I have several things that I like to sit and think about doing. I have made some beautiful quilts, done photography, etc. nothing that I have tried have stuck with me. I decided to try cross-stitch. This is the progress I’ve made on my first piece. I am loving it so far. It is very relaxing. Hopefully, I will be an encouragement to my boys to try something new.

This will be a Christmas present for an amazing lady in my life.

Click here for a link to ADE episode #92 An interview with Bridgette Cooley


Leadership Training
Interview with Bridgett Cooley:

Bridgett starts out with her backstory and her journey to Charlotte Mason. At first she was not interested because thought it was “mamby-pamby.” She started school too early with first daughter. Found ADE through a rabbit trail and realized that what she had found before was wrong. She was encouraged and inspired to read the volumes for herself.

Bridgett had a group of friends that was a mother group. She started her local reading group in December and started “A Delectable Conversation” online in August. The goal was to read through the volumes together. The online group discussed the ADE podcast to narrate the episodes and learn and grow together. The name was changed to “Charlotte Mason Soirée.”

Liz talks about finding her local Charlotte Mason group during a season when she was planning 2 weddings at one time. It was there that Emily and Liz met Nicole. They went through the volumes together.

Bridgett went to a conference in Peoria and wanted to start the group to go through what she had brought back from the conference. They used a guide broken down weekly to go through volume 1. It was more than 30 pages monthly, but 30 pages would be better. Bridgett and Morgan are working on the study guides and a topical guide for the podcast episodes.

Liz recounts her experience of having a group and moving. Her group changed dynamic. They discuss when people don’t get through the assigned reading. Bridgett reads Charlottes own words regarding the importance of Mother Culture. We sacrifice some of our child’s education if we do not continue our own.

Morgan found in the archives suggestions to secretary branches to have reading circles. This was not just for homeschooling parents, but for working mothers and governesses as well. Educating, encouraging, and supporting parents was important to the success of the branch.

Morgan and Bridgett saw the need for reading groups, so they started a training course to help equip others in starting their groups. The groups need to be “just Charlotte Mason.” It is nothing added to and nothing taken away. There will be prerequisite and continuing education. The training isn’t long, it it is efficient. It takes preparation and training. At the end you have support and materials available.

It should take about an hour to go through the study guide lessons every month. The guides are 30 pages a month to leave time and space for a topical guide if wanted. It is a good way to learn the “why and how” to implement a CM education. Leave time for moms to ask questions or to talk about “thorny issues” and bring back to how Charlotte Mason would advise to handle the issues presented.

The leader is a facilitator. She can help to draw people back to the case and point of CM when we go off on rabbit trails. It is s purpose and s direction. The leader doesn’t have to have 20 years experience. They just have to be willing to lead others who are along on the same journey with them. The group is a oral narration. There is accountability and support in the CM soirée leaders group. The CE requirements is to read an article of the dispatch and listen to a podcast every month. It should take an hour or so every month. Info can be found on the soirée website.

Click here for a link to Charlotte Mason Soiree Dispatch #16

Dispatch #16
Knowledge of God
Saviour of the World volume 7


Linda Fern located unpublished volumes of poetry in the Charlotte Mason Archives.
Increase Our Faith (Luke 17:7-10)


This poem really made me think about what I say to my children and how I speak to them. Do I speak to them as persons or rather demand tasks of them like a Master? How does God speak to me? Does he expect me to serve him day and night only to fulfill his wishes, or does he care about me and treat me as someone of importance? I choose to believe the latter. If he did not care for me, would he have sacrificed his son so that I may live?

Knowledge of Man
Teaching Cardboard Sloyd


Miss Pennethorne gave 3 categories of benefits of Cardboard Sloyd in her 1906 article. These benefits are as follows;

Physical:

“1. It trains the eye to accuracy (accuracy being understood as absolute, not relative) in (a) drawing a straight line, (b) measuring distances and angles, (c) cutting on the line drawn.
2. It trains the hand to follow the guidance of the eye, and to obey exactly the impulse of the motor nerves transmitting the message of what the hand is required to do.
3. It strengthens the muscles of the hand by exercise. (1906, p. 3)”

Mental:

The boy who learns to cut accurately will learn to think accurately. Too often we are okay with being “nearly right” instead of striving to be right. This doesn’t have to just be the case for handicraft, but for life as well.


