Gardening Quote for the Day (Hidden Art Chapter 6)

"A Christian individual or organization should not move into a property and turn it into a shambles.  The opposite should be true.  It should grow and blossom into a place of beauty, demonstrating something of the wonder of the One who made plant life to produce seeds in the first place."  ~~ Edith Schaeffer, The Hidden Art of Homemaking



Photos by Mr. Fixit.  Copyright 2013 Dewey's Treehouse.

CM Quote for the day: This is indeed a debatable world ("The Way of the Reason")

"These Ten Marxian Maxims give us ample ground for discussion not for lectures or for oral lessons, but for following for a few minutes any opening suggested by 'current events,' a feature in the children's programme of work. But they must follow arguments and detect fallacies for themselves. Reason like the other powers of the mind, requires material to work upon whether embalmed in history and literature, or afloat with the news of a strike or uprising. It is madness to let children face a debatable world with only, say, a mathematical preparation. If our business were to train their power of reasoning, such a training would no doubt be of service; but the power is there already, and only wants material to work upon."

Photo of riot drill in Cali, Colombia, from May 22 "24 hours in pictures" at The Guardian.

Gardening Quote for the Day (Hidden Art Chapter 6)

Edith Schaeffer on the therapeutic value of gardening:

"Oh, the frustration and the monotony of not being able to be creative because of feeling that there is no time to pursue any of 'the arts', and that one must simply do the 'office work', or whatever is our daily work, and collapse at the end of the day!  A change can be as restful as any other kind of rest, and a change which gives fulfilment to otherwise hidden and suppressed creativity can do even more than 'rest' in releasing frustration."  ~~ The Hidden Art of Homemaking

Thrift Store Wednesdays: Short List

What came home today:  one pillowcase, two napkins, two placemats, one copy of The Dust of Death, and a VHS tape of Tammy and the Bachelor.

Oh, and Dollygirl got a whole stack of American Girl books.  Which made her very happy.

Gardening Quote for the Day (Hidden Art Chapter 6)

"The day the first tips of green are seen, if they are your seeds, planted by your own fingers, there is a thrill that is surely similar to producing an art work, a thrill of accomplishment mixed with the reality of what is, what exists, what the universe consists of." ~~ Edith Schaeffer, The Hidden Art of Homemaking

Photo by Mr. Fixit

"The plea for free education is a specious blind": Charlotte Mason (The Way of the Reason)

If Charlotte Mason didn't always approve of homeschooling...it looks like she wasn't much in favour of compulsory public education, either.  At least not what she interpreted as government brainwashing masquerading as a free gift to a nation's children. (Seems to me, though, that the proposed education would be discouraging of revolutionary principles, at least the principle of rebelling against the current regime!)

In her point-by-point examination of the "Marxian Manifesto," she says this:

(10) "Public and gratuitous education for all children." This happily we have seen carried out with the proviso, 'for whom it may be necessary or desirable.' The difficulty lies in the conception of education formed by a Soviet community; and the plea for free education is a specious blind, the intention being such an education as shall train the coming generation in rabid revolutionary principles.

(Charlotte Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education (1923).  Chapter 9, "The Way of the Reason," page 146)

What's for supper? Chinese meatballs

Tonight's dinner menu:

Pork meatballs with homemade honey-garlic sauce
Reheated rice mixed with a few frozen vegetables
Celery sticks, cut-up green pepper, baby carrot sticks

Choice of melon balls, oranges, pears
Pieces of a Euro chocolate bar.

Don't be too modest: Charlotte Mason Quote for the day (and a bonus video)

"A due recognition of the function of reason should be an enormous help to us all in days when the air is full of fallacies, and when our personal modesty, that becoming respect for other people which is proper to well-ordered natures whether young or old, makes us willing to accept conclusions duly supported by public opinion or by those whose opinions we value. Nevertheless, it is something to recognise that probably no wrong thing has ever been done or said, no crime committed, but has been justified to the perpetrator by arguments coming to him involuntarily and produced with cumulative force by his own reason."  ~~  Charlotte Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education, Chapter 8 ("The Way of the Reason").

Dollygirl's Grade Six: Term 3, Week 8

This is a four-day school week because of Victoria Day.

Tuesday

New Testament: finish Saviour of the World this week

Poetry and The Aeneid: finish “Aeneas Seeks Aid From Evander”

Arithmetic: finish Key to Percents Book Two, page 10

Natural history: continue The Search for Planet X by Tony Simon.  Finish “Off Course Again,” start “Percival Lowell”

Sight Singing

Repetition: work on passage from Matthew 16

History: Augustus Caesar's World, “Of India and the Hindus”

People Pages

French: Lesson 8, "George’s Kite." (Translation of this week's passage: George is very clever. He has made this kite himself. The kite is taller than George. The artist has painted a house, a little dog, a man, the moon, and a bird.) You-tube video: watch “Trotro et le cerf-volant.”

Afternoon work


Wednesday

Natural history: The Search for Planet X, continue “Percival Lowell”

Balance Benders Level 2

History: “Pater Patriae” (very short) and “Buddha and the Kingdom of Truth”

Sight singing

Arithmetic: page 11, Writing a Percent Statement as Two Equal Fractions



Composer study: Handel, Concerto Grosso, Opus 6, No. 10 in D minor.

Geography: Lesson 2 on Devon, “North Devon.” “The combes along the north coast lie between the spurs of Exmoor, which come down to the water’s edge.”

People Pages

French

Thursday

Old Testament: continue Lore Segal's The Book of Adam to Moses

Poetry and The Aeneid: start “The Trojans Besieged.”

Arithmetic: continue previous lesson, page 12

French

Picture study: later pictures of Matthijs Maris

History: “December 25, Year 1”

Repetition

Love's Labour's Lost

Afternoon work

Friday

New Testament: Saviour of the World

Poetry and The Aeneid: finish “The Trojans Besieged.”

Arithmetic: continue previous lesson, page 13

Drawing lesson

Citizenship

People Pages

Singing

Recitations

"What can we do?": Crafting a Home (Hidden Art of Homemaking, Chapter 5)

Sometimes Edith Schaeffer's favourite phrases make me a little crazy.

