do you want an (awesome) ART calendar?!

i just happen to be giving one away. like i do every year. because i love this calendar.

this year, unlike other years, unlike ever before in my life come to think of it, i actually got to go to NYC and SEE the art! in the museum. where it lives. yep, we got to spend two whole days at the Metropolitan Museum of Art! it was definitely top o' the list of places we wanted to visit and it did not disappoint.

ahhh. so much fun.

now to be considered in this drawing, you don't have to be a regular reader of this blog, you don't even have to really do anything in return. you just have to want one. simply enter a comment on any post here at fisher academy's blog BEFORE midnight on 1/1/2015. that way, i'll know you're interested.

i'll do the drawing on new years' day.

oh, and if you're dying to get one of these and wanna increase your chances, new likes on our facebook page during december, will get an extra entry. because that just makes for more fun for some people. :)

OR if you just can't wait and want to be SURE to get one. buy yours now, by clicking HERE.




we love turning the pages of this art calendar every day. it's a page-a-day, so there's a unique piece of art or history for each day of the year. sometimes it's ancient weapons or armor, sometimes it's a painting. it's fun! it comes in handy for discussions about art study, for book of centuries illustrations, and even copywork (my young kids use it to copy the date!).

how might you use yours?

wanna check out past ART calendar giveaways? 

maybe just for old times sake... :)

2013

2012

2011

The girls with their handy-dandy audio devices at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Our Book of Centuries: a pictoral update

I wrote some two months ago about our Book of Centuries, which in a way is new to us this year, thanks to talks this past summer by the lovely Laurie Bestvater. Previously, we only kept a communal timeline notebook (the littles still add to this one), but this year my boys have been keeping their own; adding entries on a weekly sometimes daily basis.


Javen's 4th century A.D.

...a detail from one of Javen's pages

She inspired us all at the Living Education Retreat in Windom, MN to use the Book of Centuries along with a number of other books as "forms of vitality" for our children. Though I'm quite sure I don't know how one could not make one's own while the children make theirs... so of course I had to have one too :)


Here's my 20th century, shows all of our immediate family's birthdays :)

Charlotte says,

"One thing at any rate we know with certainty, that no teaching, no information becomes knowledge to any of us until the individual mind has acted upon it, translated it, transformed, absorbed it, to reappear, like our bodily food, in forms of vitality. Therefore, teaching, talk and tale, however lucid or fascinating, effect nothing until self-activity be set up; that is, self-education is the only possible education; the rest is mere veneer laid on the surface of a child's nature."

v6p241

This was Cullen's sketch after a visit to a local museum. I think it is awesome!


::

I LOVE the term "form of vitality", don't you?
What does it make you think of as related to education?

::

Our Book of Centuries - the details.

This summer I finally learned more about the Book of Centuries used in the CM schools (PNEU/PUS)! I've been longing to give it more study and thought for some time now. I'm so thankful for Laurie Bestvater's posts and talks on the subject. It has been so enlightening to see how Charlotte Mason unified and drew many aspects of education together using the Book of Centuries.

I wonder at how thought through the whole thing is too!  Imagine how helpful to a child's mind (to MY mind and feeble memory) a book of centuries can be... it is intended that it accompany him or her throughout all areas of study.  He is to draw illustrations of artifacts he sees (from museum visits, photographs, etc), fitting them into the time period in which they fit. He could plot the dates of paintings being studied in picture study. He could follow the progressive development of the bow and arrow over the ages, he can mark down the dates of monarchs, discoveries in the field of science, etc.

There are millions of ways to make a timeline and many ways to make a Book of Centuries. But the G.M. Bernau model is superior to other forms for a multitude of reasons. 

Here are several advantages:

• Child-drawn illustrations encourage careful observation (see images below for an example). 
• Seeing an entire century on a page helps the child envision larger chunks of history at a time.
• Value is placed on the child since it is he who decides what facts are important enough to include.
• Because the book is tailored-fit by the child himself, it is a personal, lifelong source of delight.

