Nature Study Monday {NSM} September LINKup!

The {Nature Study Monday} link up is for ANY nature study-ish blog post written at any time during the current month. Which means, when you submit your link, it will show up in every. single. {NSM} post. during the whole month! Oh, and be not confused, feel free to link up on any day, be it Monday or not! (scroll down for linky).

We've been making time during our weekly nature study hour for dry brush practice this school year. We've had several sessions, and the kids are gaining confidence in using only their 'pinceles' (paint brushes, in spanish) as opposed to pencils. We have a lot to learn yet, but I'm really excited by everyone's willingness. :)

Oh and you may notice that I have gained another pupil! She's my eldest daughter for the next couple of months! Christine's a college student who has come to hang out with us. She's an enormous help and so fun to have around. And look, even she was brave enough to attempt watercolor!! ;)

**Please share your nature study posts from September!! I'm sorry I'm so out of it with getting stuff posted on time this month. I'll leave this post up until I get the October NSM Link-UP up. Which technically should be in less than three days. Until then, please look over your posts and if you have anything nature study related from September, link up to share! Oh, and tell your friends, the more the merrier! :)


Grab this image to share in your post...


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Jungle School! {from the archives}

I thought it'd be fun to have a look back at what we were doing this month five years ago... and it was fun!! I have such cute kids! ;) This is a look at Jungle School before we actually moved here. Now of course, we do Jungle School every single day. heheh.

Originally posted in 2008, from the archives:

Jungle School!

Here's what school looked like for us last week. We spent a total of 40+ hours in the car, 4 HOT nights in hostels and 2 1/2 days in the jungle! woohoo!

The boys had several free-reading books by Roald Dahl that they finished. We kept up on Bible reading and had several nature study opportunities. Fun.



We finished reading Squanto, by Feenie Ziner and Landing of the Pilgrims, by James Daugherty.
These two books coincide perfectly... definitely read these two together for SUPERB living books on pilgrims/mayflower/colonist history!











Jungle school is fun :)



{original post can be found here}

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival: Knowledge of Man - Languages

During the last weeks I am pretty sure I was living near the edge of the face of the earth. Some people may even have feared I'd fallen off, especially my mother, if perhaps they had forgotten that the earth is still round. Presumably far from danger, I actually wouldn't have minded risking a more lengthy stay, yet I have found my way back for the moment and here we are!

Still, that IS why the carnival is up late... :)
Due to the fact and relation of my recent hermitage, apparently I forgot about deadlines. I am so very sorry because I do understand that the convention of timeliness is very important in some cultures; of course, not so much in South America! ;) ... though, better late than never I hope.

Now, at the edges of the earth, if it were still flat, I'm sure there'd be people who speak different languages. Don't you think? And, wouldn't it be handy if you happened to find yourself there and you were able to talk to whoever lived at those extremities in order to ask him or her pressing and pertinent questions about the edge of the world and how to avoid falling off of it? I think that'd be mighty convenient, if not downright valuable.

Of course you'd have to speak their language to ask questions like: How steep is it? Precisely how far from here to the edge? What happens to people who fall off? etc. AND you'd have to understand their language in order to find out the answers... all of which brings us to the topic of this carnival. Languages. It's good to know the language(s) with which you must ask important questions or give important answers.

See. it was all for a purpose. ;)

And maybe you'll be glad that as I was writing this, I decided to break it into two posts, rather than compel you to wade through a REALLY, really long-winded version. Short lessons. Full attention. I'm doing this for your own good. You can find the other part here.


This picture is either symbolic of me trying to ignore the rest of the world by choosing hermitage,
OR how the rest of the world sees those of us that only speak our own language... you choose. :)
You've been SO polite to read this far.
OR maybe you just scrolled down directly.
Don't worry... no one will ever know. ;)

Oh and lest you think worry that fashionably late carnivals may be coming into style... don't worry. I won't host again 'til around the end of the year, and most of the other hostesses are North American. ;)

This edition of the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival's topic is...
The Curriculum: Knowledge of Man - Languages


And now for the lovely, lovely contributions for this edition of the carnival...

Christine shares: Lessons for the New Homeschool Year

Lanaya shares: Finding a Balance for High Expectations

Cindy shares: Charlotte Mason Narration How-To with Video

Nancy shares: Our Schedule, Our Atmosphere

Bobby Jo shares: Starting with the Simple Things

Megan shares: The Mysterious and Wonderful World of Solfege

Camille shares: Learning and Teaching - Language

Carol shares: Intellectual Courage and Courage of Confession

Tammy shares: Teaching a Second Language if You Don't Already Have One Yourself

Mama Squirrel shares: On the teaching of languages, especially French

Amy in Peru shares: Thoughts on Languages

Find out more HERE about upcoming carnival topics & how to get yourself on the e-mail list to receive reminders and announcements so that you never miss another edition.

Submit any Charlotte Mason Education posts on any topic at any time to charlottemasonblogs (at) gmail (dot) com!

Thoughts on Languages.

In this chapter Charlotte discusses some basics related to teaching English, French & Latin. She states that it is better that a child should begin with a sentence and not with the parts of speech, that is, he should learn a little of what is called analysis before he learns to parse. Or said even more simply, he should learn to get the gist of things before being bogged down with the nitty gritty.

The basic method she mentions is listening with narration, other activities being added along the way. When it does come to parsing, much of the grammar of each language seems to be picked up through narration and/or pointed out naturally at first, advancing in detail with further learning. The teaching of these multiple languages seems to correlate and so contribute to the mastery of comprehension and grammar of all.

Which seems absolutely brilliant to me as I have seen the beauty of that correlation and contribution in teaching my own kids. Teaching Latin and a foreign language at the same time as going over the basics of English grammar, around year 5 or 6 I about shouted out loud as I saw all the lights come on. VERY fun.

Also not surprisingly, we once again find attention a major power in education, especially in acquiring a new language:

"This hitherto unused power of concentrated attention in the study of languages whether ancient or modern appears to hold promise of making us at last a nation of linguists." Vol. 6, pg. 213

I was encouraged by the simplicity of lessons described in the chapter. While I think she left a lot unsaid, I do think the simplicity shouldn't be compromised. Based on what I've learned from past attempts and in the mean time, I'm looking forward to improving the aspect of language development around here. ;) To read more of CM's own words, click here.

This has been another 'thinking out loud' post, along the lines of chapter 10, section II:II of CM's Homeschooling Series, Volume 6, Towards a Philosophy of Education. Did you know that the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival is going through this volume systematically? Interested? Check out recent posts and the schedule for future posts here.