"It is possible," she keeps saying in Chapter 5 of The Hidden Art of Homemaking.  It is possible to learn to weave your own cloth.  It is possible to make your own pottery.  It is possible to blow your own glass, and all the rest of the things she lists.  And then she jumps off into the topic of play houses for children.

She does clarify this, at one point, and says that she's not suggesting that everybody do everything on her list.  Which is a good thing.

For one thing, serious crafting is expensive.  Making candles or macrame plant holders, not so much; and recycling fabric to make braided rugs can be an inexpensive hobby, according to the Tightwad Gazette; but even good-quality knitting and crochet yarn, and the related hooks and needles, aren't cheap.  (I like to crochet but it's mostly with thrifted and discount-store yarn.) And I don't have any old woollen clothing to cut up for quilts and rugs.  One wool coat, that's all, and I'm still wearing it. (Although I do know one lady who turns squares of old polyester and Crimplene into amazingly nice comforters for MCC.)  Woodworking tools, a sewing machine, painting gear all take money and storage space.

Also, you get better at any craft as you learn to do it, but it takes time to learn to handle big projects.  Treehouse readers may have noticed that in the last couple of years I have said fewer bad words about the "evil sewing machine."  However...there are people out there who are even less confident about making stuff than I am.  I hear it all the time:  "I'm not crafty, not even one little bit."  "I couldn't do that."  "Who has time?"  Sometimes, like me, "Who has money?"  And whose fault is that?  Could it possibly be craft gurus in the magazines and on TV who have turned Making Stuff into something that needs an advanced degree, a special studio, a whatsit machine from Michael's before we can even think of getting started?  Even Edith may inadvertently scare us away when she starts talking about pottery wheels and glass blowing.

But look at her bigger picture.  Even look ahead to the gardening chapter, where she's talking about growing morning glories in a rooftop garden, during the Depression.  A packet of flower seeds and an old tub didn't set the Schaeffers back much; but it was more than most people would have thought of doing.  Remember that list of nouns?  Imagination, beauty, connection with the natural world and so on.  Rather than wilting with intimidation before those with better tools, bigger budgets, or longer-honed skills, look at the small places you could start.  I personally can't keep houseplants alive, but you might find joy in a pot of African violets or basil or cactus.  (I have a lovely pot of artificial flowers (see photo) that I bought on clearance at Michael's, and both its cheerful colours and the fact that I don't have to water it make me very happy.  Also, Dollygirl made a very realistic vaseful of tissue-paper flowers from the directions in a Klutz book.)

Remember my post last year about the online book Mary at the Farm?  Mary gets a lesson in "you could turn these old faded clothes into something beautiful" from her Aunt Sarah.  (I've never figured out why she hauled a trunk of unwearables along on a summer visit, but whatever.)  She's getting married and wants to make her house beautiful; Aunt Sarah points out the possibilities for recycling skirts and dresses into comforters and "collar bags." 

"Mary, sometimes small beginnings make great endings; if you make the best of your small belongings, some day your homely surroundings will be metamorphosed into what, in your present circumstances, would seem like extravagant luxuries. An economical young couple, beginning life with a homely, home-made rag carpet, have achieved in middle age, by their own energy and industry, carpets of tapestry and rich velvet, and costly furniture in keeping; but, never—never, dear, are they so valued, I assure you, as those inexpensive articles, conceived by our inventive brain and manufactured by our own deft fingers during our happy Springtime of life..." ~~ Mary at the Farm

As Edith points out in other parts of the book, she just wants people to have spaces to live in that make them feel happy, safe, encouraged, connected; that turn dull and same into original and beautiful.  Beautiful can cost a lot, but it can also be cheap or free.  Beautiful can take huge talent and lots of time, or it can be a quick perk-up with some paint.  And since what's simple for me might not be for you (something I could run through my sewing machine vs. something you could nail together in your workshop), having that common goal gives us an extra opportunity to work together and maybe inspire each other.

All photos copyright Dewey's Treehouse.

"Treasured Possessions" (Hidden Art of Homemaking, Chapter 5)

Heirloom-quality tablecloths, candlesticks, silver spoons, fine bedcovers? I don't relate much to the particular home-making items that Edith Schaeffer recommends we acquire in Chapter 5.  A candlestick wouldn't necessarily make a hotel room "homier" for me (and do hotels allow you to burn candles in the rooms, anyway? I'm thinking it might be a bit dangerous). 

And Edith knew as well as anyone that "lifetime" treasures could easily be lost or broken.  It was her sweaters that got chewed in the opportunity-for-recycling incident she describes in this chapter, and her wedding china that reportedly got broken by the Schaeffers'constant stream of houseguests.  Moths (mice?) and rust corrupt, cigarette sparks make holes, and careless guests break dishes.  It's a bit of a paradox that Edith describes, in such detail, the value of having your own special stuff; but that she could also see possessions as belonging, ultimately, to the Lord; that dishes and rugs could be somewhat expendable in the service of the Kingdom.

I do have a few treasured family items, but they're not the sort of things you'd want to cart around in a suitcase or that you'd use to dress up a temporary space: a piece of red glassware that was my grandmother's, a Psalter in German script that was passed down through her family, some photographs, my mother's earrings, and so on. I don't think those are the "treasured possessions" that Edith was talking about.

"What about me?"

I think she was shooting more for two types of home-related treasures. One would be just familiar, everyday (but also beautiful and individual) home stuff that becomes so much a part of your life that you, or your family, can't imagine home without it.  These days, instead of silver spoons, we might think of afghans or scrap quilts, pottery coffee mugs or bowls, a something-a-day calendar (somebody recently mentioned one with daily paintings), personalized pillowcases. 

And her point is that if you don't have any homey stuff like that, then you need to get busy and find some, or make some, or let your kids make some.

The second would be seasonal, ritual-type treasures, things like Christmas ornaments or a birthday plate. (Remember the Red Plates you could buy for special days?  The RedPlate.com site mentioned in that post is defunct, though.)

(Photo found here)

I'm thinking about my grandparents' move to a granny flat, after forty years in one house.  Somehow they managed to make their new living room look something like the old one.  My grandpa still had a special chair, and some of his steam-train memorabilia.  Grandma's coffee table was still topped by a particular millefiore paperweight.

Pianos are not usually portable treasures.