How to get one!:
I'd LOVE to buy a really nice book like this leather bound one: $40 @ bookofcenturies.com
However, because I didn't buy it when we were back in the US, and we really can't wait any longer (and shipping rates to Peru have always been ridiculous), I've decided to buy a nice quality notebook here and make our own. I think also that making our own will help the boys to personally invest in the project.

The Book of Centuries is different than a timeline in its various forms. We use a communal timeline in our family for the younger years. Our plan is for each child to start their own BoC in AO year 6 or 7. We've taken our pattern from the following description:
Childlightusa - The Book of Centuries Revisited, part one & part two by Laurie Bestvater.
The Book of Centuries by Bernau, a Parent's Review article


Here's how we arranged the pages:
Our notebook has 100 pages (as opposed to 96)
We left a cover page (1st sheet, front and back left blank)

[note: I've reserved multiple pages for each child's beautiful illustrations of the literal biblical 6 day account of Creation.  

1 page for each day of creation, should leave sufficient room for their own creativity 

(obviously this deters from the Bernau example as her first pages are reserved for the different evolutionary "ages" paleolithic, bronze age, iron age, etc.).]

2nd sheet - 1st day of Creation
backside of 2nd sheet - 2nd day of creation
3rd sheet - 3rd day
backside of 3rd sheet - 4th day
4th sheet - 5th day
backside of 4th sheet - 6th day
5th sheet - 7th day
backside of 5th sheet - blank page for illustrations, 50th century BC - 41st century BC

[Bernau's model left pages for each of the evolutionary ages - paleolithic and such, we'll exclude those]

6th sheet - lined sheet, 50th century BC - 41st century BC




Book of Centuries Notebook  (Book of Centuries - 1950? by Eve Anderson? [blue cover]).  search the database at the above link for this image: i3p01-p42pneu162.pdf (page 30-31)
Images of Book of Centuries on display @ Charlotte Mason Digital Collection  same document: i3p01-p42pneu162.pdf (page 32)
These two illustrations show how the blank/lined pages alternated.
You can see on how the drawing from the previous blank page is seen through the lined page.

[in the Bernau example and the BoC we see in the CM Digital Collection, the sheets seemed to alternate with lined and blank sheets so that the following would be slightly different, i.e., the back side of the lined sheets would also be lined.]

backside of 6th - blank page for illustrations, 40th century BC
7th sheet - lined sheet, 40th century BC
backside of 7th - blank page for illustrations, 41st century BC
8th sheet - lined sheet, 41st century BC
backside of 8th - blank page for illustrations, 42nd century BC
9th sheet - lined sheet, 42nd century BC
backside of 9th - blank page for illustrations, 43rd century BC
10th sheet - lined sheet, 43rd century BC
etc. :)

The 2 page spread for 1st century BC is followed immediately by a 2 page spread dedicated to the life of Christ (this is another deviation from the Bernau model).
The following 2 page spread would begin the 1st century AD, followed by the 2nd century AD, continuing on through the 21st century AD.

Following the 2 page spread for the 21st century, there is another blank 2 page spread (used as cover sheet to the appendix of sorts). The appendix will include, 6 - 1000 year @ a glace pages, and pages for maps. Following the cover page, the backside of which, the 2 page spread will be reserved for 1000 year @ a glace pages (6 of them representing 6000 years of world history). These pages will be divided into 10 rows of 10 columns. Each square representing a 10 year period. I don't know yet if I will follow through with this idea, but we will leave those pages blank for now with this in mind.

The rest of the blank pages from there to the back of the book are the pages reserved for maps of the child's own choosing, perhaps illustrating country boundaries or wars or marches, etc. The opposite pages would originally have been lined (same as the rest of the book) so as to include the child's short descriptions of her hand drawn maps.

