to the Senior Center everyday. During my visit, I got to see my sister everyday, too, since she works full-time and lives there in town nearby. She helps Mom with all the regular stuff like groceries and doctor's appointments. When I come to town, I like to take care of those really physical tasks mom needs done like cleaning, or moving her Tupperwares filled with holiday decorations into and out of storage, or dumping all the collected recycling and the cat liter, etc. I also scheduled the HVAC maintenance, had Mom's broken garbage disposal replaced, also did some necessary shopping and errands while I was there. 

In addition to the labor, I also took some walks outside while listening to my favorite podcasts, just relishing the mild weather where I had no need of a really heavy coat. We also got Mom hooked on Downton Abbey, alternately laughed or yelled about her cats' antics, and ate a lot of good food, some of which Mom made, some I made, and a lot we ordered from local places. 

I hope I was an encouragement to my sister, most of all, who, like I said, handles much of Mom's everyday needs, which is a constant job. But this is adulthood. This is what adult children do for their elderly parents. Frankly, this is piety. I know this because of all that the Word of God says about the matter, but interestingly, I also know this because of my intense study of The Aeneid. 

Aeneas Flees Burning Troy by Barocci

Since my father died and my Mom's well-being, safety, and health has fallen to us, her adult children, I often think of Aeneas carrying his father and dragging his kid from the flames of Troy. There are several paintings that show this scene. I'm also rereading the epics with my daughter and my Challenge 4 class this year, so the scenes are really fresh in my imagination. That image of Aeneas comes to mind when I feel the physical or emotional burden of helping my Mom as she ages, can't work, stops earning, but still has constant needs, while at the same time, I'm also trying to raise my own kids and provide for their constant needs, too. Aeneas put his own desires and fulfillment second to what was right for the previous generation- his father, and he put his desires second to what was best for the next generation- his child. He spanned the generations with his strength. 

I am thankful for that image of Aeneas. It inspires me. It helps me know just what to do with this time of my life, and it also quietly testifies these realities of adulthood aren't at all new. 

 

Second Place in the Science Fair!

Avril got second place in her Challenge A Science Fair! 

She worked hard and deserved to be rewarded for that. 

The best part of the event was the fact that all the parents and siblings and even some aunts and uncles and grandparents came out to support the students. 

We all got to spend hours together enjoying conversation and snacks in our host church's game room. 

Later, some of us met up for dinner at the diner with even more conversation. 

It was a great night! 

Adding Refutation

Today, my seventh grader added the refutation section to her outline for the first time. 

I asked her to step me through her thought-process and the argument she was forming up about "Whether Brother Luke should help Robin."

Here's what she said:

"...Some people think Brother Luke should not risk his life to go help Robin. Brother Luke could be infected by the plague himself. Then he could infect others. But he's a Christian, so he doesn't value earthly things or fear sickness or even death. He knows he will go to Heaven when he dies."

Some people think Brother Luke should not risk his life to go help Robin, because his life is far more important than Robin's. But that's invalid, because even though Brother Luke may know more, or pray more, or read the Bible more than Robin does, God wants mature Christians to be kind and selfless.

...This matters to Christians today, because we are faced with a similar situation and decisions because of Covid."  

Valentine Figurines

My youngest made Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth to help decorate our mantle for February/ Valentines Day.

I find a lot of charm in the clay carvings my kids make through the years with their perfect imperfections. 

My middle daughter also made two friends, one giving the other a gift. 

These friends makes me think of the verse: "It is more blessed to give than it is to receive." 

I don't have many decorations for Valentines, so the girls were trying to add to my collection. 

I think they found some really beautiful ways of expressing what the holiday of love means to them. 

I love their hearts.

And I love the beauty in their souls reflected in the art they choose to make and the ideas that are capturing their imaginations. 

I know I'll enjoy these Valentine figurines for as many Februaries as the Lord gives me. 

 

Science Fair Cont.

We're still preparing for the upcoming Science Fair over here. It will be held on Tuesday. 

My daughter's board has been finished (basically) for weeks, and she has been practicing presenting with it all that time. 