I'm thinking of my own lifetime of moves and temporary living situations (summer places, university rooms), and there were quite a few; some achieved "home" and "connection" more than others.  When my sister and I were in university, our parents moved to a smaller house, and they had the attic space converted to bedrooms so we'd have a place to stay.  The nicest thing my dad did was to ask the carpenter to build bookcases for me around the staircase railing; it was a kind of "welcome home" even though I lived there for only a short time.

My biggest concern with this chapter, or rather its meaning now, isn't so much whether our treasure is silver candlesticks or something else; it's that, I think, the youngest ones among us--say the young adults and then that generation of grandchildren now making an appearance for many of my own friends--don't seem to cherish much that doesn't come from a big-box store (I don't mean couches and washing machines, but electronics).  Stuff is cheap, easy come, easy go; if something breaks, it often costs more to repair it than replace it, so out it goes.   They're more likely to make themselves feel at home somewhere by pulling out a laptop or an electronic device and playing a game or some music.  

There may be a small positive side to this in that our next generation feels less materialistic than their parents or grandparents; that is, they don't see themselves as caught up with "things."  They're less likely to register for wedding china and then cart it through several moves over a lifetime and then leave it to the grandchildren et cetera.  The prices on (used) Royal Doulton figurines have taken a dive in the last few years.  But this also means that they're not taught in the same way to care for things, to preserve, to treasure.   So here's the last point: if Jesus said to store up treasures in heaven, not on earth, isn't that a good attitude to have?

Maybe.  But as Edith says...without any material connections, we risk becoming splintered, unsettled.  Our longings for a home on earth may simply reflect our longings for home in heaven, but while we're here, can't we make our homes places that we care for, and where we know we are also cared for?

"She loved Clarence very tenderly; when he was yet a tot, she taught him to be gentle with all that he touched.  She began this patient instruction by giving him a rare piece of early Staffordshire, a milkmaid with a brown cow.  She taught him to lift the piece with great care and dust beneath it.  Over and over again, he did this under her watchful eye, with never a chip or a crack, Father, and he was but a toddler!  All that love pouring into him is today poured out into his beautiful [carved] bowls and animals and walking canes."  ~~ Jan Karon, Light from Heaven

Related posts:
Interior Decorating and The Friendly Giant (Chapter 5)
What Can We Do? Crafting a Home (Chapter 5)
Homemaking thoughts, Home-making blogs (Chapter 5)

What's for supper?

Tonight's non-repeatable dinner menu:

Casserole made of leftover brown rice, smoked sausage, a cupful of beef broth, and a bit of pork stir fry that The Apprentice made on Wednesday

Hot spinach dip: thawed frozen spinach, seasoned and heated in a skillet, with a cupful of cream cheese heating in the middle

Carrot sticks, mini pretzels, fresh crusty bread (from the Euro store where Mr. Fixit got the sausage)

Choice of Polish doughnuts (also from the Euro store) or strawberry crisp with yogurt.  The crisp wasn't very crispy when it came out of the oven, so I sprinkled on the end of a box of flaky-crunch cereal that The Apprentice brought home from university.

And that's why this menu is pretty much non-repeatable.

Homemaking thoughts, home-making blogs (Hidden Art of Homemaking, Chapter 5)

Here's a three-question summary of The Hidden Art of Homemaking, chapter 5.

What kind of place do you live in?

What kind of place would you like to live in?

How can you make your (current) place more of that (imagined) place, so it's more your place, and more His place?

And here's a bonus question:

Is there a Christian "decorating" ideal?  Or an "ideal" Christian decorating style?  What do you think the inside of a Christian home should look like?

Does that last question exclude non-Christians from being good interior decorators?  No, of course not.  But since Edith Schaeffer is talking about reflecting God's artistry, there should be a visible consciousness of God's truth, beauty, and creativity in the homes of "Christ-followers."

Photo from Curtain Queen blog (a blog worth checking out!)

Edith has a whole string of nouns for this: imagination, personality, originality, purpose, charm, usefulness, beauty, interest, restoration, order, caring, wholeness, connection, balance. Abstract as those words are, they do give us a picture of what we could be ourselves, by living in rooms that show interest (vs. dullness), restoration (vs. falling apart or discarding), connection (to God, to the natural world, to our own roots, to each other).
There should be something about our homes that says "Welcome Here."

Not only to guests, but to us. 

Maybe it's with words, on a dish towel, on the wall.  Or maybe it's a wordless greeting.

Photo from Coffee Tea Books and Me. 

Maybe it's a place to sit down.

Photo from The Common Room Blog.

Maybe it's a shelf of good books.

Photo from A Peaceful Day blog.

Maybe it's the art, the music, the flowers, the food (all chapters in the book).  Maybe it's everything together.  However you create it...

Home Making is the Home You Make.

Related posts:

What Can We Do? Crafting a Home (Chapter 5)

Treasured Possessions (Chapter 5)

Interior Decorating and The Friendly Giant (Chapter 5)

"Reason never begins it" (CM Vol 6 Quote for the Day)

"After abundant practice in reasoning and tracing out the reasons of others, whether in fact or fiction, children may readily be brought to the conclusions that reasonable and right are not synonymous terms; that reason is their servant, not their ruler,––one of those servants which help Mansoul in the governance of his kingdom. But no more than appetite, ambition, or the love of ease, is reason to be trusted with the government of a man person, much less that of a state; because well-reasoned arguments are brought into play for a wrong course as for a right. He will see that reason works involuntarily; that all the beautiful steps follow one another in his mind without any activity or intention on his own part; but he need never suppose that he was hurried along into evil by thoughts which he could not help, because reason never begins it.  It is only when he chooses to think about some course or plan, as Eve standing before the apples, that reason comes into play; so, if he chooses to think about a purpose that is good, many excellent reasons will hurry up to support him; but, alas, if he choose to entertain a wrong notion, he, as it were, rings the bell for reason, which enforces his wrong intention with a score of arguments proving that wrong is right."  ~~ Charlotte Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education, Chapter 9 "The Way of the Reason"

From the archives: "Four homeschool days with Ponytails, 2006"

First posted April 2006. Ponytails would have been in the third grade.