I will update as our work progresses ;)


Notes if you plan to make your own:
Buying the book ready-made would be 100x easier... just sayin'.
Spiral binding is great for lying flat, but not as durable.
The notebook should have at least 96 sheets.
I prefer blank as opposed to lined because you can always draw lines in, but for the pages reserved for illustrations, lines are not lovely.
A medium/thick paper weight is nice so as to prevent ink leaking through from page to page.



"The Book of Centuries is to history what the nature notebook is to Nature Study." Laurie Bestvater

CM Blog Carnival! Hooray!

I don't know anyone who wouldn't love a CM carnival!  Well, besides my uncle Ron, and maybe my father-in-law's friends... well okay, maybe I'd better say, I know a LOT of people who LOVE a good CM carnival, so how 'bout let's have one!!





There are SO many sights at a carnival like this one, the ferris wheel of habit training (it goes round and round...), the nature study exhibit (perhaps the most popular!), the popcorn stand (or shall we say biscuits and tea?), the artist and composer tent, karaoke hymns, the hands-on booth ... you name it!  You know what you came for!  So, I'm totally curious, what's your favorite part of the carnival?  Please leave me a comment!

Now, I figure that from the carousel we'll each be able to spy out the different sights as we go around... you gals have gone and posted SO much this time around, and I have the feeling this is going to be so FUN you're surely not gonna wanna stop!  So, seeing as the carousel is about to start, find your favorite animal, climb aboard and let's get this show on the road!  :)

Make sure that at each place you stop, if you enjoy what you've read, leave a kind note...  it's the best kind of fun to be among friends :)









*Nancy gives us a chart for looking at training the will  "...20 adults met to discuss our reading of Charlotte Mason's Towards a Philosophy of Education, Chapter 8, "The Way of the Will"... " Of course, everyone wants something practical, something to apply right away, something to use..." So head on over to her place and get the chart!  The Way of the Will Chart posted at Sage Parnassus.

*Scripture memorization in big chunks... "I'm sure we've tried memorizing things before but with this year being our first year using Charlotte Mason methods, we're memorizing scripture."  Be inspired!  Contessa presents Scripture In Pictures

*Nebby questions the good of testing...  "a kind of mental exercise, like lifting weights for the mind. The time limits imposed by a testing environment force the student to concentrate and to perhaps be more systematic and diligent in their thought processes..."  Testing in Homeschool

*Deborah Jean relishes in memories of early CM days...helping us mothers of yet young ones relax in CM methods :)..."It's no wonder I fell in love with Charlotte Mason's gentle learning approach for the elementary ages." ...  Busy Hands, BUSY WORK or both? 








*Shirley Ann talks about the beauty of Artist study as passed down from one generation to the next, and showcases some blooming beauties and how they relate to taking off in reading.  Hello Vincent. AND Spring Blooms and Late Bloomers

*Mama Squirrel presents a reflective post on Listening. You'll definitely want to head over and read this: Don't talk over the music posted at Dewey's Treehouse.

"...for of the evils of modern education few are worse than this - 

that the perpetual cackle of his elders leaves the poor child not a moment of time, 

nor an inch of space, wherein to wonder - and grow."

*Robin has found a relatively painless way to learn new birdsong!  Hilarious.  Creative Nature Study: How to Let Bird Song Wake You Up - Crack the Egg


*Pamela talks about nature study for city-dwellers... "So, one of the things I am always super grateful for when we spend any amount of time in a big city is finding the little refuges where nature has a little bit of space to do her thing, and so do we. Thank goodness people in the past had the foresight to set aside some land for parks before the sprawl of civilization took it all over."   Check out her post here: Trees in the City 

*Melissa's starting and customizing their book of centuries  "...starting at Creation and learning the truth of history from the Bible is one of the greatest gifts I can give my children. From the beginning of time, God's love for us is evident and that continues to be the common thread throughout the course of time.." Book of Centuries...givin' it a go! 







