Writing it All Down

It is Memorial Day weekend and here in the California mountains, we are getting snow!    Also, tomorrow is Pentecost, and I am finishing my novena.   Praying for all of your intentions.

Finishing up with the first item on my summer preparation checklist:     Then, next week, I will go on to the next item.   I had no idea I would think of so much to say on this topic!

Think and Brainstorm!

This can be done many ways, and not everyone does it the way I am describing.  But while praying for discernment, it is very useful to keep track of what you are discerning, so that is what this post is about.  

Please Note!  If anyone tried to do ALL of this their brain would probably fry and they would never get around to actually homeschooling or even paying attention to their kids.   These are just a few ways of approaching brainstorming. I do this differently every year and sometimes don't really spend much time on it at all because I already feel like I have things set. This year I felt like I needed to start from the ground up, after a year full of transitions. 

Brainstorming and thinking can take as much or as little time as you have.  I find late evening and early morning, right after prayer, to be the best times to reflect on how life is going in general.   Specific ideas come all day -- when I'm cooking, when I'm going to the post office, when I'm noticing a habit issue with one of my kids. 

This year I used a small lined pad and I would just write everything I could think of.   For a couple of weeks I took it everywhere with me.
 
It felt very good to start from scratch with a blank pad and just write whatever came to my mind, like free writing with the topic of "homeschooling and family life next year".  .

Looking back at the first of my notebooks from this spring, I can see that I was trying to get regrounded.  I had just spent almost two months in Alaska.  I was trying to phase back into my home routine.  It reminded me of how when Aidan used to have to go often to the hospital I would stay with him there, and then when we got home I would wander around shell-shocked for a while, like I'd just been dropped into someone else's life.  Chari feels something like that periodically after a 12 hour nursing shift, and she calls it Post Traumatic Work Syndrome. It's a little like that, except the syndrome was related to emotional life events and change of scenario and schedule.   So I started with listing all my different areas that I needed to keep in mind-- because I was overwhelmed -- and then brainstormed how to keep them all straight so nothing huge dropped through the gaps. 

After a while, later in the notebook,  I started brainstorming lists about the kids.... the possibilities for their next year's curriculum, my highschooler's vocational preparation activities, our summer plans, things like that.

GTD calls this a Mindsweep.    You are letting whatever is preoccupying you out of your brain and onto paper, so your brain processing units are freed up and you can "see" the issue (which often looms bigger before it's articulated). 

During this brainstorming time, everything is allowed to stay open-ended.  You can just write lists of questions.   For example, I devoted a page to trying to figure out options for Kieron's math next year.   (I am still trying to work that out, actually, but writing down all my questions and possibilities did clarify what I was looking for). 

Basically I made lists, lots and lots of lists.  I just want to have it written down!  Later I can go through and organize what I've written, and get rid of the repetition.  If you get overwhelmed with the flood of ideas, this 4real thread on Decluttering the Mind has helpful ideas.

If you have trouble coming up with anything at all, there are various brainstorming resources online.  Here is one from the Writing Center.    Also, for me, going for a walk, or washing dishes, or vacuuming, often gets ideas going faster than I can find a pen to write them down. 

Maybe you use a curriculum that is already prepared.  Still, it may be good to think and brainstorm about your own family, your circumstances, what local activities you might want to do, and so on.   

I usually visit more blogs and forums during this time, collecting ideas.    Diigo has been really helpful in organizing these for me (HT Erin).   There are usually way more ideas than I can use, which is fine at this stage, because it's all about possibilities.

In the past I've used some more "planned" brainstorming ideas.   I'll post a few resources that I didn't use this year, at least not specifically, but have used in other years.

Goal Planning Sheet (PDF)

 Goal Planning Sheet (PDF)

I made this goal planning sheet a few years ago after seeing one that Chari uses with her kids.  She sits down with them and they fill it out together.    Over here I put some links to goal-setting resources on the internet.

One of my goals is to get my kids more involved in their own academic planning, especially the highschooler, so this goal sheet helps.  I will probably sit down with him soon  now that I have my own list of possibilities and ideas listed out for him, and see if he has strong opinions in any direction. 

Considerations (docx)

Considerations (PDF)

Considerations (blog form)

Even longer ago I made these Considerations to help me think about my homeschool.  I don't necessarily sit down and work through them one by one, but I do keep the general categories in mind as I brainstorm.

I made the printable form using a brochure template from MS Word.   I like experimenting with templates.  

