Sunday, March 20, 2016

Getting Started with Ambleside Online Year One - On Hold

Well, dear friends, I had hoped I would be able to draft enough posts ahead of time to keep this series going through the next couple of weeks....but alas.  That didn't happen.  Over the next couple of weeks our family will be moving to a new house, observing a birthday, an anniversary, Holy Week, and Easter.  All wonderful and good things....but all things that will keep me more or less offline.

I hope each of you have a special celebration of the resurrection of our Lord, and I will see you back again in this space when the dust settles on the other side.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

From My Commonplace: On Going Home

"It seemed as though he were never able to forget his ultimate purpose and goal – he was going home; home to his own master, home where he belonged, and nothing else mattered.  This lodestone of longing, this certainty, drew him to lead his companions ever westward through wild and unknown country, as unerringly as a carrier pigeon released from an alien loft."  (p.52)
 
~Sheila Burnford, The Incredible Journey
 
 



 
 
My Bookbag This Week:
Devotional: The Daily Office Lectionary Readings and Prayers from The Trinity Mission
 The Cloud of Witness (Gell)
 A Sacrifice of Praise (poetry anthology, edited by Trott)
 The Rising: Living the Mysteries of Lent, Easter, and Pentecost (Wright)
Theological: The Screwtape Letters (Lewis)
AO Book Discussion Group: Paradise Lost (Milton)
Personal Choice: The Clockwork Universe (Dolnick)
With my Hubby: Pride and Prejudice (Austen)
Family Read-Aloud Literature: The Wouldbegoods (Nesbit)
 
*I am also reading Scouting the Divine (Feinburg) with a women's group at church and Charlotte Mason's Volume 6 for a local CM book club, but these meetings are infrequent and so I just read the brief section assigned as our meetings come up.  They aren't really part of my regular reading rotation as the rest of these are.
 
** Yes.  My hubby is actually reading Pride and Prejudice with me.  And enjoying it....
 
 



 
 
 
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Saturday, March 12, 2016

I Give You Permission...

Has spring arrived where you live yet?
 
 
It has where we live.  Sunny and temps in the 70s.  In my mind this is perfect weather. 
 
 
Too perfect to stay inside.
 
 
But what about that math lesson?  Don't we need to do that?
 
 
What about squeezing all that reading on the AO list for week 8 into week 8 on the calendar?  
 
 
Relax Mama.  I know you want to be diligent in your children's education.  Me too.
 
 
But pushing too hard at all those things you "should" do without ever taking a break – that leads to burn out.
 
 
Ask me how I know.
 
 
These sunny 70 degree days aren't going to last forever.
 
 
Before you know it they will give way to the sticky humidity and heat of summer.
 
 
We won't want to spend all day outside anymore.  We'll want to stay inside in the air conditioning.
 

 
Which means that we'll have time to pick up the pace again on the math and reading and all those other things.
 
 
We'll be refreshed and ready for it after slowing our pace for a few weeks to enjoy this window of perfect weather.
 
 
Sounds like a win-win situation to me.
 
 
Enjoy these days while they last.
 
 
I give you permission….
 
All photos taken on a recent outing to our local botanical gardens.  We got a great deal on an annual pass.  We'll be back.
 
 

Monday, March 7, 2016

Getting Started with AO Year One: Understanding Narration

Welcome back for another coffee chat, friends.
 
 
I hope that our last installment left you feeling encouraged that you CAN do this.  It's okay if you haven't read everything and don't know it all, and it's even okay if you don't do everything perfectly because none of us do.
 
That said…you do need to start somewhere.  Once you've gained a general overview of CM's ideas, you need to begin to deepening your understanding a little bit at a time.  In the next couple of posts in this series I'd like to suggest a couple of principles that would be good starting places for your further study.  Today let's talk about narration.
 
