my BIG summer project.

#discoverreading
#writing
#charlottemason

What I learned this summer... with pictures!!

This summer I had the enormous pleasure and privilege to find myself stateside in attendance of several Charlotte Mason retreats, with some shopping and visits on the side. How kind and longsuffering my husband is to have taken care of things back home in Peru so I could have a couple of weeks of ‘mommy break’ as he calls it!

Among the interesting gems I have laid hold of this summer are: the importance of the manual hand work of Sloyd in early education; the place and importance of Mathematics, as well as it’s proper instruction; and how to take Science out of the box even in the upper years, getting the student to ask the questions. And perhaps outstanding amongst the others, the idea of being fully present and living fully wherever one is, struck home once again.

Read more... HERE.



P.S. My arm may be twisted to blog about and/or link to those interesting gems... I will try and see what I can do.  :)

Pursuing the Way of the will...

According to some sources, every one of my kids (my husband and I as well), would probably be categorized as "strong-willed". If I didn't know better, I'd say that strong-willedness was a Tuttle family trait. :) But what would you say, if I told you, that we were actually born very weak-willed individuals all?

Charlotte helps clarify how things really are when she explains, "The baby screams himself into fits for a forbidden plaything, and the mother says, 'He has such a strong will.' The little fellow of three stands roaring in the street, and will neither go hither or thither with his nurse, because 'he has such a strong will.' He will rule the sports of the nursery, will monopolise his sisters' playthings, all because of this 'strong will.' ...But, all the time, nobody perceives that it is the mere want of will that is the matter with the child. He is in a state of absolute 'wilfulness,'––the rather unfortunate word we use to describe the state in which the will has no controlling power; willessness, if there were such a word, would describe this state more truly." (v1 p321).  If you'd like to read more about 'will training', click here, and see helpful links below.

So, as it is, in our family, weak wills are constantly being stretched and strengthened. Every one of us has come a long way... and yet we still have a long way to go. :) The following excerpt pertaining to the will, is a modified example of what I write down periodically in my 'Mother's Diary'. Read more about that here (v2 p106).

For me lately it is cooking. I've never really liked to cook. And for some reason, in recent weeks, it's become more of a chore. But someone must cook, or there'd be certain mutiny among my crew. And we'd be very, very hungry. So, even though I don't want to cook, and wish someone else would do it, I know that I ought to. So I do. Many days I can think of a thousand things I'd rather, and so have to will myself to do it; twist my own arm, so to speak. Now, I've taken measures to make it easier on myself, like having a plan, organizing my recipes, delegating some tasks, etc. But do I really have to *like* to do it?! I don't know. But I do know that the hours preceding dinnertime would be a lot less miserable if I could find a way to be cheerful about it. :) So, my next step in pursuit of the way of the will is to approach cooking cheerfully, without even a hint of complaint. And believe me, this is gonna be huge! My plan is to think about something else. Listen to a sermon, an audiobook? I don't know what, but changing one's thoughts is a very CMish idea, and one I fully intend to employ. :)

Then, there is one of us who is strengthening his will muscles in the area of math. This certain someone does not enjoy taking time to attend closely to the math lesson. He does not enjoy using his time to do his math exercises. This, for him is a huge daily feat of the will.

Another certain someone, who shall also remain nameless, has by way of the will, been overcoming in the area of copywork. Even though this person has special talent in this area, for some reason it had become a burdensome and most dreaded task. Being made aware that the way to victory lay in taking it in manageable sized chunks, and going straight to task to get it over with quickly, has been key for this person.

Then there is one who usually makes it his business to be the most attention loving groupie wherever two or more are gathered. He has a most perpetual test of will power especially during school hours: having to will his pencil not to drum, his feet not to tap, his tongue not to click, his chair not to tip, his voice not to burst out with every answer... etc. maybe you know someone like this. If you don't have one in your homeschool, be very, very glad. :)

The cutest little someone in the family is currently valiently working on willing herself not to suck her thumb, the sweet chick. For such a small person, she's admirably facing this gargantuan exercise of the will, and though she's had some setbacks, she's doing a fantastic job.

Lastly, there's the one who seems to do everything well, and get along with just about everybody all the time. But even this one doesn't escape the occasional test of will, and is currently working on willing to obey right away, because otherwise forgetfulness sets in immediately within ten seconds or so.

These are some of the tests of will we've been facing lately.
How 'bout you? What are some areas you have seen improvement by working on willing?

"The will is the controller of the passions and emotions, the director of the desires, the ruler of the appetites." v1 p320

helpful links:
The Will -- The Conscience -- The Divine Life In The Child
Looking for an easy read? Simply Charlotte Mason has a free book called "The Way of the Will", where they've gathered some of the most important CM quotes and put them together in a easy-to-digest format.

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival: Language Arts {vol 1}

Welcome to the latest Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival!

In this edition, we'll be looking at the place of Copywork, Dictation and Composition in a CM education.