Summer Plans (blog form)

Summer Plans (pdf)

These are links to an article I wrote for the Kolbe Academy newsletter several years back:
I am including the article because it talks about spending time with your family and observing them.   This to me is the core along with prayer.

And the other core  ("other core" sounds strange, like having two hearts, but I really  mean another aspect of the single core) is what Jacques Maritain called "purifying the source" -- he was speaking of the artist, but I think it applies to the homeschooling mother too:

What matters most, and is essential, is the fact that love -- I don't mean any kind of love, I mean love of Charity -- when it takes hold of man, makes the entire subjectivity purer, and consequently, the creative source also purer. As François Mauriac put it, to purify the source is the only way.

A purified source is not,..... a source which is timid or prudent, or with an admixture of chemicals. A purified source springs from the depths of man's substance, and is as wild and irrepressible as any other; but it has no mud. This is the work of self-discipline and the cultivation of moral virtues, but first of all of transforming love.

I just read something similar in The Christian Mother (public domain at Google), from the preface by Archbishop James Gibbons of Baltimore:

If the mother be a true Christian—if she show forth in her own life the habit of the virtues which she desires to instil into the hearts of her children—how nobly and how successfully will she fulfil her mission! 

The child is by nature an imitator. If the model set before him is good, there is reason to hope that the copy will be so likewise. Do mothers realize this?.... h! that all mothers would bear in mind that if they desire their children to become true Christians they must present in their own lives the models of which the children will be the living copies.

Which brings us back again to prayer and the Sacraments!  Without Him, nothing turns out right!   With Him, ordinary human actions gain value!   On my classical list, a member quoted this from Josemaria Escriva which I have been pondering:

"You are writing to me in the kitchen, by the stove. It is early afternoon. It is cold. By your side, your younger sister — the last one to discover the divine folly of living her Christian vocation to the full — is peeling potatoes. To all appearances — you think — her work is the same as before. And yet, what a difference there is! —It is true: before she only peeled potatoes, now, she is sanctifying herself peeling potatoes."

Choosing Martha

I'm still talking about the "pray for discernment" part of my preparation checklist.  Over here I listed some of the details of my praying and processing during the summer.

Some of the things related to prayer on my list

(1) hold a personal spiritual/educational retreat,   I usually do most of this alone.  But in the past five years, Chari and I have sometimes visited each other to hold a similar retreat but with the advantage of having two heads instead of just one.   This is really nice if you can arrange it -- to plan with a friend who shares many of your goals.  Especially if you are unable to go to homeschool conferences (I haven't been to any and Chari has only been to one for a short time, I believe) it is very invigorating to share problems, concerns, solutions and ideas with each other.

(2) choose a saint as patron for that particular year.   Besides Our Blessed Mother I have chosen St Ignatius, St Thomas Aquinas, St Therese, St John Bosco, and others (I'm forgetting the rest right now).

This year I decided to do things a bit differently.  For one thing, after praying about our homeschool calendar, I decided to officially homeschool year round.   We used to do this but got away from it while Sean was on the public school schedule.

For another thing, I decided to divide the year into six 2 month blocks.  If I do that we can have 2-3 lighter weeks during each block.    This will let me be flexible when we are traveling, and we will have more time for a lighter schedule on solemnities and feast days.

While I was planning this, it occurred to me that I could choose a patron saint for each 2-month block!


I love the  Saints' Name Generator  -- sometimes I go there and pick out a saint just for fun.

So I went there to pick a patron for this summer block of time. 

 It turned out very providentially to be St Martha!

Providential in that not only is her feast day at the end of July, so it almost marks the passing to a new time frame, but she is perfect to remind me to be "faithful in the little things" without forgetting the One Needful Thing.   That is a big concern of mine since I always seem to pray more during the summer and less during the school year when I get busy and preoccupied. 

Plus, she is the patron saint of cooks and servants, and I need all the help with cooking and hospitality that I can get this summer.   I am determined to upgrade my skills.  My daughter wants to spend time in the kitchen too.  Perfect!

"Martha served."

Martha  is also the saint I picked when Aidan was in the hospital very ill after birth, 13 years ago this June and July.  One of my questions during this time was how fervently to petition God to spare my son.   Hadn't others lost theirs, up to and including Himself?  Wouldn't Aidan be bound straight for heaven?   Was I being TOO fervent, pleading with God without the proviso "Thy Will, not mine, be done?" 

Then I read from the Gospel of John

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary sat in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have  died. 22 And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you." 23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." 24 Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." 25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"  27 She said to him, "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world."

