Wednesday with Words: On Finding Solace in Nature

We have been enjoying the BBC television series Lark Rise to Candleford, so I picked up Flora Thompson’s semi-autobiographical trilogy of the  same title.  Although quite different from the television adaptation, I still really enjoyed it.  (I’ve enjoyed both on their own merits, I should say.  They are dissimilar enough for that.)  The novels tell a slow moving and highly descriptive coming of age story.  Although written in the third person, it feels a little bit as if you are sitting across the table from your grandmother as she recalls anecdotes of her childhood and adolescence in a rapidly changing world.  I could relate somewhat to young Laura as she comes into her own and tries to find her place in a world where she doesn’t quite fit.

 

Here is one particularly beautiful section:

“The accumulated depression of months slid from her at last in a moment.  She had run out into the fields one day in a pet and was standing on a small stone bridge looking down on brown running water flecked with cream-colored foam.  It was a dull November day with grey sky and mist.  The little brook was scarcely more than a trench to drain the fields; but overhanging it were thorn bushes with a lacework of leafless twigs; ivy had sent trails down the steep banks to dip in the stream, and from every thorn on the leafless twigs and from every point of the ivy leaves water hung in bright drops, like beads.

 

A flock of starlings had whirred up from the bushes at her approach and the clip, clop of a cart-horse’s hoofs could be heard on the nearest road, but these were the only sounds.  Of the hamlet, only a few hundred yards away, she could hear no sound, or see as much as a chimney-pot, walled in as she was by the mist.

 

Laura looked and looked again.  The small scene, so commonplace and yet so lovely, delighted her.  It was so near the homes of men and yet so far removed from their thoughts.  The fresh green moss, the glistening ivy, and the reddish twigs with their sparkling drops seemed to have been made for her alone and the hurrying, foam-flecked water seemed to have some message for her.  She felt suddenly uplifted.  The things which troubled her troubled her no more.  She did not reason.  She had already done plenty of reasoning.   Too much, perhaps.  She simply stood there and let it all sink in until she felt that her own small affairs did not matter.  Whatever happened to her, this, and thousands of other such small, lovely sights would remain and people would come suddenly upon them and look and be glad.

 

A wave of pure happiness pervaded her being, and, although it soon receded, it carried away with it her burden of care.  Her first reaction was to laugh aloud to herself.  What a fool she had been to make so much of so little.  There must be thousands like her who could see no place for themselves in the world, and here she had been, fretting herself and worrying others as if her case were unique.  And, deeper down, beneath the surface of her being, was the feeling, rather than the knowledge, that her life’s deepest joys would be found in such scenes as this.”

~Flora Thompson, Lark Rise to Candleford, p.433-435

 

 

Desiring the Kingdom Book Club: Introduction

Well, I'm excited to be diving into this book.  I've heard it mentioned here and there over the past year and had the sense I should add it to my list of books to be read.   Then when Brandy quoted it here, I had a major "aha" moment (more on that in a minute) and bumped it up on my list of reading priorities.  When Mystie announced the book club, that just sealed the deal.  So here I am.   Right up front, I'm going to be honest and say I may not manage a post every single week.  My blogging life ebbs and flows with my real life. J  But, I will be reading along and hope to chime in with some thoughts here and there when I can. 

 

Let me give you a little bit of background to start with: I am a teacher.  I have a degree in elementary education from a Christian university.  I taught for 4 years in a Christian international school for missionary children.  And I am now a homeschooling mother of three, doing homeschool evaluations and consulting as part of a co-op program/umbrella school for missionary children in a different setting.  Given that my entire adult life has been spent involved to some extent in the field of Christian education, it's something that is a passion and interest of mine. 

 

For a long time – going all the way back to my classroom teaching days - there has been something about Christian education as it is typically practiced that didn't sit quite right with me.  I've never cared for most of the specifically Christian textbook/workbook scripted-type curriculums, as they seemed kind of forced and shallow to me.   The international school where I taught used mostly secular curriculum, with the caveat that we as Christian teachers were to provide the Christian focus by presenting the material from a Christian worldview.  This was a better approach, I thought, but I still struggled with how to do it authentically.   Years later when I started looking into homeschooling methods and came across Charlotte Mason, I appreciated her holistic view of education, but still couldn't really articulate what made that *better* than the way I was trained to teach.

