ready or not... here she comes!

in my last post i thought i might write more about moral training today.

but, now i'm thinking i'll go have a baby instead. :)

i hope you don't mind.

:)

Some thoughts on Moral Training.

"The subject of moral progress does not belong solely to the religious world. It is not altogether a matter of
religion ; it is a matter of that good sense, that idea of public utility which' considers the welfare of the immediate present, and looks with a benevolent eye to an improved manhood in the future. For morality is almost as beautiful when viewed as a guiding element to man in this world's transactions as it is when viewed as an essential to happiness in the world to come."
Moral and Literary Training in PUBLIC SCHOOLS by JOHN B. PEASLEE, p13


All moral progress depends on the consistency with which the great religious idea is made to permeate every suggestion: and yet all intellectual progress is possible only through the constant development of such qualities as perseverance, observation and attention, which are themselves but a continuation of moral growth; even in the case of physical training the motto of one and indivisible is still continued, and Bousseau's saying: "The weaker the body is, the more it commands; the stronger it is, the more it obeys," will perhaps serve to remind you of what I am thinking, and how the disregard of even this lowest point in the educationalist's programme is sufficient to bring to ruin a work that aims at the building up the stature of a perfect man.
Education, Part 1 by the Rev. M.R. Lutener


These are just some of the words I've had clunking around in the back of my head over the last couple of days. I haven't gotten any thoughts written down yet, but I plan to update this post today or tomorrow. We've had lice, visitors, serious stomach illness and a 16th birthday that kept me from sitting and plunking out a post.

I'm submitting it to the CM Blog Carnival as-is, please check back tomorrow if you're interested in further thoughts...

:)

This post is based on thoughts on Chapter 12 in Volume 3, School Education by Charlotte Mason. The topic, Some Unconsidered Aspects of Moral Training, is one option for a topic advocated by the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival 2014 Schedule. If you'd like to read other posts on the subject, be sure to read all the March editions.
If you'd like to share your post with the upcoming carnival, find out how here.
Find links to past CMBCarnivals here.

Butterfly :: {NSM!}

A four legged butterfly.
How intensely interesting is that?! Read on if you are mystified... or even if you're not. You might learn something.
I did!! :)

Well, I promised a post, and I can't say that it'll be super interesting to everyone, but we certainly enjoyed ourselves! ;) Hopefully, you are getting outside (daily?) already and enjoying yourselves just as much this March in your own corner of the world! I know that at least several of you are doing just that and were mighty quick on the draw with your posts. Three of you beat me to the linky! Shoot. I can get the nature studies done, but the posts... Well, all I can say is, I claim tired-exammed-out-prego brain.

{Please do share your nature study posts for the month! See the linky below... AND there's a group of my fellow AOer's attempting to get outside everyday this month. Wanna join them?}

There's the evidence. Look closely, it seems to have only four legs. How is that possible? Don't all insects have six? We'll get to that. Meanwhile, have you ever noticed the names of butterflies...? How 'bout a Grecian Shoemaker, Red Admiral, Isabella, Julia, Esmeralda, Mosaic, Wizard, Common Map... Wow. Cool names! Well, some of them anyway. A few of them are rather common... poor guy.

I'm pretty sure we've narrowed down the possible identity of ours to a Tiger Butterfly, a Large Tiger or a mimicry of one or the other. It's not exactly like the pictures in the book, but it does say they vary. The antennae of ours isn't orange like the typical Tiger Butterfly, rather more similar to those of the Large Tiger. Its markings are not as like the latter's as to those of the former. So, you see, I don't know. However, both are part of the Nymphalidae family, which means it is a relative of "some of the world's most beautiful and spectacular butterflies," according to my book. And what's really cool is I recognize a good number from this family.

Either way, it was fun looking it up. :)

I mentioned that we read it might be a mimicry of something else, and so we were surprised by joy when we just happened upon this interesting tidbit:

"Poisonous butterflies of the same species often fly together so that their warning colors are more easily recognized. A number of poisonous species even share a similar warning pattern. In this way, birds have only to learn that one species is poisonous to avoid all the rest. Some nonpoisonous species mimi poisonous species, so that they too are left alone. In the past, these mimicry associations have confused entomologists, who have only recognized one species where several in fact existed."

Butterflies and Moths by David Carter

So, there you have it. We may have discovered a new species. You just never know. If so, I want everyone to note the date of this post. Just in case. :)

As to the question of legs:
My kids are the ones who pointed out to me that the butterfly only had four legs. I said, "All insects have six", and then I looked very, very closely and can I just say it's third pair seemed very non-existent? I told the kids they must be there... somewhere. I even showed them where they could be completely and perfectly hidden... practically invisible even. But, as motherly as possible, I kept my doubts to myself.

I admit, I looked it up tonight for backup. In the book it says reassuringly, "The most important characteristic separating this large group from other species of butterfly is the front pair of legs, which are usually undeveloped so they no longer have a walking function." So there. Apparently, in many butterflies (not just this mutant family), the first pair of legs are short or kept folded up. Such is the case with our butterfly. Phew. I'm glad I was right. :) I can't wait to tell the kids.

Oh, and, we are not the only ones to have doubted. Just do a google search. It's funny. Apparently, it's a common question. :)


Want a really great butterfly book?
Here's the one I use the most: (and you can get it super cheap!)(and at the same time throw us a tip since it's an affiliate link and all)

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! 

Snag a button if you wanna! :)
Come back and share your nature studies with us any time this month!