Copywork: (also known as transcription)

"The earliest practice in writing proper for children of seven or eight should be, not letter writing or dictation, but transcription, slow and beautiful work... Transcription should be an introduction to spelling. Children should be encouraged to look at the word, see a picture of it with their eyes shut, and then write from memory." v1 p239

Dictation:  

"Here the object aimed at is to let the child get a correct picture of the word, and the passages to be dictated (not words without their context) are therefore carefully prepared, so that no misspelt word shall leave its impress on the brain."  Mrs. Franklin

Composition:  (also known as narration! v1 p248 & v6 p191)

"Oral composition is the habit of the school from the age of six to eighteen." v6 p270

Are you ready? Grab your cup of tea and spend a while with us looking at the following aspects of a Living Education...

Clara presents Does using the Charlotte Mason method of teaching writing through copywork, dictation, and narration really work?

Jennifer Mackintosh presents Wildflowers and Marbles: Considering - Charlotte Mason and Our Approach to Language Arts.  *She's written a series, so make sure to look for the link w/in the post! :)

Sarah presents What Composition at This Age? posted at All That's Goood.

Queen of Carrots presents A Few Ideas for Copywork.




"The child can simultaneously with reading make up words with loose letters, and copy them so that spelling, dictation and reading can go hand in hand." Mrs. Franklin in The Home Training of Children.


Lanaya presents Perfection in Letter Formation.

Barb presents Copywork and Dictation in High School? Simply Charlotte Mason Giveaway! - She's giving away two copies!

Traci Brooks presents Composition Comes By Nature.

amy in peru presents Narration, just a part of the whole & Copywork: an assignment




We will continue a supervised copywork lesson once a week even in year 7, until I notice we've regained mastery over some laziness that has seemed to creep in once again.


Amy Dumas presents Dictation - It Really Works! posted at Ambling.

Nancy Kelly presents My Calendar of Firsts.

4sweetums presents What Tools Do You Need to Homeschool?.

Jimmie presents Q & A: Did Charlotte Mason Espouse Notebooking?.




In the picture above, the boys are copying from an electronic version of Spelling Wisdom Book 3, and here Bria's using Book 1. Her attention has improved significantly over the last 2 weeks of school! I'm so proud of her! ;)

Tricia Hodges presents Tree Reflection: A Pastels Tutorial.

Cindy West presents The Study of a Twig.

Andrea @ Mosaic Ideas presents Mosaic Ideas for All Ages.

Kelly @ The Homeschool Co-op presents What Really Makes Our Kids Happy?.



The next CMBCarnival will be:

Religious Studies - 11/8
Suggested Reading:
CM vol.3 p137ff & vol.6 p.159-169
Parent's Review article: A Boy's Religion & The Development of the Religious Instinct in the Child

Submit your posts here!

Would you like to submit related photos or art to the upcoming carnival?  In keeping with the theme, I'd love to use other CMer's things, if your items are chosen, full credit will be given.  If you are interested, please send an e-mail to: charlottemasonblogs (at) gmail (dot) com.

handwriting... who cares?!

I have some posts scrambling around in my head trying to get out, and yet life keeps happening and they're shut up inside for another day...  but here's one that pretty much just snuck out. 
*(question: uh, how does one say 'sneak out' in the past tense?  ...sneaked out just does NOT sound right.)

Below, I will be posting a picture of some of my boys' handwriting/copywork samples from this past week.  I know that once you see my boys' handwriting you will be able to say to yourself, heh! ... my kid IS normal!  So, let's just go ahead and get this out in the open... My kids are not over-acheiver homeschooler super-human specimans who have impeccable handwriting (...are you okay with that?  will you still read my blog sometimes?) Now that I've made my confession, you can admit it too, and we'll all breathe a sigh of relief because we all know exactly what to expect of each other... normalness.

Phew.

I'm glad we got that out of the way...
OKAY.  Moving right along...





Please take into account that Siah has yet to be introduced into the rigors of Fisher academia and has had no prior training in how to write (well, very little anyway). All things considered, I am actually quite proud of this sample. *including the fact that he writes his name almost perfectly backwards... ;)


While, this sample is a far cry from what I taught him using Cursive First, I actually am kind of proud of this sample too. I mean, my son has with no real coaching on the matter, officially developed 'manly handwriting'. It IS legible. It IS small. It is much like many a man's writing I've seen. and I'm okay with that... :)


Now, a certain other child of mine (who alas, disallowed his sample from being posted) is of the opinion that neat handwriting is not really very necessary as it is becoming somewhat of a lost art. He reasons that typing skills are much more necessary. And how might you think I responded to that?  I said the teacherly thing. of course. I sung the praises of having neat handwriting, how admirable a trait it is, and I did not fail to mention that I write notes when I'm studying my Bible in the morning by hand, and that I journal by hand, and...
Well, I'm curious, what would you have said?

So how would you rate your kids' handwriting on a scale of 1 - 10? 

Is there a difference between your girl's and boy's handwriting?

Does anyone even care about handwriting nowadays?

What does SWR stand for?