 

It wasn't until I read the aforementioned post by Brandy that I was able to put my finger on what has always bothered me.  She quotes Smith when he says in this introduction: "Behind every pedagogy is a philosophical anthropology."  In other words, HOW we teach is (or at least should be) informed by what we fundamentally believe about the nature of people.  Charlotte Mason tells us that children are born persons, created in the image of God, able to think and reason and feel and love, as opposed to rational animals that are mere sacs for information.  I think pretty much ALL Christian educators would agree with this assessment.  And yet so much of 'Christian' educational practice doesn't reflect this.   We slap a Christian veneer on modern educational methods that actually reflect the latter anthropology.  There is a disconnect.  I don't think this is necessarily intentional on the part of Christian educators - I think it is more a matter of never having really thought about it.  I know I never really did.

 

This is the question that Smith sets forth in his introduction: What *is* a distinctively Christian education?  He contends that it goes further than simply teaching students to think from a Christian worldview, but that it is about the formation of whole people – not just their minds, but also their hearts and desires:

 

"...how we think about distinctly Christian education would not be primarily a matter of sorting out which Christian ideas to drop into eager and willing mind-receptacles; rather, it would become a matter of thinking about how a Christian education shapes us, forms us, molds us to be a certain kind of people whose hearts and passions and desires are aimed at the kingdom of God."

 

He goes on to pose other questions: What practices will effect this type of transformation?  What should our educational practices look like if they are going to be an effective counter-formation to the allure of the world?   What sorts of habits will be fostered by the rhythms and rituals of our lives?  "Could we offer a Christian education that is loaded with all sorts of Christian ideas and information – and yet be offering a formation that runs counter to that vision?"

 

Smith puts forth the proposal that our educational practices should be founded in the practices of Christian worship.  We need to think beyond the realm of intellect and recognize "education" is "formation" that takes place everywhere – not just in school - and involves our whole bodies and all of our senses - not just our minds.  Environment and habits also play a role (hmm, sounds like what Charlotte is always trying to tell us!):

 

"…we need to adopt a paradigm of cultural critique and discernment that thinks even deeper  than beliefs  or worldviews and takes seriously the cultural role of formative practices –  or what I'll describe in this book as liturgies."

 

Education – formation – must address the whole person in order to be truly effective.  It must speak to our hearts and not just our minds:

 

"Being a disciple of Jesus is not primarily a matter of getting the right ideas and doctrines and beliefs into your head in order guarantee proper behavior; rather, it's a matter of being the kind of person who loves rightly – who loves God and neighbor and is oriented to the world by the primacy of that love.  We are made to be such people by our immersion in the material practices of Christian worship – through affective impact, over time, of sights and smell in water and wine."

 

I'm looking forward to seeing how he unpacks these ideas.

 

 

 

Some Nature Study and Outdoor Time Notes for the New Year

During our recent break from school, I took the time to do a fairly quick re-reading of Charlotte Mason's first volume, Home Education.   I am really glad that I took the time to do this as I have most definitely gained some fresh inspiration for the coming year!  I made some notes of things that stood out to me to apply this coming year and thought that I would share them here both for my benefit (organized and in one place!) and perhaps for yours too.

 

Nature study has gone well for us this year, keeping to the simple format that I outlined here, but this is always an area that I need to be stretched in.   With that in mind, I gleaned a number of new ideas to incorporate into our time from the section titled Out-of-Door Life for the Children.   I was glad to find ideas of ways that we can kick our nature study and outdoor time up to the next level while keeping it appropriate for my young children. (Volume 1 gives Mason's suggestions for the education of children under the age of 9.)   This is not an exhaustive list of everything Mason suggests, but are some of the ideas that were striking to me and that I hope to incorporate in the coming year:

 

Meals Outdoors: We've taken teatime outdoors on occasion, but perhaps we should take lunch outdoors on occasion too – or even breakfast during this hot season when it is nasty to be outside at mid-day.  An idea to consider….