Somehow that gave me a way into praying for my infant son.    I said over and over again, "Even now, I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you."    I love that testament of faith and insight  -- faith in God's power and understanding of the relationship between the Son and the Father.    It reminds me a little of Mary's "Do whatever He tells you." 

So St. Martha is an old friend, and it is especially wonderful to me to have her as a sort of spiritual guest and advisor during this summer.    When something like this happens when I have been praying a novena, I feel like my prayers are being answered.   It feels like the Holy Spirit gave me Saint Martha to think about and ask for intercession.

She sets such a good example for me in many ways, embodying  the woman of Titus 2:

The aged women, in like manner, in holy attire, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teaching well: That they may teach the young women to be wise, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, sober, having a care of the house, gentle, obedient to their husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

Prayer:

Saint Martha, pray for us that we might serve Jesus better. Help us to overcome our distractions and worries to listen to his words and be present to him this day. Amen

Wind and Fire and Discernment

Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, Thomas Aquinas College

Since I am in planning mode this summer, and have been writing a lot of planning posts anyway, I thought I might use my planning checklist as a sort of spine for my blogging on this topic.

The checklist I use for preparation:

Checklist:  Preparation for the School Year (docx)
Checklist:  Preparation for the School Year (PDF) 

There are 35 items on there.   I doubt if I'll get through them all, but I thought if I posted on the ones I actually do this year, then I will have a basic outline there and a reality check.   So here goes: 

The first item on the list:

Think and brainstorm!  Pray for discernment!

That is actually three BIG items all condensed into one.

I will take the praying part first.  I usually start during Lent praying and thinking about our homeschool.  The old school year is drawing to a close;  I'm in the mood to think about renewing and bracing myself for next year.

This year, Lent was about spending time with my Mom in her last days, and later, going through her house, giving things away to people and agencies that could use them, and executing her will and directives.  Truly, I couldn't have asked for more blessings during Lent.    Though it was hard, I feel WAY more comfort and assurance that God has not given up on me, bad as I am.

 I can't express how much rather I would go through pain with the assurance that He is holding my hand, than comfort without Him.  This is not at all saintly of me, but purely a matter of pain vs pleasure.  Convenience without Him is hellish, while suffering with Him is like a treasure.  Yet I always seek out convenience and comfort by preference... go figure.

That is off the subject...  so it wasn't until Easter came that I start the praying and discerning about the next school year.     While I have regular cycles of unschooling in my homeschool, I seem to  find unschooling very draining.     I choose it some years because after praying and discerning, I feel like our homeschool requires it.  But it's like camping, or choosing radical poverty, to me -- very uncomfortable and counter-intuitive.  I always come way up against my own limitations.

Last year I unschooled, and it was what the year needed.   This year, after starting the praying and discerning, I felt like next year should be about literature-based homeschooling and working on some of my Charlotte Mason/classical homeschooling skills.

Kieron has only two years left in the homeschool.  I want to make the most of the brief time left with him.

He has been very valuable in our homeschool as a role model for the younger children.   He is very steady, sensible and sociable to them.  Whatever type of homeschooling we do, I don't want it to end up with him sitting in a room away from them studying all day.

So that is why I am looking at as many multi-level and integrated resources as possible, so we can do as much as possible in common, even though there is a lot of disparity in age.

Looking at what I've written, I can see where thinking, brainstorming and praying all overlap, at least in my mind!

I just wanted to add that this year,  I have particularly found the 10 days between the Ascension and Pentecost to be a time to beg the Holy Ghost to aid me and my family in a big way.  With grown children transitioning out of the house, husband's work transitioning, and my own change from younger middle age to mid-century age, there is so much potential for instability and confusion, especially, I must say, with the way technology is exploding (and my family's home business is intrinsically connected with technology so it is affected by that too) .  With both my parents now gone, I feel somewhat bereft and ungrounded from my own history just at the time when legacy and grounding is becoming more important to me.

This year I realized that when you are turning 50, it is not likely that you are going to be able to change your character or habits very drastically on your own steam.    Young people are malleable and plastic in a way older people are not.   Yet, I know plenty of people who made drastic character and habit changes after the mid-century mark.   So it's by no means hopeless.   Change comes in a different way, but it can definitely come.

Yet that makes me realize how much I need the Holy Spirit.

 I don't want to alter myself. like redecorating my kitchen; I want Him to replace me, in a way.

 I don't want to be one of those late middle-aged people who hook on to some health or lifestyle trend and become like fossils enmired in a certain geological strata.  I want to become more and more part of that Beauty of Ancient Days yet Ever-New.