*Becky's CM basics, Living Books, Narration, Art, Composer, Poetry.
"Lots of homeschool parents look into the Charlotte Mason method and get overwhelmed.  Here are 5 easy ways to make the CM method part of your busy day..." 5 Ways to Add a Little Charlotte Mason to Your Routine

*Jeanne talks about how all of life is a classroom, a must read. "How different things are from those first heady days when I was first learning about homeschooling. The book work set me up to succeed, but it was the actual doing that made me a homeschooling mum, not the reading about it."  Learning about learning posted at A peaceful day.

*Nadene talks about motivation!  Very good tips.  All of us have some of those months days, grab some good ideas to turn things around!  Turning those frowns upside down ? Motivation! posted at Practical Pages.

*Penny makes Artist studies a matter of everyday conversation...
Excellent (and easy) idea!  Making an art placemat

*Phyllis shows First Reading Lesson in Pictures!  Nice and easy :)
All Things Beautiful: First Reading Lesson Charlotte Mason Style









*Phyllis does nature walks... just right.  She reminds us of how Charlotte advised was the best way for spending time outside. All Things Beautiful: Taking a Nature Walk

*Anna encourages us not to be afraid to offer our children wholesome foods. CM talks about the importance of balanced nutrition in Vol. one.  For Pure Pleasure: Assume the Best

*Jennifer has talked about her Book of Centuries project and it looks GREAT!  She also made some VERY nice timeline book pages/BOC for purchase. Now Complete! Jewish Book of Centuries (Charlotte Mason style) 

*Laura Grace Weldon is a writer mom pondering education at the grass roots level  :)  Asking questions: Mom Knows Nothing


*Jimmie gives us a CM summary post... perfect for those just starting out to get a handle on some of the basics: Implementing Charlotte Mason Basics posted at Jimmie's Collage.


*Tricia shows us an EXCELLENT idea incorporating, art, cooking, multi-generational learning... and pretty photos :) Pastels Tutorial: Hot Chocolate

*Rachel presents a hands-on feet-on activity for a picture book: Fun Learning Activities for Preschoolers and Kids » Blog Archive » Purple Toes: The Book & Activity


*Makita hopes to show some progress on Copywork, one of those constants... cheer her on at: Copywork Revisited!

*Lynn gives us some images of autumn in Signs of Autumn.

*Need handicraft ideas? Susan has one! Stitching Life: Maple Leaf Handicraft.







*amy in peru shows one way to teach map drills. Hey!  that's me!  You're in the right place!  ;)  Map Skills: What we do posted at Fisher Academy International ~ Teaching Home.

*amy in peru inspires us how to make Nature Study a high priority: Nature Study: One of the Constants here at Fisher Academy International ~ Teaching Home.

HAHAHAH!  It's such fun to talk about myself in the third person :)

OOh... and one last post:

*Richele shares more nature study nitty-gritty facts! More Mechanics of Nature Study!

Alright, time's up!  After the carousel has come to a complete stop, please step off and exit straight to the beach, for some good peace and quiet!  Though I love a good carnival as much as the next mom, I do enjoy the peaceful putting into practice part the best ;)  I hope you've found something you enjoyed! 

It's been so much fun, let's do this every month...

no wait, how 'bout every two weeks! ;)

See you around next time friends... 

So, what's YOUR favorite ride at the CM blog carnival?  

Is there something in particular you usually come to see?

Book of Centuries and Timelines Galore

Our 'Book of Centuries' (which is actually a Timeline Notebook):
*Update - Timelines are AWESOME fun for younger kids. This post outlines the timeline notebook we use communally when the kids are younger and includes creative ideas and links. Please see this post, and this post for details of the actual BoC that CM used! We will start using a Book of Centuries styled after these in AOy7 when each student will make their own. :) Click here and here to see what we've done.

1) I found a 3-ring binder, well yes, it has been love worn hasn't it...
(if I could get a new one here in Peru and if I hadn't glued the cover right onto the front, I'd say I should change binders already!)