Tuesday:

Bible: listen to part of Proverbs 1. Start keeping a new illustrated copybook for Proverbs (one verse and one drawing for each chapter).
Copywork: one verse from Proverbs, see above.
Grammar and spelling: exercises based on The Enchanted Forest (a fairytale in chapters that Ponytails is reading to herself)--looking for synonyms, spelling patterns, word meanings, etc.
Miquon Math: Division concepts.
French: short lesson about "Je sens avec le nez."
Canadian History:  Canada's Story, Chapter 7, about Champlain and Captain Kirke (really).

Wednesday:

Pilgrim's Progress, Book II--about four pages
Copywork/handwriting: worked on capital G in cursive.
Miquon Math: Reviewed division lesson; did five adding/subtracting word problems.
Shakespeare (with Mom and The Apprentice): read two scenes from Two Gentlemen of Verona.
British History: An Island Story: chapter about King Monmouth. Marked her timeline.
Minn of the Mississippi, chapter 14 (and an online puzzle about the Mississippi.  2013 note: this was at LessonTutor.com , but the link doesn't work now.)
Thursday:  Bible: Proverbs 2.
Copywork: verse from Proverbs.
Read poems with Mom.
Language work: same. Read some of The Enchanted Forest alone.
French: short lesson.
Natural History: Secrets of the Woods
Canadian History: Canada's Story, chapter 8 (the death of Champlain). Timeline.
Read Children of the New Forest with Mom and The Apprentice.

Friday:

Bible: Proverbs 3.
Copywork: verse from Proverbs.
Language work: dictation from The Enchanted Forest.
Miquon Math.
The Heroes, by Charles Kingsley: Theseus, part one.
Science:  The Story of Inventions, about Alexander Graham Bell. Do some experiments with sound.

Other things Ponytails is doing:  Reading The Magician's Nephew with Mom
Listening to Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang read on CD
Making clothes for a felt doll
Playing outside
Eating Easter candy

How we reason ourselves into right (CM Vol 6 Quote for the Day)

"But it must not be supposed that reason is malign, the furtherer of ill counsels only. Nurse Cavell, Jack Cornwell, Lord Roberts, General Gordon, Madame Curie, leave hints enough to enable us to follow the trains of thought which issued in glorious deeds. We know how Florence Nightingale received, welcomed, reasoned out the notion of pity which obsessed her, and how through many difficulties her great project for the saving of the sick and suffering of her country's army worked itself out; how she was able to convey to those in power the same convincing arguments which moved herself."  ~~ Charlotte Mason, "The Way of the Reason" (Towards a Philosophy of Education)

Robert Harris, A Meeting of the School Trustees, 1885

From the archives: "How do you homeschool?"

First posted August 2007.

"How do you homeschool?"

The stress you put on certain words can give that question a whole different meaning. For instance, "How do you homeschool?" Kind of a general question, usually asked by a non-homeschooler who really wants to know how to do it.

Or "how do you homeschool?" More specific and asked by someone who knows there are all different shades of homeschoolers: are you one of those by-the-buzzer types, or do your kids run amok; have you written a detailed schedule for the whole year and searched for every out-of-print book in The Well-Trained Mind, or do you just smile and pass out the workbooks, or the hammers?

Or there's the third option: "How do you homeschool?" Said with the kind of unbelief I usually reserve for those who swim across Lake Ontario. These are my answers to the third question.

1. With support from other homeschoolers: real-life and online. Going it absolutely alone would be very hard. Even Samantha Whiteside had people alongside her in the boat.

2. With support from my husband, a.k.a. the school principal, professor of technology, bus driver, treasurer, and head cheerleader (hairy legs and all).

3. With the help of the public library: a great resource for books and CDs that we need only for a short time. Also with the help of our support group's resource library.

4. With the help of some of the great old and new books, old and new magazines and websites written by and for homeschoolers. Whatever you want to ask, read or print out--it's probably out there.

5. By keeping away from too-cluttered books, curriculum & projects. Time is too short and space is too tight for plastic counting frogs.

6. By not comparing ourselves too closely to other families, other children, even some of our nearest and dearest other homeschoolers whose examples fill us with awe. [2013 update: I think I've updated all those links now.] We have our own circumstances, talents and problems; we do the best with what we have and let the rest go.

7. By using the public school grade expectations only as a rough guideline for our academic goals. Samantha Whiteside set a time goal for her swim comparable on what others had done, but it was based on her own capabilities, not just trying to break someone else's record.

8. By not expecting/requiring the kids to learn everything at a consistent rate or in the same way "everybody else" does. By patiently repeating someone's troublesome spots like telling time, while also understanding that the same student is capable of learning how computers work.

9. By keeping God's truth as the cornerstone of our homeschool, while not expecting that every book and resource we use will come from that understanding.

10. With the intention of eventually working myself out of this teaching job. We work toward maturity, independence, and a lifetime of learning. The goal is to eventually cross the lake, right? One of these days!

Photo of Samantha Whiteside from SoloSwims.com.

Carnivals This Week

The Festival of Frugality #388: Doctor Who Favorite Episodes Edition (really!) was hosted at The Frugal Toad, and includes our post about Dollygirl's improvised doll bedroom.

The 385th Carnival of Homeschooling is at Nerd Family Blog.

And the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival...as you probably already know...was right here.

Photo from The Five Doctors (1983).

Thrift store Wednesdays: At last I found one!

After three Wednesdays, I think I am coming to terms with the new computerized stickering system, which has also meant changes in where books go before they're sorted, and after they're sorted but before they're priced (some types have to wait for a particular volunteer), and, sometimes, when they've been sorted for price but not yet stickered.  It has been a bit confusing and I've felt a bit slowed-down by it all.  However, today there was a customer who wanted to see as many kinds of books as we had--do you have more business books? dictionaries? French dictionaries? health books? and so on.  So I put a push on to get everything out there that I could, and he walked out with a large stackful.  I guess I'm catching on.

Best title for a self-help book:  Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life.

Best misplaced book today:  Dying for Chocolate (a murder mystery), shelved with the cookbooks.

What came home:

The King Arthur Trilogy, by Rosemary Sutcliff.  Big Happy Yesss!  I have been looking for this for awhile--it will probably be part of Dollygirl's Grade Seven curriculum.

Hold On to Your Kids--This is to donate to our support group library.