 I keep reading about how the Son does the Will of the Father and the Holy Ghost does what He is sent for, and how we are invited to be linked to that tremendous dynamic, and how I am so trivial I often don't even feel how immense a privilege that is.

And as I get older, I'm more and more scared of descending into triviality or stratification (as so many do, and what accounts for the grace and dignity that is proper to old age but only manifests in some of the elderly is usually God's grace embodied in their lives).  So honestly, I really really need the Holy Spirit, and I am very glad when I see signs that He has not yet quite given up on me, even if the signs are painful sometimes. 

This seems to be getting way away from homeschooling plans, but not really.  Homeschooling has always seemed to me like a road to sanctification, not that homeschooling always sanctifies or that it is the only way to sanctification, not at all;  but that if it is NOT a road to sanctification, it is nothing -- just more worldliness.

Knowing that homeschooling is a means to sanctification is seriously the only thing that keeps me going now that I can't really count on youthful optimism and energy, and I don't have a high opinion of my acquired wisdom or experience.

So that leads me to think that I really, REALLY need those gifts of the Holy Spirit that are mentioned in the novena.  In fact, the world could use way more of those so I am praying that He showers the gifts on the Church and that we all are infused by them.  Where I don't have much natural optimism, energy or confidence of my own, I do feel justified in having unlimited optimism and confidence in Him, especially when reflecting on those miraculous events of Pentecost that we celebrate this coming Sunday. 

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

What a long post, and I didn't even get all the way through the praying part of it!   But maybe that is all right, since that is the One Needful Thing.

Picture from Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters 

More later!  Chari is working a lot these next couple of weeks so she can take a bit of time away from work when some of the Ryans visit some of the Bryans in mid-June!  So please pray that her homeschooling, and all of yours, is visited by the fire and wind and gifts of the Holy Spirit! 

Prayerfully,

Willa

Avilian Homeschooling and File Folders

A long time ago a friend of mine (who founded the Catholic Classical Education e-list which I now moderate) had a web page called the Avilian Home Learning Organization System.  The link takes you to the blog form of the old web page which she revived due to popular request

While I was browsing through her post on Simple Lesson Preparation Lists I was reminded of the file crate system I used to use, inspired by Dawn's File Crate System.

Here are my former posts.  

Folder System 2009


Folder System 2008

Folder System 2007

You can see how the system sort of evolved and flexed according to my priorities.

There aren't any posts for the past two years on my file crate updates.  In 2010 and 2011 I did not use a physical file system because I was trying to go more paperless.   That link explains some of the advantages and disadvantages I found when using blog technology to keep records and store lesson plans. 

This year I am trying to get back to paper system backup because it really helps me to have something I can see/put my hands on.   Plus, I want the option of not turning on the computer during certain seasons. 

This system by Lisa at Pieces of Us reinspired me.   It is so pretty!   In the past I did not use the hanging folders, as you can see from the links to former years, but I started thinking of the advantages of hanging folders vs regular ones (like not slipping underneath and getting buried by their companions).

So I just ordered these ones: 

I love the colors, and my old files were getting ratty, so it was time for an upgrade.

While I was waiting for them to arrive, however, I decided I should do a trial run for this summer.  So I dug up a few older hanging files left over from my husband's filing system.to make a summer system.   There were four red ones and one green one. 

So I made one hanging file per month and then within the month, I made a regular file per week, using the folders left over from my old system.

The four "monthly" hanging files are red (May, June, July, August) (I will soon retire the May one and make it into a September one).   The green hanging file is devoted to the worksheets and materials I haven't yet put into their weekly slots.   Since my younger children are in 4th grade and functioning as a 1st/2nd grader I don't like to slot things too far ahead, especially in summer.  

I alternated blue and teal folders by month to give me a better visual code.  So for example, May is teal, June is blue, July is teal, August is blue.   When there is a transition week (eg June-July) I switch to the new color.  That allows me to visually see that a new month is coming so I had better start preparing for it.

Does that make sense?  Visuals below!

The colored files at the back of my box are for printouts in different subject areas.    Right now in there I have:  pages from Penny Gardner's Italics, pages from KISS Grammar Second Grade Workbook,  pages from MEP Math Year 1 and Year 4 (for Aidan and Paddy respectively), and that's all right now. 

Here is a close-up of the weekly files:

Some of the contents of the first couple of weeks-- a weekly planner and a sheet from Italics:  Beautiful Handwriting for Children.

My plan is to stuff worksheets, events and other things in the weekly files and then when that week arrives, I can take them out and dispense them to the kids as in the Avilian system. 