 

Sight-Seeing: Here is how Mason describes this activity in her own words: "By-and-by the others come back to their mother, and, while wits are fresh and eyes are keen, she sends them off on an exploring expedition––Who can see the most, and tell the most, about yonder hillock or brook, hedge, or copse. This is an exercise that delights children, and may be endlessly varied, carried on in the spirit of a game, and yet with the exactness and carefulness of a lesson." (Vol 1, p. 45-46)  And on the benefits of such an activity: "This is all play to the children, but the mother is doing invaluable work; she is training their powers of observation and expression, increasing their vocabulary and their range of ideas by giving them the name and the uses of an object at the right moment,––when they ask, 'What is it?' and 'What is it for?' And she is training her children in truthful habits, by making them careful to see the fact and to state it exactly, without omission or exaggeration." (Vol 1, p.46-47)

Detailed Knowledge of Local Flora: We've worked this past year on using a field guide to identify most of the plants in our yard and immediate neighborhood, but Mason suggests that children should be able to describe these familiar plants in detail – the leaf (size, shape, manner of growth from the stem, manner of flowering, etc.).  The goal is to have "made the acquaintance of a wild flower, so that they can never forget it or mistake it." (Vol. 1, p.52).  This year I'm hoping to occasionally use our nature study time to make a more detailed examination of some of the common local plants we have identified this past year.  
 
Methods of Recording Nature Finds: Mason suggests collection and pressing flowers and leaves – perhaps something we will try this year, as well as making careful drawings of those that are of the most interest, including the whole plant where possible.   We have done drawings pretty faithfully this past year, but Michelle doesn't always tend to be very detailed or careful in these drawings, something I hope to gently encourage her towards this year.   Other things that can be recorded about nature finds (with mom's help if needed): where it was found, what it was doing or seemed to be doing (for a living creature), color, shape, features (legs, etc).  We will continue to keep our "nature notes" book as we enter into our second year in this home, with the hopes of comparing things to what we saw at the same time last year and getting a better sense of our tropical seasons.

Adopt-a-Tree: This we've done the past several years, but I am reminded to choose a new tree or plant to keep track of this year.  I'm thinking maybe corn plants – there is a large corn-field near our house that we often have to pass through when running errands in the neighborhood.  Not only could we learn about the growth of the corn plants, it will force us to get out in the neighborhood more.  Win-win-win.

Teaching Children to Watch Living Creatures Quietly and Carefully, so as to learn something of their habits:  We've stuck largely to plants up until now, partially because they are inanimate. J  But there is something to be said for learning to sit still and quiet and observe what one can about insects, birds, and other larger creatures.   Mason describes how to build a simple ant farm in this section as an example.   We did keep a caterpillar and a mantis earlier this year and currently have a cage full of mice that we trapped in our house (!!), but I think there is good advantage to teaching children how to watch quietly and observe those things they come across in a natural setting too.   I'd also like to see if we can associate the bird calls we hear with the familiar birds we have identified in the yard.

Rough Classifications: While we don't want to go overboard with technical scientific explanations, Mason does encourage us to use their observations to make rough classifications of the natural objects they have observed – plants with similar flowers and leaves, animals with various body coverings or eating habits, etc.  Careful observation and classification is a great skill to develop for future in-depth science study.

Mother's Knowledge:  Mason stresses the important of the mother educating herself so she can naturally and casually impart to children the little bits that they want to know about their discoveries.    (Although she also stresses not giving too much talk!!  There needs to be a balance.)  Guess I will be educating myself about plant structures and such this year….

Outdoor-Geography: Mason gives a lengthy section on ideas for learning geography naturally during our outdoor time.  We learned how to tell directions from the sun this past year.  This year I hope to incorporate her ideas about direction, distance, boundaries, and sketching simple maps and plans.   We will be using some of the suggestions from Long's Home Geography for Primary Grades to help with this.   My idea is to either take a longer outdoor time once a week to do both nature and outdoor geography studies or else to take two shorter outdoor times, depending on how our schedule goes in a given week.   (We are committed to a Friday art class for the rest of this school year, but once that is finished I love the idea of making Friday a field day.  We'll see how we go.)

Above all, remember the point is to impart a love of and sense of wonder in nature to our children!
"It would be well if we all persons in authority, parents and all who act for parents, could make up our minds that there is no sort of knowledge to be got in these early years so valuable to children as that which they get for themselves of the world they live in. Let them once get touch with Nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life. We were all meant to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things." (Vol. 1, p. 61)
 

 

Books to Read in 2014

So, I usually post my “best-of” booklists after the fact, but this year I have been jotting down titles here and there of things that I would like to read sometime in the coming year.  These are largely based off recommendations and discussions over on the AO Forum. J  This probably isn’t exhaustive of everything I may read this year…actually I know it's not exhaustive since I have already jotted down several other titles of interest in other folks' year-end book posts between writing and publishing my list. :)  But hopefully having a list to work from will help me to be more conservative with my Kindle downloading habits....(you know, finish something off the list before I go downloading something else...)