It's March! {NSM! LinkUP!}

Okay, so I've been too busy with getting ready for exams, planning for next term, making a person...
so much so, that I haven't been able to get my {NSM!} post up last week and now it's almost past today and all I have are the pictures, words and the ideas... still in my head. A really tired head, I might add. :)

So, in my upcoming post, I might talk about how our Nature Study exam questions went today,
or, I might talk more about our Squash studies,
or, the cool butterfly we found that seems like it only has four legs...
or, you just never know. I might surprise you. ;)

I'm going to go ahead and post the linky RIGHT here, RIGHT now and then I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully, with everything all tidily bound up in an amazingly interesting blog post. How's that?

So, if you're ready with YOUR nature study posts from March, see if you can beat me getting them all plugged into the linky before I get back with my post... ;)
Hah!

Yeah, I double dare you.

Snag a button if you wanna! :)
Come back and share your nature studies with us any time this month!

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! 

Pre-requisite to Moral Traning: A Living Example

"A child's whole notion of religion is 'being good.' It is well that he should know that being good is not his whole duty to God, although it is so much of it; that the relationship of love and personal service, which he owes as a child to his Father, as a subject to his King, is even more than the 'being good' which gives our Almighty Father such pleasure in His children." v3 p136

"...that most delicate and beautiful of human possessions, an educated conscience, comes only by teaching with authority and adorning by example." v3 p129

And I don't venture far to say that the only true authority is one that is fleshed out by A Living Example. Authority won't get you very far if you don't practice what you preach.

A rather long, but oh so good illustration from my recent free-reading:

"Thus had Gibbie his first lesson in the only thing worth learning, in that which, to be learned at all, demands the united energy of heart and soul and strength and mind; and from that day he went on learning it. I cannot tell how, or what were the slow stages by which his mind budded and swelled until it burst into the flower of humanity, the knowledge of God. I cannot tell the shape of the door by which the Lord entered into that house, and took everlasting possession of it...

So, teaching him only that which she loved, not that which she had been taught, Janet read to Gibbie of Jesus, talked to him of Jesus, dreamed to him about Jesus; until at length—Gibbie did not think to watch, and knew nothing of the process by which it came about—his whole soul was full of the man, of his doings, of his words, of his thoughts, of his life. Jesus Christ was in him—he was possessed by him. Almost before he knew, he was trying to fashion his life after that of his Master...

Whatever Janet, then, might, perhaps—I do not know—have imagined it her duty to say to Gibbie had she surmised his ignorance, having long ceased to trouble her own head, she had now no inclination to trouble Gibbie's heart with what men call the plan of salvation. It was enough to her to find that he followed her Master. Being in the light she understood the light, and had no need of system, either true or false, to explain it to her. She lived by the word proceeding out of the mouth of God."

Sir Gibbie, George MacDonald. Kindle Edition (Loc 2499-2532).

I cannot recommend Sir Gibbie highly enough. It's my new favorite.
I kinda wanna memorize it.

The following quote from Charlotte Mason, as well as that at the beginning of the post, make me wonder if she might have read Sir Gibbie herself. Either way, I hope you'll be inspired to read it someday. It's so good. :)

"A child cannot have a lasting sense of duty until he is brought into contact with a Supreme Authority, who is the source of law and the pleasing of whom converts duty into joy. In these rather latitudinarian days, there is perhaps no part of religious teaching more important than to train children in the sense of the immediate presence and continual going forth of the supreme Authority." v3 p137

This post is based on thoughts on Chapter 12 in Volume 3, School Education by Charlotte Mason. The topic, Some Unconsidered Aspects of Intellectual Training, is one option for a topic advocated by the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival 2014 Schedule. If you'd like to read other posts on the subject, be sure to read all the March editions.
If you'd like to share your post with the upcoming carnival, find out how here.
Find links to past CMBCarnivals here.

March CM Blog Carnival Announcement and Invitation!

This coming Monday, the next edition of the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival will be posted! I'm already looking forward to it and still formulating my thoughts for my own post to submit. You might say I've been procrastinating. :) Hopefully, you have already sent in your blog post to be featured in the carnival next week, but if not, you have two days left!

Please join us by submitting a post, or just reading along. Posts are due by 3/10 before 5pm EST. Send the link to your post in an e-mail to: charlottemasonblogs (at) gmail (dot) com.

As always, we welcome any Charlotte Mason inspired blog posts! Bloggers vary widely in their gifts and experiences, which means, we can all learn from each other. We hope you'll share with us! You might even consider submitting the link for someone else's CM blog post you've run across and been encouraged by as well.

Below, you will find an optional topic, a thought provoking quote or two and several ideas for those who need a little writing prompt or who would like some direction for further study. :)

The optional topic for discussion during the month of March is:

Some Unconsidered Aspects of Moral Training - Chapter 12

Here are a couple of interesting things that I came across in my pre-reading of the chapter. There are many more potentially interesting ideas there as well. I'd encourage you to read the entire chapter online here.

A couple of thought provoking quotes and questions:

“Morals do not come by Nature. - No doubt every child is born with a conscience, that is, with a sense that he ought to choose the right and refuse wrong; but he is not born with the power to discern good and evil. An educated conscience is a far rarer possession than we imagine...” v3 p130

“It may be said that we neglect all additional ethical teaching because we have the Bible; but how far and how do we use it?” v3 p133

“A child's whole notion of religion is “being good.” v3 p136

To read these quotes and questions in their proper context and ponder over what Charlotte was getting at, read Ch 12 of School Education in its entirety here.


*Please see the CM Blog Carnival Schedule page for a list of dates and topics for the whole year (in progress).
**By subscribing to the Carnival Announcement/Reminder list you can stay up-to-date and never miss another carnival. Plus, you'll receive handy-dandy monthly ideas & occasional links pertaining to the topic... for free! ;) oh wait, it's all free! heheh.
***Also, please encourage your bloggy AND non-‐bloggy friends, who love Charlotte Mason and/or those who are newly interested, to visit the CMBCarnival, the more the merrier!! :)