Here you can see my binder in the back of the box (I had trouble getting a good picture with the way the morning light was streaming through the window)   This binder contains some of my planning forms  and checklists.... also things like tables of contents, teacher's materials for curricula I am using, and other things to help me keep track of the bigger picture. 

This is my preparation for the year checklist. 

Here is my partially completed table of contents for Living for God,  which I plan to use with Paddy. 

Some other time I may write out the other things in my binder, but it is still changing right now. 

Aidan wanted me to take a picture of his Toy Story cover, which he carries with him everywhere. 

I hope this didn't sound TOO confusing! I love browsing through organizational systems and especially seeing visuals, and writing it down helps me during my foggier mental seasons, so I can go back and see WHAT I was thinking in May when I am spacing out in November! (Tell me I'm not the only one who gets a foggy brain when the weather is foggy outside!)

Narration and Discussion Prompts

During the summer of 2008 I made a lot of forms.  I published many of them over at  my old planning notebook blog.    But Chari and I decided that we should collect many of our old articles and other resources over here just so we could easily find them when we want them.

Here is my set of Narration Cards which I just recently found again while digging through my closets.     I simply cut them up, grounded them on pretty cardstock, and covered them with clear contact paper (my laminator broke years ago and for some reason contact paper feels better tactilely to me anyway).

The narration starters are from various sites I've looked at during the years, and I added a few of my own. 

PDF of Narration Cards 

On my original post someone commented that they were going to use some of them along with Dinner Conversation Starters.   That made me start thinking.... always a dangerous pastime!   But one of my main agendas during Morning Time is getting the children talking.  I know this isn't a big agenda for many people who have trouble getting the kids to be quiet, but I think kids learn more from thoughtful conversation with their parents than almost any other way (or at least, that's what I remember from my own growing-up years).

Anyway, I started thinking that I could easily start a card file for discussion topics.    There are huge amounts of Journal Writing Prompts all over the internet.   Some are stupid, but some are interesting.    Here's even a prompt generator. 

Though many of the Regents Essay Topics require the young person to express opinions on subjects which he hasn't yet earned the credibility to speak authoritatively upon, those are the very types of questions which often show up in SAT writing exams and the like, so discussing some of them orally might be helpful in working on the basic 5-paragraph essay with my high schooler.

My thought is to paste some of these writing prompts in a document like I did with the Narration Starters and then print them out as cards that I can pick from.  

Just a few ideas!   During all this planning I want to remember this quote from Charlotte Mason

..Let us be careful that our disciplinary devices, and our mechanical devices to secure and tabulate the substance of knowledge, do not come between the children and that which is the soul of the book, the living thought it contains.

Planning and Checklists

The weather is nice, we have been hosting guests, my daughter is home from college, I am planning for next school year.... all this is to say that I have lots going on in my mind and day, but not much getting written on this blog.

So I might as well just blog about school planning.

First of all, this is a checklist I made years ago as a result of a discussion on a Catholic classical list.  Most of the ideas come from members, but I compiled them and tried to put them in some kind of order.


Checklist:  Preparation for the School Year (docx)
Checklist:  Preparation for the School Year (PDF) 



Then I made a "Year at a Glance"

This helps me get a visual sense of what I have planned for the year. Like many visual people, I can reference something so much better if it is color-coded.


After several years of following the public school year, I decided to go back to year round schooling.   I made up a system where I log 1/2 and 1/4 days during some parts of the year.  

Here is a blank one in MS Word 2010 format.  


I made a simple visual checklist for my 9 year old.


This is to use on the days when we are having minimal or no formal schoolwork. Visual Checklist (docx)

Finally (for now) I made this Summer Checklist (docx) 



Summer Checklist Partially Filled (PDF)

But I am afraid  that last one is too complicated, perhaps.  Sometimes when things are too complicated and busy, I just end up not looking at them.  I hope I will be able to use it as a reference to make sure we are progressing, but we shall see. 

Anyway, that is some of what I have been doing.  

 

Prayerfully Yours.....Urgent!

Child Praying at Mother’s Knee

Pierre-Edouard Frere

Chari posted this prayer request over on 4Real Forums....

I have an anonymous request for some special intentions that require a storm of prayers on her behalf. This is extremely serious. We are awaiting the news......

Please pray! I will update as soon as I can.

We are offering the Novena to the Holy Ghost....so if you are already praying this.....or willing to start...please include this intention.

God bless all of you for your generosity! 