Moral:


“… they would certainly train their eyes to real power in seeing, and their hands to real power in doing, and … be sure at least of a sound body. But that is not all. They would be doing something too towards a sound mind… they would learn… to be orderly, accurate, attentive, industrious, thoughtful, and self-reliant—nay, I will go even further, and add truthful. Orderliness, accuracy, attention, industry, thoughtfulness, self-reliance, truthfulness—verily a list of nearly all the virtues! (Russell, 1893, p. 328)”


Something very “strange” happens when a person is taught Sloyd. They begin to gain more control of their physical body. In gaining this confidence in their physical body they begin to develop a moral framework that encompasses nearly all of the virtues.




Cardboard Sloyd Lessons


Cardboard Sloyd teaches neatness and exactness. It prepares children to learn a trade and become skilled for life. It is much more desirable for a young person to learn to build highways than to arrange flowers. Sloyd works to strengthen the body. It helps manual dexterity and promptness. Sloyd developments certainty of movement which is of great value to everyone.


Form 2


In Form 2 handicrafts move from morning lessons to afternoon lessons. During these lessons students should still be under supervision. Even though they should be skilled with a knife, the parent (teacher) should read the book themselves and be on hand as a guide to answer questions.


Students were required to complete 4 perfectly executed models per term. These lessons were still 20-30 minutes in length. They were slowly transitioning to the metric system and how to increase or decrease the size of the model. Students learned how to score thicker papers and how to bind edges with book binding tape.


Form 3 & 4


Students move to 6 perfectly executed models per term. These models increase in difficulty. The last skill mastered in cardboard Sloyd was the ability to draw a 2-d diagram from a 3-d geometric model.


Practical Tips


The cardboard was a thick card stock. It was approx 110 lb (300 g/m2). The same knife from paper Sloyd is used for cardboard Sloyd. It comes in a variety of colors.


Knowledge of the Universe
Episode 57


Math in middle and high school.....


This isn’t exactly “right,” but math is the one subject that terrifies me. I have a really hard time knowing if I am teaching math properly. I am thankful that we are in 5th grade currently and that I have a few years until we have to dive into the harder lessons. I have always been good at Math, but when you have to explain these things to a child who doesn’t have a firm foundation is scary. Implementing Sloyd has been slow this year. We have had a hard time making sure our afternoon occupations have been included in our day. This has made including Practical Geometry that much more difficult.


It is so helpful to listen to these podcasts and to know that we are sometimes in different seasons in life and we have to make changes. Sometimes we have to go with what works and make changes that help our individual families.

ADE Episode 94: Special Studies (October 6, 2017)

Click here for a link to A Delectable Education Episode 94

Learning about Special Studies in the Natural History Lesson really hit home. We have done a terrible job at implementing afternoon occupations this year. This is our 2nd year homeschooling and our first year implementing the FULL Charlotte Mason method (including the riches). We used a different Online Charlotte Mason “book list” last year and we were just getting our feet wet.

Figuring out how to add in all of the afternoon occupations and making sure the boys, and myself, spend enough time out of doors has really been hard. Our Nature Notebooks are really bare right now.

Right now our “seasonal study” has been weeds and we are currently moving over to small mammals. I am not well versed in the local flora and fauna so this has been a huge learning experience for us all. I was one who easily missed the point when it comes to nature study. I am working on my own habits just as much as I am helping my sons develop their habits. The habit of close observation is something that I am sorely lacking in.

Learning about weeds was a bust :(. It is starting to get colder and the small animals are starting to move around more. We are hoping to have a better time learning about them and their habits. All of us have very under-developed habits of observation and it has been a struggle to train ourselves to do better.