 

Educational Philosophy

• Desiring the Kingdom (James K.A. Smith) – hoping to participate, or at least follow along with, Mystie’s book club
• The Living Page (Laurie Bestvater) – this is a new book out, and I have heard NOTHING but good things about it.  Can’t wait for my copy to arrive in our next sea freight shipment.
• School Education, Volume 3 (Charlotte Mason)
• continue The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What it Means to be an Educated Human Being (edited by Richard Gamble)

 

Biography/Memoir

• Writings of Amy Carmichael
• Writings of Isobel Kuhn
• Surprised by Oxford (Carolyn Weber)

 

Christian Living

• The Christian Life and Children of the Living God (Sinclair Ferguson)
• The Hole in our Holiness (Kevin de Young)
• Concise Theology and/or Growing in Christ (JI Packer)

 

Fiction

• Hannah Coulter or another novel by Wendell Berry
• Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) – I read this in high school, but a recent discussion on the Forum made me realize that I probably missed a lot as a 15 year old. J
• Persuasion (Jane Austen) – another re-read.  This is my favorite novel of hers, I think.  Actually I may try to re-read all of Austen this year.  I'm feeling inspired...
• Something by Dickens – maybe Nicholas Nickelby or Little Dorrit, anyone have a favorite to recommend?  (My lit-major sister says Bleak House is her top pick...)
• Something by P.G. Wodehouse
• Le Temps des Secrets and Le Temps des Amours (Marcel Pagnol) - these are the third and fourth books in his series Souvenirs d'enfance.  I read the first two (La Gloire de mon Père and Le Chateau de ma Mère) during our time in France and thoroughly enjoyed them.  I've really dropped the ball at reading in French, as much as I do enjoy it, and would like to pick it up again.  I have the film adaptions of the first two as well that I want to watch first to refresh my memory.

 

Self-Education

• continue Ambleside Online Year 4, and then move on to Year 5
• The Iliad (Homer, translated by Fagles) – this is our first official book discussion over at the AO Forum this year.  We start January 4 if you want to join us!
• How to Read a Book (Mortimer J Adler)

 

What do you have on your list to read this year?

Wednesday with Words: On Facing Trials

Ruth is another novel by Elizabeth Gaskell (author of North and South, Wives and Daughters, and Cranford) which I read on the recommendation of another Gaskell fan over on the AO Forum.   The ending was a bit disappointing to me, but the novel itself was a powerful tale of sin, its consequences and redemption.

 

" 'The world is not everything, Ruth; nor is the want of men's good opinion and esteem the highest need which man has.  Teach Leonard this.  You would not wish his life to be one summer's day.  You dared not make it so, if you had the power.  Teach him to bid a noble, Christian welcome to the trials which God sends – and this is one of them.  Teach him not to look on a life of struggle, and perhaps of disappointment and incompleteness, as a sad and mournful end, but as the means permitted to the heroes and warriors in the army of Christ, by which to show their faithful following.  Tell him of the hard and thorny path which was trodden once by the bleeding feet of One.  Ruth! Think of the Saviour's life and cruel death, and of His divine faithfulness. Oh, Ruth!' exclaimed he, 'when I look and see what you may be – what you must be to that boy, I cannot think how you could be coward enough, for a moment, to shrink from your work!  But we have all been cowards hitherto,' he added, in bitter self-accusation.  'God help us be so no longer!'"

~Elizabeth Gaskell, Ruth

 

Best Books of 2013: The Second Half

Back in August I gave you the first half of my “Best Books of 2013”.   Now that we have reached the end, I give you the rest of the list.  Not as many this time around…partially because I am reading denser things more slowly, and partially because I don’t always have as much time as I’d like to read. J  That said…here it is…

 

Fiction

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry

I picked this up because Wendell Berry has been mentioned as a favorite author of many in the online CM and classical education world.  I wasn’t disappointed.  Well written and thought provoking tracing the life of a man named Jayber Crow from his early roots in a small farming community, to an orphanage, to the city, and back to his roots again.  (Although books about being rooted into a community always make me a bit wistful since my own life has been so transient.)

 

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

I picked this up when I needed a lighter read as a break from following along with the discussion of Scott’s Waverley over on the AO Forum. (I liked Waverley too, but not QUITE enough to make the List. :))  Sweet story in post-war England.