I, Willa, don't actually know the details of this prayer request yet, but I know it is important, and so please pray! 

Update from Chari:

The news is tentatively more hopeful today. Will need another day or two for final conclusive results.

Pentecost Novena

Ascension Thursday was yesterday, but it is not too late to start your novena to the Holy Spirit!  This is the oldest novena, stemming from Scripture, when on the day of his Ascension, Jesus told the apostles to wait for the coming of the Holy Ghost:

And eating together with them, he commanded them, that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but should wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard (saith he) by my mouth. [5] For John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence.

There is a printable (PDF) novena to the Holy Ghost here.   This one is to ask for the seven gifts.  We said it as a family a few years back (in 2005) just before four of my children were confirmed.   When I think of the graces that came from that time I would really like to pray it again. 

A shorter one is here.

 

If you want to read a description of the difference between the gifts of knowledge, wisdom and understanding, and see a black and white picture that you could print out for your children, go to the excellent blog of Msr Charles Pope.

If you want to read in depth about the Seven Gifts, here is Reginald Garrigou Lagrange, OP

I found a sweet Mother's Prayer to the Holy Ghost in a public domain book called The Christian Mother

A Wee Bit of Humor

Seriously? 

How hard would it be to have some NATIVE English speaker

 read this over before printing a million of them?

Found this is in a new water bottle last week.......

What does the 4th bullet even mean???

The 5th bullet cracks me up.......

as this water bottle is such that you must have the lid off in order to drink it!

And the 8th line........I hope my children are not hot liquid! 

I wonder if scalding should be replaced with scolding  :)

Blessings on this gorgeous May day,

                                     Chari

The Mountain in March

Oh, yeah. I am way behind on this Year of the Mountain entry.

But that is because I cannot upload this many pictures using my home internet......and because I seem incapable of limiting myself to just a few photos. Ha! Like that could ever happen.

I am trying to get to the library more frequently to use their faster ,

and I might add, unlimited, internet to load the pics.

For this month, I tried to catch pics of The Mountain from different perspectives. I had no idea I had taken so many pics.....and I did not use all of my samples. The first batch is from my iPhone camera.......some of them turned out pretty good.

I have also included other local views, too.

Do scroll down to see the pics I took of The Mountain with my good camera.

The first two are on the road up to our local ski park.

A different angle than we see when at home.

The next two are of The Mountain view while at the ski park.

From the ski park parking lot, Mount Lassen can be seen in the background.

The sun has set behind the mountains behind Our Hearts' Haven

The Mountain

Mount Eddy, the mountain behind my house

Photo below taken of Lake Tahoe on St Patrick's Day, while we were at a wedding

I grabbed this photo to share......of the view at Willa's mom's house in Alaska.

I loooove this view!

Another of Our Hearts' Haven with beautiful Mt Eddy in background

On the way home from the ski park, a blazing sky.....very hard to show with

a phone camera and a teen boy snapping the photos.

This was the best of like 26 pics.

I took the following pictures on the way to Mass......in a moving car. With the Nice Camera.

I cannot believe how well they turned out. I love the details shots.

The moonrise in March was gorgeous. Simply gorgeous.
I took numerous shots at that moon.
This was the best of the worst.

Taken from my front porch.

Blessings,

Chari

PS Luckily I have already started the April version....hope to have it up shortly! In the meantime.....I am collecting my May version! ;)

A Daily Dose of Charlotte Mason

Almost every summer I start some kind of study project/ teacher's retreat/ personal conference.   I think it started because I have never been to a homeschooling conference, ever, and I missed getting the energy surge.  In recent years, sometimes Chari and I have our teacher's retreat together.  SO. Much. Fun.   

Anyway, lots of time the retreat/private conference is to do with either Charlotte Mason or classical education. 

But I've read Charlotte Mason so many times now in the past two decades that sometimes the words just flow past and I stop paying attention.  So this time I decided to try a different approach,   What about a daily Charlotte Mason quote?   There is a CS Lewis Daily and a Chesterton Daily but at present no active CM Daily, not that I could find, though there was one in the past.  

So I started one.   Charlotte Mason Daily Reader

Since I know CM so well that I have almost memorized the famous passages, I wanted to look for the more obscure bits, so I am not  posting in order.   Rather I look for things that make me think or seem to tie in with something I've experienced.  It only takes a minute or two a day and it gives me something to think about when I go offline. 

I  just discovered a widget that lets you pull up a random post from within your blog.   I put one on this TUAR sidebar and I also put one at CM Daily.    That way you can pull up a random CM quote if you want to see more than what is on the front page. 

