Sunshine

I have been reading Heidi to my class and I never realised what wonderful lessons are in it! Heidi learns that sometimes God doesn't answer a prayer right away because he has a better plan for us. What a great lesson to learn!

Anyway, while we're reading Friday, my kindergartner asks me to read aloud the hymn about sunshine that Heidi read to the blind grandmother. It's not in the book, so I take a chance and google it: "swiss hymn sunshine". I get the Swiss national anthem, which is so beautiful and moving I thought I would share it with you. (Translation from Wikipedia)

National Anthem of Switzerland

1st verse
When the morning skies grow red

And o'er us their radiance shed,

Thou, O Lord, appearest in their light.

When the Alps glow bright with splendour

Pray to God, to Him surrender,

For you feel and understand

That He dwelleth in this land.

2nd verse
In the sunset Thou art night

And beyond the starry sky,

Thou, O loving Father, ever near.

When to Heaven we are departing,

Joy and bliss Thou'lt be imparting,

For we feel and understand

That Thou dwellest in this land.

3rd verse
When dark clouds enshroud the hills

And gray mist the valley fills,

Yet Thou art not hidden from Thy sons.

Pierce the gloom in which we cover;

With Thy sunshine's cleansing power.

Then we'll feel and understand

That God dwelleth in this land.

4th verse
Towards us in the wild storm coming,

You yourself give us resistance and stronghold,

You, almighty ruling, rescuing!

During horror and nights of thunderstorms,

Let us childlike trust Him!

Yes, we feel and understand;

Yes, we feel and understand

That God dwelleth in this land.

What to read:

I was just going to comment, but then it got too long, so....

If you are interested in self-education, and you like the idea of educating yourself classically, the easiest thing you can do is to read A Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer. It guides you in how to read different types of books, three stages of evaluation, and keeping a reader's journal. The second part of the book is a reading list of classics in chronological order and divided by genre. Each book listed has information under it to help you in your studies.

To learn more about classical education in general, here are some places to visit:

What is classical education?
curriculum guide

The author of A Well- Educated Mind has her own blog, The History of the Whole World, which has many links that might be of interest.

A quote...

...from my strongest influence to educate myself classically on educating one's self classically.

"There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books. Thus I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about “isms” and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said.


The error is rather an amiable one, for it springs from humility. The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only knew, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator." ~C.S. Lewis

Self-education

This post, No, I Don't Think So, by Susan Wise Bauer made my day. I love to read her straightforward writing. The rest of the post is very much worth reading if education is of interest to you.

"The thread that connects all my work is this: I’m thoroughly convinced that real learning happens when a mature thinker sets out to educate herself."

(Bethgem, this one's for you!)

Just for Fun

Check out a little story from D.r Laura....I'm not an advocate of everything she has to say, but I enjoy reading her blog!

http://www.drlaurablog.com/2008/12/09/solving-lipstick-on-the-mirror/

Just for Laughs

Enjoy the winter while you can...:)

How Kids See the World

A while ago I read this article: How Kids See the World. This quote is a good example of the main gist of it: “Healthy adults" know the sun is not there for the PURPOSE of keeping us warm..."

Here is my "sickly adult" response to the article:

GOOD NEWS
The way we are taught to interpret scientific facts in school seems like part of a scheme to blind us during the majority of our lives from true understanding, to give up on the inner longing we feel that we, and everything else, are made for a purpose. We despair. And the results of despair are glaring...in art, music, philosophy, entertainment, and at home: cutting ourselves, choking games (my friends played that in YOUTH GROUP), depression is cool... depression is not cool and I can't stop, drugs, suicide.

One of the most powerful quotes in my life, apart from God's own word, is the character Marilla Cuthbert’s words in the Anne of Green Gables movie: "To despair is to turn your back on God." I first heard those words when I was a teenager composing depressing songs and writing poems about committing arson. I was unconsciously responding to, and joining with, the culture of despair around me. As one who deeply feared and loved God this sentence shook me to my core, and I abandoned flirting with the darkness in this way.

Later, as a newly married woman and for the first time living away from parents or other supervising adults, I faced the disappointments common to my situation: Finding out your spouse is only about as angelic as you are, that the dishes are not going to do themselves, and that just because God gives you a job doesn't mean it will be like going to Disneyland every day. Life was nothing like I thought it would be. In the weakness of my character I began to despair. I freaked out, crying and not being able to sleep. Even thinking about people who actually had problems (like being poor, or losing a loved one, or being mistreated) didn't change my attitude.

On one of those nights when I was curled up, sobbing uncontrollably, wishing to go to sleep and never wake up, those words came back: To despair is to turn your back on God. I was instantly sobered. I turned towards God and he has been building my character ever since.

What sweet, fulfilling, let's-go-dance-in-a-field-of-wildflowers, happy news we have for our despairing neighbors: God made you for a purpose! You know that agonizing wish you have buried: that your life (and all creation) could be deeply meaningful, maybe even that God could be real and good.....well you can leap for joy because.....it's true!