 

The Adventures of Richard Hannay by John Buchan

Recommended by Cindy over at Ordo Amoris, these are fast-paced spy adventures.  Well written and fun to read.  The first three in the series (The 39 Steps, Greenmantle, and Mr Standfast) are set against the backdrop of World War I (which made me realize how little I know about the details of WWI – all the books and talk are usually about WW2!).  The last two re-visit the same characters later on (The Three Hostages and The Island of Sheep.)  I think I read all 5 in about a 2 week period – they were the kind of books that are difficult to put down once you get drawn into the story.

 

Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson

This is a semi-autobiographical trilogy describing days gone by in the English countryside at the turn of the century (I suppose I should specify the turn of the 19^th to the 20^th century).  The first part describing life in the small hamlet of Lark Rise was a little bit slow in places, but the rest was a coming-of-age story set against dramatically changing times.  I could identify with the main character, Laura, trying to find her place in the world.   We have enjoyed the BBC series loosely based on these novels (memoirs?) as well.

Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
A new-to-me title by the author of North and South (quite possibly my favorite novel ever).  The ending was a bit of a disappointment to me, but the plot itself was a very thought-provoking tale about sin, its consequences, and redemption. 

 

Christian Living

In Christ Alone by Sinclair Ferguson

Wonderful series of essays about various aspects of the Christian life.  Deep and insightful (and convicting!), yet accessible at the same time.  A new favorite author for me.

 

Marriage and Parenting

Fit to Burst by Rachel Jankovich

I didn’t like this as well as her previous book Loving the Little Years which has made my best of list before….I felt somewhat like I was getting lectured at in some of the chapters.  Nevertheless there were still some very timely and helpful nuggets in this volume as well – especially in chapters 5 and 14-18.

 

Educational Philosophy

Home Education Volume 1 by Charlotte Mason

Most of this year has been taken up by the 20 Principles Study which has been rich and wonderful, but largely made of excerpts and articles so difficult to add to a “best books” list. J  Once we finished that discussion, about a month ago, I have been doing a quick-paced re-read of CM’s first volume.  Still so much good stuff even on this second pass through.  (Stay tuned for another post on that soon!)

Nature Notes for November-December

Torch Ginger

 

November 3: We observed a solar eclipse today!  There all white, gray, and yellow butterflies flitting around in the garden.  The mangos are dropping off the tree – but they are few and small and hard.

 

That huge tree behind the playground equipment is the mango tree in our front yard.  All of those lighter colored leaves are the new growth on it.

 

November 6: The new banana tree is growing fast now that the gardener cut down the old one that wasn’t growing.  It rained hard first thing this morning.

 

Investigating the leaf up close

 

November 8: We went over to (our mission’s administration center) and saw a palm tree with purple leaves winding around the trunk and lots of sensitive plants.

 

Morning glory peeping out of a bamboo thicket

 

November 11: We have seen lots of butterflies lately.  We had a crazy, windy thunder-and-lightning storm on Friday night (the power went out and stayed out for a long time!)

 

Small termite mound...look carefully, you can see some of the termites crawling around.

 

November 13: We saw a termite mound in the yard that had the top knocked off, so we could see the termites digging.  We have seen some morning glories – they open in the morning and close in the afternoon.  We also caught a baby mouse in the trash can.  And there was more rain!

 

Mango leaf up close

 

November 25: The mango tree is dropping its old leaves and growing lots of new ones.  There are even some blossoms on it too.  We didn’t really get any edible mangos from this brief ‘second season’.

 

Dragonfly

 

November 26: James saw 4 morning glories growing on our bush.  Michelle heard a rooster crow.

 

Black-crowned waxbills in our grass.  These are the most common bird we see in our yard.

 

November 29: There was another wild storm last night.

 

Closer shot of a black-crowned waxbill

 

December 2: James saw 3 speckled mousebirds on a wire.  It rained only a little bit last night.

 

Indian Shot

 

December 3: It rained hard last night.  The banana tree is growing bigger.  There is a tiny banana tree next to the big one.

 

Not sure about this one...Michelle took the photo, and I thought it was interesting. :)

 

December 4: There is a bit of wind this morning – it blew down a mango.  There is a gecko in the window again.  We watched the mousebirds eat a mango right off the tree.  Elizabeth found a seed pod from an Indian shot.

 

Speckled mousebird eating a mango right off the tree!

 

December 21: It’s been unseasonably cool…but the the rains have stopped and it is very dry.

 

December 23: And now it's hot and dry.  Sigh.  So much for a cool Christmas (let alone a white one!!)