I'm also putting a few quotes from Parents' Review articles and from other authors that CM mentions or that seem somehow related to what she endeavored to do.

I just discovered how to do screen captures, thanks to being inspired by Vicky's great post on Homeschool Blogging, and also thanks to Erin who pointed me to Diigo.com.   It has a capture as well as many other nice tools!    So that is where that screen shot above is from. 

Just thought I would share!     I am having fun with it!   I may not keep it active past the summer, but if it gets to be enough of a habit, perhaps I will!

Back to planning,

Willa

Strewsday Tuesday: Even the Library Can Strew!

     I am SOOOO excited!  Tonight there is a lecture at our library.  I am so excited to go, I even dreamed about it.....luckily it was only a dream...because as we were getting ready to leave for the lecture in the dream.....I realized that the lecture was in my hometown, not in Los Angeles where we were visiting.  Silly, weird dream.

(Actually, we have already attended this excellent lecture.  I could not finish this post before we went.  My kids were the only youth present :( ......and after them, I may well have been the next youngest person there. : )  )


      And after I awakened, and reflected on the dream, I began thinking about this awesome lecture tonight........which got me thinking about writing a blog post about it.......which made me realized:

My little library STREWED for me.....

.......and I jumped for the bait! 

     Too funny.  I am such a sucker for educational and cultural opportunities.  :)

     So here is how it all came to be.........Our little library had a major crisis  (Wow.  I just re-read that article....a good one!) in June of 2010.  In the time that followed, many people came together and volunteered the time to keep our library running.  And you know what happened???  Our library is better than ever! Well, interlibrary loan would be the last perk we are waiting for.....maybe someday soon.......Some.day.

     (As I am proofreading this article......I just want to make it clear: my library IS a little library because I live in a small town...........in comparison, Willa's library is a closet.  :)  )


      The volunteers and the Friends of the Library have created many opportunities for the patrons since that crisis.  One of them applied for a grant.  She got it!  This grant allows for slecting a book from a specific group of books and providing opportunities in a sort of Unit Study format.  I believc the grant is from Cal Reads. The focus for this year is on democracy. The book she chose for the grant was.....

Farewell to Manzanar

by

Jeanne Wakatsuki

     One of the main reasons that she chose this book is because the site of the largest of the Japanese internment camp is actually in our very own county.  The Tule Lake Camp was recently added to the National Park System as part of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which also includes Pearl Harbor, which I was so blessed to visit last June.  Our family intends to take a field trip to visit the Tule Lake Camp this summer.


     So, the library set a whole bunch of interrelated books on the counter.....STREWING the books right where I would have to pass them.....every time I came into the library.........which is several times a week.  Of course I began fondling the books......and that lead to conversations with the volunteer who coordinates this program.  And that lead to me checking the books out.  Of course.


      Even though the boys and I have been reading about WWI.........I just had to take advantage of the possibilities in front of us, related to WWII and the Japanese Internment camps.  I began reading Farewell to Manzanar aloud to the boys right away.  They good-humoredly put up with me......with a bit of rolling eyes.


     One of the comments from the lecturer was that the camps were not too well known to most people and that the history books in schools pretty much neglect this history.  In my own case, I cannot really remember not knowing about them.  From the time I was sixteen years old, my family drove from Lake Tahoe, where we had just moved to, back to Los Angeles, where we had moved from, frequently enough........along Highway 395, which means that we passed the Manzanar Camp regularly.  It was just a fenced area with an old tower or two.  But we would stop and look at it....and you could feel the historical energy there. 


      Now it is a part of the National Park system, as it should be......and has been developed as an official place to visit, but I have yet to stop there since this took place.  Having passed it so many times, it has almost become my "home" Japanese Internment Camp, if there can be such a thing.......and every time I have passed it with the kids, I have given the lecture about the history of it to them.  At least to the ones that were awake on our nine-hour drive.  :)


     I also read Journey to Topaz by Yoshiko Uchida as a preteen, so I definitely knew about the camps.  My oldest daughter read this same book as a preteen.


      It was so exciting to the boys and I that we were reading Farewell to Manzanar.......and that we would actually be getting to meet the author.  As part of the grant........the coordinator has been able to invite a handful of the authors to visit our little community.  We are so blessed!


     Mrs. Houston, the author, was here last week and I was able to get four of my six kids to the lecture.  The ten year old said:  Every time she talked about something in the book, I remembered reading it.  He enjoyed the lecture.  The other kids did, too.  I very much enjoyed chatting with her afterward.  She was very warm and took the time to visit with us.