Sewing with Scraps:  an old Reader's Digest booklet

The Search for Planet X, by Tony Simon (for the Scholastic shelf)

The Holographic Universe, by Michael Talbot

The Emily Carr Collection: a bindup of her four books.

How we reason ourselves into wrong (CM Vol 6 Quote for the Day)

"He shall be Thane of Cawdor, and, behold, confirmation arrives on the spot. He shall also be king. Well, if this is decreed, what can he do? He is no longer a free agent. And a score of valid arguments unfold themselves showing how Scotland, the world, his wife, himself, would be enhanced, would flourish and be blessed if he had the opportunity to do what was in him. Opportunity? The thing was decreed! It rested with him to find the means, the tools. He was not without imagination, had a poetic mind and shrank before the horrors he vaguely foresaw. But reason came to his aid and step by step the whole bloody tragedy was wrought out before his prescient mind." ~~ Charlotte Mason, "The Way of the Reason" (Towards a Philosophy of Education)

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival: Perspective Edition (Philosophy of Education, Chapter 8)

Welcome to the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival: "Perspective Edition." 

Our theme this week is based on "The Way of the Will," Chapter 8 of Towards a Philosophy of Education.  As Nancy said in her post, "This chapter is a parenting manual, a teaching manual and a discipleship manual all in one."  On reading through the submissions for this edition, both those based on Chapter 8 and the more general posts, there's one word that stands out to me, although it doesn't appear in the chapter:  Perspective.   Using our wills, making choices, and communicating those ideas to our children, gives us a different and deeper perspective on our teaching, on our parenting, and even on the problems we face ourselves. 

A key point of the chapter is choosing, especially making moral choices--this one, or that one?  This way, or that one instead?  Aut-2B-Home in Carolina has a whole post on that idea: Instead. "God is encouraging me to choose instead. He put that word on Pamela's heart—imagine Him giving such a word to a person who has struggled with words most of her life."

Dewey's Treehouse presents the last of a series of posts on "The Way of the Will":  When little questions grow as big as Chicken Heart.  "We make real choices, realizing that when we choose between things, we are choosing between ideas--a simple example might be wondering whether to buy discount-store clothing made in certain overseas factories."

Letters from Nebby presents Teaching Children to Will. "Our culture in particular focuses a lot on building the child’s self-esteem (just look at any parenting magazine!). But this is counter-productive. There is enough to make us focus inwardly; we must strive to help out children focus outwardly but showing them the very real needs of others."

Sage Parnassus presents The Way of the Will Chart.  As we read history and literature, can we separate those who are wilful from those governed by will?  (As Charlotte Mason points out, this doesn't always mean separating "good" from "bad.")

Sage Parnassus also explores The Single Eye.  "Clearly, Mason is referring to an eye that illumines the mind with a renewed understanding of God and true wisdom. In teaching our students about the will, a discussion about the single eye might help them grasp this crucial aspect of their education, which is to say, of their life."

And on a variety of Charlotte Mason topics:

Silvia Cachia presents Whose Body?, a comment on the mysteries of Dorothy L. Sayers (and some other books she has been reading).

Snowfall Academy presents Little Ones Deserve the Good Stuff, Too.  "It’s my 4 year old who reminds me that we listen to Mozart (our composer-of-the-term) at lunchtime, and asks me to go put it on if I forget.   My 6 year old was fascinated by the paintings in the great art museums in Paris, especially the impressionist paintings of Monet and Manet that she had seen before in books we had at home.   Books like the Beatrix Potter series and Winnie the Pooh read in the original have been loved by all of our preschoolers."  

Practical Pages presents Best Parts.  "We have always loved the “Charlotte Mason moments” of our day, … it is our ‘best parts’ …time where we leave or seat-work & discipline studies and …cuddle together with our read alouds, spend time outside doing nature study, discover Geography and Science from observations and reading great books," and more.

Celeste at Joyous Lessons presents Trip to the Museum : The Art of Nature.

Angela at Joyous Lessons presents Volume 1 - History.  "I think there is a fear that if we go slow, if we offer stories of lives and events rather than outlines, dates, and snippets, the children won't learn everything, or they won't have been exposed to all areas of history. The reality check is that they won't."

Surviving Mexico presents Parenting Challenge--Conformity and Education.  "The other day I was asked what secondary school my son would be attending. As he is only 11, I hadn't thought much about it. This person, with good intentions, began listing the attributes of different schools in the area. I started to get stressed....Then I had to take a deep breath and get ahold of myself. I had to remind myself why we sent my son to school in the first place."

Journey-and-Destination presents Blind Spots & Balance; Perspective & Priorities.  "Giving myself some mind space and focussing on these words each day has brought freshness and clarity and enabled me to adjust my perspective."

The Holistic Homeschooler presents 10 Things Charlotte Mason Homeschooling Has Taught Me About Myself.  "It wasn't until I began teaching using the Charlotte Mason method that I grew to enjoy teaching my own children."

Thanks to all who submitted their posts!  The next carnival will be in two weeks, and will be based on chapter 9, "The Way of Reason."  The host blog is still to be announced, so check the schedule at Fisher Academy International for further details.

Just for Cindy: "Hippie Christian Music"

Cindy, this has been one of my favourites since about the time it first came out.  For a long time I didn't know who first recorded it--we just had a cover of it on an album that a local Christian band did in the mid '70s.  The "cover group" came and played at our church, and I thought that they were very cool--wide lapels and all.  I still do.

The Hidden Art of Homemaking, chapter 5: Interior Decorating and The Friendly Giant

This You-tube video, if you've never seen it, is a clip from the program Clean Sweep. Several years ago when we had a satellite dish, it used to come on right around the time we got home from church on Sundays, and the kids and I would get a quick lunch and watch. You know what happens after they blow the whistle? Everybody gets busy and hauls EVERYTHING in that room out to the yard, for sorting and a whole lot of discarding. Some of it, they junk--the dirty, the useless. Some of it gets sold in a big yard sale. The best stuff gets kept and incorporated into a new room design.



I learned several things from watching this show.

1)  Many of our houses contain several-times-over-enough stuff already to be beautiful, functional, and express our dreams, values, and individuality.  At church we are watching a DVD series with Dallas Willard, and in yesterday's session he stated that humans are "treasuring creatures."  Our "things" are important to us; they give us identity; they give us comfort.  As Edith Schaeffer says, they also give us continuity when housing has to change or life gets difficult.  It's not unnatural to want to have treasured possessions, cherished things.  Sometimes they remind us of people we love, or places we've been, or special times.