Very simply put, narration is the act of telling back (orally or, in the case of older students, in writing) what you have heard or read or experienced.  Sounds simple, right?  It is simple, but it is also profound.  In order to narrate, the child must attend to the reading, organize it in his own mind, and reformulate it in his own words.   I have reflected before that narration is akin to translation – translating the ideas of the author into one's own language.  It's harder work than you might think!  Some children take to it like ducks to water, and others really struggle with developing this skill.  Narration is frequently misunderstood and its power underestimated.   It is also absolutely essential to putting Charlotte Mason's philosophy of education into place in your homeschool.  This is why I'd like to suggest to you that deepening your understanding of what narration is, why it is important, and how to help your student develop narration skills is a foundational starting place for further study.
 
Rather than re-invent the wheel, I am going to leave you today with a collection of links that will send you well on your way to a deeper understanding of narration.  Take some time over the next few weeks to read and take notes and ponder.  Feel free to come back and leave your questions in the comments, or hop on over to the Ambleside Online Forum and join the conversation there.
 
Narration Helps from the Ambleside Online Advisory Board with LOTS of links for further study
Karen Glass on Narration
More from Karen Glass on "What's the Point of Narration"
Troubleshooting and Narration from Fisher Academy Part 1 and Part 2
The Mason Jar Podcast Interview with Karen Glass (not solely about narration, but she does make some good points with regard to narration to keep in mind)
Brandy Vencel on Narration vs. Discussion
Also, if you haven't already subscribed to Brandy's Newbie Tuesday newsletter, go do that now.  The first issue is all about narration, and I believe you get that immediately when you sign up.
 
Happy Reading, Friends!
 
PS – For those of you who may be looking for an online discussion group to go deeper with CM's principles, it looks like there is a group forming over on the AO Forum to go through Brandy's 20 Principles study beginning in April.  I did this study myself with a group of Forum ladies several years ago and I would say that that was the thing that really cemented my understanding of what CM is all about. I highly recommend this study to you, especially if you don't have access to a local CM study group.  Click here to get more information (you need to be registered on the Forum to access this link).
 

Thursday, March 3, 2016

From My Commonplace: On Prayer and Distraction

 
"Whenever they are attending to the Enemy Himself, we are defeated, but there are ways of preventing them from doing so. The simplest is to turn their gaze away from Him towards themselves.  Keep them watching their own minds and trying to produce feelings there by the action of their own wills…Teach them the desired feeling; and never let them suspect how much success or failure  of that kind depends on whether they are well or ill, fresh or tired, at the moment."
 
"…you must keep him praying to it – to the thing he has made, not to the Person who has made him."
 
~CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (Letter #4)
 
 
 
(For those of you who aren't familiar with The Screwtape Letters, they are a series of imagined letters from a Senior Demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, Wormwood educating him in the nature of tempting his patient – a human being -  and keeping Him from entering in to a full and living relationship with God.  Their 'Enemy', of course is God.  They are rather amusing and tongue-in-cheek at times, but the reversed perspective also gives rather intriguing commentary and insight into the nature of sin and temptation.  Very, very interesting to be reading this alongside Paradise Lost, although to be completely honest I haven't touched Paradise Lost for nearly two weeks.  But it's all still simmering away in the back of my mind…)
 


 
My Bookbag This Week:
Devotional: The Daily Office Lectionary Readings and Prayers from The Trinity Mission
 The Cloud of Witness (Gell)
 A Sacrifice of Praise (poetry anthology, edited by Trott)
 The Rising: Living the Mysteries of Lent, Easter, and Pentecost (Wright)
Theological: The Screwtape Letters (Lewis)
AO Book Discussion Group: Paradise Lost (Milton)
Personal Choice: The Scent of Water (Goudge)
With my Hubby: Pride and Prejudice (Austen)
Family Read-Aloud Literature: The Wouldbegoods (Nesbit)
 
*I am also reading Scouting the Divine (Feinburg) with a women's group at church and Charlotte Mason's Volume 6 for a local CM book club, but these meetings are infrequent and so I just read the brief section assigned as our meetings come up.  They aren't really part of my regular reading rotation as the rest of these are.
 
** Yes.  My hubby is actually reading Pride and Prejudice with me.  And enjoying it....
 



 
 
 
 
 
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