If you know Jesus but are despairing, I give you this challenge: 7 Minutes with God. He changed my life.

(I write this with a general acknowledgement to Francis Schaeffer's and C.S. Lewis' clarifying influence on my thinking)

Thinking mouse noticing glass walls. Or: If you're pressed for time, skip down to the poem.

I checked out several books the other day from the library and realized there were about 10 Christian books. When I used to go regularly, I always found a few shelves full: Books on the different Protestant denominations, Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and cults, along with several versions of the Bible. Friday I find 1/2 shelf. Either people are clamoring to learn about the Bible, or the library has eliminated some very good literature...I have to say I was disturbed not to find a single book by C.S. Lewis. I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist but...are they trying to brainwash the students who use the library for research? I'm sure there is a lot of nice "dangerous" literature still hiding in the library, but the overtly uplifting seem to have been sifted out.

And I think it would be easier to interpret a page of Greek that is was to find classic books in that place. What if I don't want to know Henry Q. Bosworth's interpretation of John Locke's Second Treatise of Government? What if I want to read more than two textbook quotes from Euclid's Elements?

Anybody else go to the library and then feel like they need to open one of their own so that people to get a fair chance at learning?

Anyway...I found this: Ogden Nash's There's Always Another Windmill. I read it. And guess what. I felt I would have gotten many more of the jokes and puns in his poetry if I had studied the Great Books as he had. It keeps coming back to this.

Here's a nice little (understandable) example of what I perused last night:

Experiment Degustatory

A gourmet challenged me to eat
A tiny bit of rattlesnake meat,
Remarking, "Don't look horror-stricken.
You'll find it tastes a lot like chicken."
It did.
Now chicken I cannot eat,
Because it tastes like rattlesnake meat.

Yesterday I began reading about Montessori again, because I would like to do Montessori-style homeschooling for preschool when we have a little one of our own. I don't completely accept Montessori theory, but the emphasis on beauty, order, reality, and peacefulness appeals to me. I also like the idea of having a child's activities on shelves organized, and taking seriously what children do. It seems to me that the sooner a child learns to wash a dish and cut his own fruit, the better! Also, I have never liked to have a lot of plastic around. In the kitchen it all hides in one drawer! I would much rather have things that look neat and are made from natural materials. Especially clay and wood.

As I was reading I decided to make my house more Montessori-friendly now! If I never had a bouquet on my own table....why would I put one on a child's? So I looked up the lesson on washing dishes and set to work. But this time my eyes were opened! I saw disorder everywhere. I ended up organizing the pantry, the fridge, going through my library and getting rid of the low-quality reading material, and making the kitchen beautiful! Or at least easy on the eyes...

P.S. The second photo was taken at our favorite vacation spot- Shelter Cove, CA.

I love these books!

And they are school-books. Shows you what kind of a geek I am!

I have been using First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise Bauer, which is a full grammar curriculum for first and second grade. (Written for a parent to teach her child but working quite well with adaptations in my small classroom.) My students enjoy the literature and activities. I haven't had to struggle to keep their attention. It's great--they don't realize they are being challenged.

And The Well Trained Mind is one of my favorites. It gives a complete plan for educating your child from birth through high-school, with lists of books and supplies you will need and directions for how to homeschool using them. After I read this book, I wanted to homeschool myself through all the things I missed in high school, and I can't wait to teach our first child using this book!!

Educational Philosophy

Well, here it is...I know, you didn't ask.
My educational philosophy is made up of basically two parts (referring to first and second grade especially):

First, I think it is very important to give children structure and facts so that they have the tools in their mind to understand new things for themselves. Children need to know the rules of the English language. If they have a background in grammar and phonics and stumble into an unfamiliar word, they have resources in their brain to draw upon to decipher it. Math is the same. When children can understand and rattle off addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts by heart, they won't be limping along mentally when they are faced with the deeper concepts of mathematics. They need to know their history, and read, read, read! A groundwork of understood, memorized facts is essential to a functional education, and, to me, is a natural result of the Biblical idea that truth can be known and taught.

There should also be plenty of hands-on experiences and exploration in education. And by plenty I mean daily, not just a special project here and there. There should be butter-making, leaf-classification, laying on the floor listening to Handel, and visits to farm animals. The world God created is an amazing, mysterious place, and children should be given opportunities and put in situations that allow them to experience the thrill of discovery, or give them the chance to feel, see, taste, and hear what they are learning about.

Education is not just teaching children to explore and discover, but teaching them discipline and providing the tools they can use to discover with. Classical education with bugs, dirt, fabric, glue, and paint splatters everywhere!

Curriculum Links

Just thought I'd start sharing some of my discoveries and resources as I teach school. I found websites that provide complete music and art curriculum. Everything is there and available to print out. Free. I am not following them word for word, but it is so nice to have a structure to follow.