What Edith Schaeffer didn't deal with so much, around 1970, was the problem of Too Much.  She didn't talk much about shopping addiction, hoarding, or just getting stuck with a load of somebody else's possessions. The issue of creative homemaking for us now is often cutting down, cleaning out, getting sufficiently detached from enough of the "stuff" so that we can cherish the most meaningful, most memorable, most beautiful.  Charlotte Mason talks about using our will to make choices, rather than just accepting whatever default options present themselves; in making our homes more homelike, that would include making conscious choices about the things you want in a room, and what you don't want.

2)  If you're letting it get dirty, piled over with junk, even mouse-inhabited (like one Clean Sweep family's "heirloom clock"), then maybe you don't really care about it. 

2b)  Honesty time:  abandoned projects and hobbies, clothes that don't fit, mousey clocks, big buying mistakes--let them go.

3)  If you do care about something, then use your newly-cleared-out space to use or display it.  On one episode, the Clean Sweep decorator framed some fabric and glued on treasured but hidden-in-a-box dried rosebuds.  As I recall, the decorators also found ways to display Scout memorabilia (after deciding that it WAS really important to the owner), and odd pieces of inherited furniture (ditto).  That doesn't mean that you have to turn EVERY dried flower into art, or that EVERY ex-Scout should have his/her badges on display (or should even keep them).  That's where individuality happens.

3b)  I don't know if this came up on Clean Sweep, but sometimes, especially with children, "treasures" that were once loved can be outgrown.  A good clue is if the dust on the model horses is now an inch thick.  Dollygirl still likes her pegboard that displays a thrifted/yard-saled collection of Teeny Beanie Boppers; at some point, though, she may decide that it's time to retire it.

4)  At least on Clean Sweep, a good carpenter seems to solve a thousand problems.  Once the clutter is out of the house, the re-do usually follows two different streams:  the decorator works with colour and the look of the whole thing, and the organizer usually gets the show's carpenter to build some kind of a wall unit in a family room or dining room, or a work island in a workshop, or a neat loft bed with storage.  Sometimes it's just shelves in a closet, or extending a too-small desk.  This is not to say that all storage problems need to be tackled with a router; only that sometimes the piles get piled because there is no good place to put things, even important things.  Backpacks get dumped if there are no pegs to hang them on. 

Again, even good shelving doesn't solve the problem if (as they say on the show) you're trying to cram twenty-four feet of books into twelve feet of space.  But it does look better than stuff every which way.

5)  The last thing I learned on the show, and on other similar programs:  that little bits of comfort are important.  Not having grown up in houses with huge bedrooms (and not living in one now either), the idea of having a "sitting area" in a master bedroom, or in the corner of some other room such as an office, is one idea that's not intuitive for me.  When I was growing up, we just sat on the couch.  But the de-cluttering and re-do shows do this all the time, and it's not that complicated: usually a chair, a light, a little table, a pillow or throw, maybe a bookshelf nearby or a basket of things to read or write in.  If space allows, maybe a coffee table and another chair for a friend.  Just like The Friendly Giant. (photos here)

Related posts:
What Can We Do? Crafting a Home (Chapter 5)
Treasured Possessions (Chapter 5)
Homemaking thoughts, Home-making blogs (Chapter 5)

Linked from Hidden Art of Homemaking linky for Chapter 5 at Ordo Amoris.  (Link Fixed!)

What's for supper? Tuna skillet

Tonight's dinner menu:

Saving Dinner's "Tuna Fusilli."  There's an adaptation of it here.  I had to adapt it too, since I didn't have jarred peppers, or more than a few frozen vegetables:  I added a chopped zucchini, half a cup of salsa, and half a teaspoon of chili powder (omitted the other seasonings), and made more of a salsa-style skillet.  I also didn't have fusilli, but we did have farfalle (bowtie pasta).  I mixed the cheese sauce (in the recipe) with the tuna and vegetables, but left the pasta plain so low carbers/non-food-mixers could mix and match.

Salad

Leftover pie from the weekend, and/or cookie bars made from an on-sale cake mix plus chocolate chips and coconut.

Free craft and crochet books to download

More freebies today for the Kindle app--I especially wanted to point out the Camel Crochet basic primer, free right now.

Camel Crochet Basic Instruction Book by Naka Pillman

Kittens on a Fence Kindle Cover Crochet Pattern by Katherine Hupp

Make Your Own Kindle Cover - VOLUME 3 - THE SILLY AND ADORABLE PLUSH KITTY-CAT COVERS (Fun, Easy, (And Cheap) ... by Evie Grundler

Trash into Treasure Creating Scrapbooking Layouts from Castoffs for Cheap Scrapbooking by Autumn Craig

Dollygirl's Grade Six: Plans for Monday

Monday

Old Testament:  continue Lore Segal's The Book of Adam to Moses

Arithmetic:  Key to Percents Book Two, pages 6-7, Using Cross-Products to Make Equal Fractions

Studied dictation:  from The Fellowship of the Ring

Outdoor Break

Repetition:  work on Scripture memory passage

Geography:  Begin working on Devon, including map work  (my favourite maps for this are at d-maps.com, but there's also a good one at lonelyplanet.com)

People Pages (year-long notebooking project)

French:  Hachette Illustrated French Primer.  "Nous sommes en hiver.  Il y a de la neige et les enfants au sortir de l’école font des boules de neige et se les jettent.  Il y a deux garçons sur le mur."  Review the phrase "il y a."  Goal for the end of the week:  to use the given phrases to describe the picture.

French song:  Raffi,  "Y a un rat" (a bilingual version)



Afternoon work:  readalouds, other projects.

When little questions grow as big as Chicken Heart: The Way of the Will (4 of 4)

Chapter discussed:  Charlotte Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education.  Chapter 8, "The Way of the Will."   Previous posts are here, here, and here.

Mat. 6:22, 23: 'The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light; but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!' 