     Let me pause here, for just a moment, and share an interesting connection to all of this.  My oldest daughter, Anne, will be graduating from college in June with a degree in English Education.  For her Capstone Project (her senior project), she has been focusing on creating an educational plan on using the book Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.

     Because Anne was doing this project, I read the book, too, so I would know what she was up to.  Hotel (as Anne has come to call it for short) was also one of the books STREWED on that counter for me.  It was the strewing that finally got me to read it.  Perfect timing…..to read this book in time for the topic of Japanese Internment camps.

     When I mentioned to one of the doctors that I work with that I was reading Hotel, she said:  It was good.  But predictable.  I talked her the other day and told her that while it may have been a bit predictable, I found the book was an excellent opportunity to get in close to the emotions of that time…..to get inside of the camp in an intimate way.  The book is totally worth a read…..and an excellent first novel.  If you enjoy Jazz and its history…..there is a nice component to the story with Jazz as an important character.

     Anne, as a formerly homeschooled kid, was thrilled to have this “unit study” going on in her hometown.  She attends college close enough to come home for the lectures.  As a future educator, the experiences of hearing these lectures will only enhance her ability to teach.

     Our learning is all about CONNECTIONS, right?  For the rest of our lives, right?  I love how this opportunity proves that this is so.  I will never be done learning.  I hope that for my kids, too.  So far……..my three homeschool graduates feel that way. Phew.  One goal met.  Three times.

     This graphic book below about Camp Manzanar was perfect for my little guy to read.  I think he enjoyed reading about the camp, knowing the details of its history that he has learned. I am not personally fond of graphic novels……..but, this one was just perfect for our situation.

     Another STREWED book was called Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki.  It was a great picture book for explaiining the camp to the young kids.  The illustrations are lovely.

     Because the creation of the camps and the internment of the Japanese was unconstitutional, this book, Constitution Café by Christopher Phillips was among the books STREWED on that counter.  I picked it up for two reasons.  First, I had previously read Phillip’s other book, Socrates Café, which I enjoyed very much. And second, he was one of the authors that was coming for a visit!  I was not able to read the whole book before his arrival, but I got the first couple of chapters read so I would have an idea about his Constitution Café before we started.  I am currently rreadin it through now......I am loving the history he brings into his book.  I am loving the Thomas Jefferson quotes.

     I was able to drag at least four of my kids to his talk.  I left the little guy with friends.  Good thing, as I think a lot of the vocabulary would have been over his head.  I wish I had time to chat about Phillips’s ideas that were shared, but I am already going at it long here.  Perhaps he deserves his own blog post?  Yeah, probably. 

 

     Suffice it to say that is was a good experience to attend his Café, where we spent time discussing each phrase of the Preamble to the Constitution.  I was planning to just go and sit on the outside of the crowd, listening.  Thus I was quite surprised to hear my voice when I actually contributed to the conversation.  So were my kids!  J  Three of my kids also spoke.  They are smart kids….with some good ideas.  They must get that from their father…….or books.  J

   I am so glad that I did not cave into my desire to just cozy up at home and miss out on his visit.  This was good for all of us.  I believe the dialogue inspired by this Constitution Café will continue for years, just in our own family.

     While we were sitting in the library, I watched the “super moon” rise through our pretty windows.  I wish the cell phone could take the picture as pretty as it really was…….

     The final lecture of the STREWING is the author of the book below.  Lawson Fusao Inada is a past Poet Laureate of the state of Oregon.  His book, Only What We Could Carry, is a compilation of short stories, journal entries, poems, artwork, photos and more …….. from or about the Japanese Internment Camps.  He will be here on the 20^th of May.  He is doing a writing workshop in the afternoon and a poetry reading in the evening.  This is stressing me out just a little bit……because we have two piano recitals the same day, as well as a basketball tournament an hour away from home.  That was already enough for our days total activities.  I hope we can figure out how to make it work.

      My oldest daughter is about to graduate from the university where he used to teach. Over the past two years, her English professors have said to her: You should meet Lawson Fusao Inada. Well, finally, she will. 

+++++++  +++++ ++++++

     So……...there you have it.  All my library has to do for me……is STREW.  And off I go!  Do you know…….that sometimes I have put myself on a self-imposed library fast…….just because I am such a sucker for their STREWING.  J

 

     I may live in a small town, but I live in a culturally-aware town.  Our opportunities may be slim compared to the big city…….but at least we have something to see, do, learn.

     Blessings, 

              Chari