2) I downloaded and printed the free Book of Centuries pages from SimplyCharlotteMason.com
3) I made a collage of clip arts and such for the cover and taped it right on (if I'd had the option at the time, I'd have gotten one of those binders that has the clear plastic cover).  I use picasa to make my collages [read more here]!
4) I put each page in a clear plastic page protector.
5) I made a beginnings page.




Here's the text from that page:

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."  Genesis 1:1

Before there was dirt, grass or houses. When there was no sun, or clouds or oceans - way back then. There was Nothing.

God made Everything.

And time began...

6) I started collecting timeline figures from the internet and here and there and everywhere.  I bought the homeschool in the woods CDs.  The pile of figures below came from some pages I photocopied out of George Washington's world and cut up (AOy4).  The kids like to color these in...




7) In the past, we've been very hit and miss with our Timeline Notebook.  I started it in year one.  But I realized that it was my thing.  Little by little the kids have taken interest.  This year, we are really in earnest.  It actually has its own time slot on the schedule!  Thus the motivation for this post ;) We sometimes paste the figures in, and other times we just slip it into the page protector.  EASY!!  :)  Nothing too fancy or it simply wouldn't get done!!
Here are what some of our pages look like:

If I were a craftsy kinda girl, I'd do one of the cool timeline ideas I've read about, or make up my own.  But I'm not.  So I won't.  To be perfectly honest.  heheh. :)  Here are the ideas that I might do if I had more time, less children... (you may have to join the yahoo group to see the messages?)

Timeline on a string 
{use those little black binder clips (or even paper clips) to hold index cards on fishing line [click here and scroll down, or at the end of the post, click the next entry to read the whole thread]};

 

on a string wrapped around a door; 

or even a Family Tree version.

Below, I've listed some of my favorite links that I've collected over the past several years. Please do share any cool resources you've found or link to your own timeline or book of centuries posts!!

AmblesideOnline specific links:
Common Questions about AO History
The Teaching of Chronology, from the Parent's Review
AmblesideOnline : Files
AmbleRamble : Files

An Island Story:
AmblesideOnline : Message: Re: Island story need timeline figures ch. 22
AmblesideOnline : Message: Our Island Story - Timeline figures

50 Famous Stories:
AO 50 Famous Stories AmblesideOnline.org

Timelines Online
BBC - History - British History Timeline - LOVE this one.  Great for An Island Story, AOy1-5  (use the search option for year or name)
Gazetteer for Scotland Scottish History Timeline 17th Century 
World History HyperHistory - another one with lots of time periods.
Here's a page with a timeline for any time or occasion... http://www3.canisius.edu/~emeryg/time.html

Timeline Figures
TO BUY:  I totally recommend these timeline figures.  They are AWESOME.  They have TONS of figures and are very nicely done.  Easy to search for the person you want... you can also use them as coloring sheets... yes.  I love them.  :)  HTTA - Historical Timeline Figures 

FOR FREE:  There are people studied in the AO years that are not included in the above CDs...
Here are the sites I've used:
Images of Famous British People - British Kings, Christian Heroes, etc, etc. (has almost all the AIS kings, even from the first few chapters, if I remember correctly and lots of figures to use for Shakespeare paper dolls or Little Duke, etc.)
The Famous Kings & Queens of England  (I like the look of these figures best for AIS, but I had already printed the figures from the previous link... :) covers years 872 - 1952.


General Clipart:  (I don't know why anyone would choose to do this... too much time to search and format and print, etc... but here are the links I saved when I was deluded enough to think free made it worthwhile!  :)  Clipart ETC Homepage


Timeline Tutorials
Timelines, Paula's Archives  - This is the single most helpful source I've found online.
History Timelines

Timeline Examples
Book of Centuries - I LOVE this book.  If we advance to the point next year, that each boy makes their own (or if I make MY OWN!), I would like to encourage them to look at this one.  Charmaine did a very nice job.
Timeline Ideas



**Hey!  Don't forget...
please, please share any helpful links!!  that way everyone who stops by can benefit!!  :)  Thank you!