What's the key phrase or passage from the rest of chapter 8?  Which of these is the most valuable idea as we teach, as we parent, as we work; as we live in relationship with ourselves, with others, with God? 

a)  "By degrees the scholar will perceive that just as to reign is the distinctive function of a king, so to will is the function of a man." ("To will is to choose.")  (A literary example of will gaining mastery over wilfulness?  The Little Duke, by Charlotte Yonge.)

b)  "The simple rectified will, what our Lord calls 'the single eye,' would appear to be the one thing needful for straight living and serviceableness."  [Charles Finney explains this:  "By a single eye, then, is meant, an eye in its perfect state, when it sees objects as they are, with such distinctness as to give the mind correct information with respect to the objects of vision.  When this figure is applied to the mind, it must represent the supreme and ultimate intention of the mind. When the ultimate end or intention of the mind is single, and just as it ought to be, the eye of the mind may then be said to be single. For the mind has its eye upon but one great absorbing object."]

c)   "It is well that children should know that while the turbulent person is not ruled by will at all but by impulse, the movement of his passions or desires, yet it is possible to have a constant will with unworthy or evil ends, or, even to have a steady will towards a good end and to compass that end by unworthy means."

d)  "But always the first condition of will, good or ill, is an object outside of self."

Let's look at c) first.  You really have to unpack this one:  First of all, you can have Person A who is wilful, but has no real will.  He's all over the place, goes with the flow, doesn't know how to make his own choices; we'll leave him aside.  And maybe Person B who has no object outside of himself; he wants what he wants, but he's only into selfish desires.  (That's point d.) But then you have Person C who does have a "constant will"--he knows how to "will" and not be at the mercy of his whims or other people's influence--but what he wants is evil or unworthy.  He has the power, the determination, the discipline, and he does have an object outside of himself--but he's using his will for the wrong things. 

Earlier in the chapter, Charlotte Mason says "Right thought flows upon the stimulus of an idea, and ideas are stored as we have seen in books and pictures and the lives of men and nations; these instruct the conscience and stimulate the will, and man or child 'chooses.'"   She offers the example of a French king, Louis XI (featured in Scott's novel Quentin Durward), who was "a mean man and a great king, because France and not himself was the object of his crooked policy."  He was devious, even selfish; but, according to Wikipedia, by the time of his death "he had united France and laid the foundations of a strong monarchy."  How do you judge someone like that?  "The chivalrous person is a person of constant will for, as we have seen, will cannot be exercised steadily for ends of personal gain," says Charlotte Mason.  Was Louis XI chivalrous?  I'll leave that one up to you.

Then there might even be Person D, who's trying to get to the right place, has the right goals, has an object outside of herself--but uses some shortcut or immoral, unworthy route instead.  The chapter doesn't offer a specific example of this, but I can imagine something like that happening in an educational setting.  The teacher can use the proper tools of education, or she can use force, manipulation, suggestion, etc. to get the children to learn something or do what she wants--and it works, in the short term, either by scaring the children into complying (and learning), or tricking them into it.  In that case, I suppose it is the teacher who wills--when it should be the students, so it is the students who are getting shortchanged. 

It would be something like a parent whose admirable goal is to get his child bed on time (or to get him to stay in bed), because children need a certain amount of sleep and can't be wandering around the house at night; but the parent uses wrong means to get the child into bed (or to stay there), such as threats or coercion.  (Like Bill Cosby's father telling him there were snakes under his crib so he wouldn't sneak out and listen to the radio?)  (Part 2 of Chicken Heart is here, in case you get lost.)

So we fix our eyes on some worthy object outside of ourselves...we are interested in serving others, not only our own interests.  We make real choices, realizing that when we choose between things, we are choosing between ideas--a simple example might be wondering whether to buy discount-store clothing made in certain overseas factories.  Although, as Charlotte Mason says, even dealing with that "simple" question might be enough to send our brains into a spin--is it better to protest by buying only thrift store or "fair trade" clothing?  Buying fabric and sewing it yourself?  (Where does the fabric come from?) Or buying the cheaper t-shirt anyway so that the factory doesn't close and the underpaid, overworked employees lose their jobs altogether?  Or buying the cheaper one because you resent being made to pay several times as much for a "fairly traded" product, or because you just plain don't have the money for that option?  Or buying the cheaper shirt and donating the difference to charity?  I'm not trying to take a stand on that issue, I'm just giving an example of something that can grow bigger than the problem of "My child needs a new shirt."

What does Charlotte Mason say to do if you're feeling overwhelmed by the options, other than just asking your best friend for an opinion or checking out popular answers online?  Give your brain a break, at least briefly.  Go think about something else for awhile.  Then come back.  Look at the longterm, big values that you have in life, and how your choices might affect other people.  Look at whether you are using good ways to get what you want.  What is it you "want?"--that is, not just "want," as in "That pink shirt would be so cute on her," but "will," as in, "I have the opportunity to make a choice here."

One final point:  this is how grownup wills are supposed to operate.  This is what we've been in training for, the tough stuff (and there are lots of even bigger questions that we have to deal with).  Children, on the other hand, should stay in the beginning stages of "will" for as long as it takes them; and it might take a long time.  Really little kids, according to Charlotte Mason, aren't ready for "will" at all; they need training in habit instead.  They might act "wilfully," but they don't act with a "will," and they shouldn't be punished for the inability to operate at a will-level beyond their development. If it's a lot of work even for grownups to make a simple decision like "should I buy bargain t-shirts," it's way too much to expect young children to have to think every decision through and make adult-level choices. It wears anybody out to have to choose every action every time, deciding whether they will wash their hands, feed the pet, listen to their parents.  Sometimes habit is a better default, and that's not a bad thing.

Linked from the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival: Perspectives Edition.

From the archives: Homeschooling and divisiveness

First posted May 9, 2007.  Dollygirl was in kindergarten, Ponytails was finishing fourth grade, and the Apprentice was finishing her second semester as a part-time public highschooler.

Once again something like the "Mars and Venus" syndrome strikes at the blog world, in the guise of a plea for less divisiveness between die-on-that-hill-homeschoolers and those who feel there are equally acceptable educational alternatives.

We could go on in this vein for a long time, you know. Much-Read Blogger continues to swat at some of the "divisive" flies that are buzzing around him, his fans pull out their swatters to help, and the rest of us either duck for cover or come swatting back the best we can. Is the issue of divisiveness really the point of these "I know I'll be sorry I posted this" posts? To be frank I think they sound more like politely-disguised attacks on positions with which Blogger doesn't personally agree, so it shouldn't be surprising that a bit of fur has to fly over them.