But the various items on her board were just taped there until yesterday. That way, she could make adjustments big and small as needed and so she could try different arrangements. 

Note: This is not my first rodeo. There was intense drama and tears when stuff got glued to boards too quickly to project boards in the past, so I insisted she tape everything first. She complained about this and even cried because she realized how much work it would mean would have to be repeated, but in the end, she was also glad she taped first. She did end up wanting and even needing to make at least a dozen changes to the board as she went on through the last few weeks. So having things taped made that possible and easy.   

But yesterday, we finally spent a few hours actually gluing everything to her board, since it was all certainly where she wanted it once and for all. I helped her with that part of the project. It was labor intensive and she needed the emotional support more than anything. We got a more than a little worn out and stiff sitting there and leaning over and we even got woozy breathing in the fumes from the rubber cement, but conversations were had and memories were made. 

She also wrote an entire abstract yesterday start to finish. 

She was able to do that totally on her own and quite easily at this point, since she's had her research paper/ lab report done for weeks and she been practicing her presentation for weeks, too. 

For the abstract, I had her focus on the purpose through the conclusion parts of the project, leaving off the research ideas and questions, and keeping everything as brief as possible. 

Note: An abstract is an optional part of the project as far as I am concerned, but she wanted to do it, probably because her director really encourages it, so I let her do it. 

She typed the first draft herself from scratch, then I helped her make major edits, then she made those changes, printed, and we made more edits. Then she typed on it again, printed, and we made more edits until it was totally free of errors. 

We also made the absolute final edits to her lab report yesterday, too. That had been written for weeks and edited here and there and quite extensively at this point, so we didn't have as many changes to make on that.  

We made this checklist a few weeks ago that included every single little item left "to-do" right down to choosing the right outfit to wear to the fair.  Any little or big thing about the project that was stressing her out, we put on this list, so she could see the items being handled one by one (and so it wasn't left up to me to remember every little thing). 

As you can see, there is only item not crossed totally off the list. That is "figure out what hand gestures" as she goes through the material. Like I said, she's been practicing the presentation for weeks, but she says she is still not entirely certain where to point or when exactly to pick a prop up, etc., so that's still on the list. She'll get to practice presenting a few more times before Tuesday, so I'm sure she'll figure out the hand gestures by then. 

At the end of the evening, we pulled her big sister's old Science Fair project board out of the closet and we all laughed and reminisced about her time doing Science Fair. My oldest admitted she did not enjoy the process and was difficult to lead. She only did what I insisted she do and not a single thing more, etc. But she was still proud enough of her work and her board. 

Naturally, my middle daughter was comparing her current project to her sister's old project. As we worked, later, in private, she whispered, "I think my project is better." She seemed to need to process that out loud and get the guilty truth off her chest. I chuckled. I wasn't shocked by the comment at all, probably because this isn't the first time I've had a twelve year old girl. 

"It probably is better," I admitted in a quiet voice. She seemed shocked for a second and laughed nervously. Then I told her, "Remember to be humble." "I know," she said. I told her, "I'd say as much in front of your sister. You've worked hard and you've done every single thing I've asked and more without pushing back, so of course, that has made a difference. But you also had a better teacher than your sister ever did." Then I smirked. 

She looked at me with a question in her eyes for a moment then she seemed to understand what I meant. I wasn't talking about her current director or her sister's past director... I was talking about myself. 

I still went on to explain to her quietly, "I have had a few more years of experience than I had when I was walking your sister through that project. That also makes a difference." She nodded and smiled and bowed her head and we kept on working. 

How rewarding to lead these souls through life and teach them how to navigate these things. 

Nativity

My oldest made me a miniature nativity set. Isn't it adorable?! Several people have said she should make these to sell, so she's actually looking into opening an Etsy shop. But with working part-time already and doing her schoolwork, which is quite rigorous, piano practices, driver's ed lessons and practice, etc., she doesn't have a ton of margin this year, so I am not sure how likely it is to happen. But I know I'll cherish this set forever.