The fact that you exist in whatever way you do is bound to make somebody out there uncomfortable or annoyed, no matter how laid back you are about it. If you've read my snowman condo story, you'll know we have considered this ourselves. Among homeschoolers, our three girls are considered an average-to-small-sized family (congratulations to the Duggars on upcoming number 17); in the mainstream world, just three (who would certainly not only build snowmen but throw snowballs at each other as well, making a fair amount of noise while doing so) are enough to make some kinds of neighbours cringe. Our kids don't burn things down, but they do make noise. We don't have a pet alligator or grow pot on the porch; but Mr. Fixit does do whatever car repairs he can in the driveway, and sometimes I do have several cars here at a time for a meeting. Some people don't like that, you know? Some people had a problem with the big yellow phone van that Mr. Fixit used to drive and park in the driveway, but that's what kept us fed.....

Why did we start homeschooling? It wasn't out of a religious conviction that everyone should homeschool. It was what was right for our family. We had quite a few reasons, large and small, including the fact that the school system here seemed more interested in finding ways to cut back on "optional" things (like special education) than in doing what was best for the kids. That is not the same as saying that schools themselves, any schools, must be inherently bad. If I held that position, then I would be very much at odds with Charlotte Mason, who provided for the needs of both schools and homeschoolers.

Why do we continue homeschooling our younger two Squirrelings (and our oldest, who's still doing one-quarter of her work at home)? Again, there are quite a few reasons, including the particular learning needs of our children and our desire for them to enjoy a rich literature-based curriculum. If someone built a Charlotte Mason school around the corner, would I send them there?  I can't answer that one. I can only answer for things as they are here, now, for our family.

In that sense I do agree with Much-Read Blogger because I think he's trying to say that each of us should look to our own convictions and listen for God's calling in making decisions about education. I only hope that he's just as serious when he says that he would afford us equal respect for our choices.

Panic Button: The Way of the Will (3 of 4)

"His will is the safeguard of a man against the unlawful intrusion of other persons.

"We are taught that there are offences against the bodies of others which may not be committed, but who teaches us that we may not intrude upon the minds and overrule the wills of others; that it is indecent to let another probe the thoughts of the 'unconscious mind' whether of child or man?

"Now the thought that we choose is commonly the thought that we ought to think and the part of the teacher is to afford to each child a full reservoir of the right thought of the world to draw from. For right thinking is by no means a matter of self-expression. Right thought flows upon the stimulus of an idea, and ideas are stored as we have seen in books and pictures and the lives of men and nations; these instruct the conscience and stimulate the will, and man or child 'chooses.'



"An accomplished statesman exhibited to us lately how the disintegration of a great empire was brought about by the weakness of its rulers who allowed their will-power to be tampered with, their judgment suggested, their actions directed, by those who gained access to them.

"There is no occasion for panic..."

No, no, by all means, panic.  Now is a good time.  If "the government" can't even get the design and function of gas cans right (without vents, they don't pour properly), are you going to trust "them"** with the design and function of anything more important? 

Christian readers, don't get me wrong--yes, I know life is not so much up to "us" as it is up to God.  But like the Israelites who returned to Jerusalem and got busy building walls, there's also the need to safeguard what is ours, ours personally and ours that we are responsible for--like our children.  All the returning exiles were expected to pick up tools or at least carry rocks.  (Some, if I remember correctly, just guarded the ones who were working.  Is there a thought there about the need to pray for those with the heaviest jobs, in the line of fire?)

"Realising how much is possible to Mansoul and the perils that assail it, he should know that the duty of self-direction belongs to him; and that powers for this direction are lodged in him, as are intellect and imagination, hunger and thirst.

"These governing powers are the conscience and the will. The whole ordering of education with its history, poetry, arithmetic, pictures, is based on the assumption that conscience is incapable of ordering life without regular and progressive instruction. [BUT] We need instruction also concerning the will. Persons commonly suppose that the action of the will is automatic, but no power of Mansoul acts by itself and of itself, and some little study of the 'way of the will'––which has the ordering of every other power––may help us to understand the functions of this Premier in the kingdom of Mansoul."

**And who are "they," anyway?  "They" are, to some extent, "us."

Free homeschooling books from the Kindle Store

They're free for downloading right now--but probably not for long.

Discovering Your Child's Destiny (Unconventional Homeschooling Guides), by Ellyn Davis of The Elijah Company and  now of Home School Marketplace.  Don't miss this one right now, because at full price it will cost you $9.05 more. 

Finding a College: A Homeschooler's Guide to Finding a Perfect Fit (Coffee Break Books) by Lee Binz

Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother by Joyce Swann and Stefan Swann.  Mentioned here before, but it's back to freebie status now.

You'll Be a Man, My Son: The Way of the Will (2 of 4)

"We who teach should make it clear to ourselves that our aim in education is less conduct than character; conduct may be arrived at, as we have seen, by indirect routes, but it is of value to the world only as it has its source in character.

"For, let us consider. What we do with the will we describe as voluntary. What we do without the conscious action of will is involuntary.

"The will has only one mode of action, its function is to 'choose,' and with every choice we make we grow in force of character.

"From the cradle to the grave suggestions crowd upon us...

"and such suggestions become part of our education because we must choose between them. But a suggestion given by intent and supported by an outside personality has an added strength which few are able to resist, just because the choice has been made by another and not by ourselves, and our tendency is to accept this vicarious choice and follow the path of least resistance.

"No doubt much of this vicarious choosing is done for our good, whether for our health of body or amenableness of mind; but those who propose suggestion as a means of education do not consider that with every such attempt upon a child they weaken that which should make a man of him, his own power of choice."

Earlier in this chapter, Charlotte Mason wrote, "The use of suggestion as an aid to the will is to be deprecated, as lending to stultify and stereotype character. It would seem that spontaneity is a condition of development..." 

Spontaneity?  In other words, we cannot (or should not!) program will-development.  It is not something that can be placed into a child in sequential, planned, tiny doses.

If (academic) education is the lighting of a fire and not the filling of a pail, so is moral and character education.