Spell to Write and Read.
Where does one begin when trying to describe such a comprehensive language program?!  If you are looking for Spelling/Grammar/Writing/etc program to meet ALL your needs... check it out!  seriously.
I guess the name sums up the theory and very succinctly, the practice too:

Spell (using the 70 basic phonograms + spelling rules)
       to Write (using as many senses as possible, including but not limited to writing)
                and Read (the goal is to have EXCELLENT, well-rounded readers!).

So how does it work?
A child masters the single letter phonograms before beginning the program.
The parent dictates a list of 20 words a week (for the youngest children) or 2 lists/wk with a grand total of 40 words for the older kids.
Dictation includes distinguishing syllables, think-to-spell pronunciation, finger spelling, writing from memory (visualization), seeing it written, analyzing spelling rules and making appropriate markings to illustrate. 
*(Even though you can use the material itself for copywork, I like to use the SWR word lists to select assignments from Spelling Wisdom!)





Ahem.... Here I'm doing finger spelling.I know, you thought I was a rapper and showing my special sign, right? Also, please take notice of my special hair thing...

Which words does it teach?
The lists are arranged from a study of the most commonly used words in the English language.
Each word is accompanied by a sentence from classic literature, the Bible or from famous quotes, in order for the student to learn it in a context.

Parent Support:
There is an e-mail support group, there are workshops for the parent to learn how to better use the program (which I HIGHLY recommend attending) in many different States all year round.

Is it CM friendly?
Hmmm.  If you can assure me that the CM and/or AO police are not reading this blog, then I can say... yes and no.  It doesn't follow her language lessons exactly, but it can be very adaptable.  It would take a whole post to prove that!  :)   If she were alive today, I honestly think she would be impressed with the curriculum!  ;)

Here are several reviews:
Cathy Duffy top 100 picks
Britta McColl - SWR trainer, and my self-proclaimed mentor :)
(Britta also has a blog that has SUPER helpful posts!)






Don't worry... this was their own idea.
They were having some difficulty keeping quiet though ;)
Cost:
The program is intended for use from K-12, so for less than $100 you get the kit that will set you up for life!  The books are available separately, but honestly, you need the whole kit... and it's WORTH it!

Check prices and purchase:

Buy from amazon.com & I get a commission!

Buy from Morning Star Learning and receive support from Britta!

Check out the publisher's website for a list of all SWR materials available!

I posted a LONG time ago about SWR after having attended a Basic Training course in Minnesota with Britta McColl... have a peek of that here.

And just for fun, I took a video when one day when I was teaching my littlest littles how to write their basic phonograms in cursive (yes we use Cursive First as well).  We're doing full body writing of the letters... works REALLY well with wiggly kiddos!  (don't make fun of me!! ;)

Do you haiku?

We made our first group attempt at writing poetry today.  We started with haiku.  It isn't very hard to do relatively quickly, but certainly difficult to do well! 


I illustrated it to my kids making up a haiku of my own showing how to count the syllables:

five syllables start

seven go in the middle

five more finish it.

Here's my first attempt:

Sun shining outright

his rays consume the dew drops

waking up the earth.

HOW-to Haiku 
This site has some good simple tips and several printable worksheets (if you're into that :)


Will you Haiku... too? 
Participate in a contest!  It ends this weekend on Sunday, March 7th.  Click over there to read our entries... Amy, Javen & Cullen.

PS. I'm really sorry I didn't get this up in time for you to work on your entries!!!  My computer has gone out... read here and here.

Copywork: an assignment

Copywork

{an assignment}

Pippa's Song by Robert Browning

We actually pulled this exercise from Spelling Wisdom to coincide with our spelling list from Spell to Write and Read.  I love that Javen adds his personal touch to all his work.  This time drawing in the illuminated first letter.  He's very clever.

My rule for copywork is that it has to be a perfect copy the first time.  This includes spelling, punctuation and handwriting.  So, obviously I am careful in which passages I choose for them.  Normally they would have the selection right in front of them printed off the computer using a cursive font.  Today, since most of the words are words they have either had on their spelling lists or words that I thought they should have no problem with, we decided to do straight dictation.  I read the passage phrase by phrase (giving prompts where necessary).  They in turn wrote the passage down.  We are just beginning to do this and haven't done very much so I'm very proud of them!  This is not Javen's best work as far as neatness, but I was rather excited about his illumination!  :)  We got a double whammy with this selection as we were then able to discuss the poetry in a casual way, rhyme, repetition, etc.

"No work should be given to a child that he cannot execute perfectly, and then perfection should be required of him as a matter of course.  For instance, he is set to do a copy of strokes, and is allowed to show a slateful of all sorts of slopes and all sorts of intervals; his moral sense is vitiated, his eye is injured. Set him six strokes to copy; let him, not bring a slateful, but six perfect strokes, at regular distances and at regular slopes. If he produces a faulty pair, get him to point out the fault, and persevere until he has produced his task; if he does not do it to-day, let him go on tomorrow and the next day, and when the six perfect strokes appear, let it be an occasion of triumph. So with the little tasks of of painting , drawing, or construction he sets himself- let everything he does be well done. An unsteady house of cards is a thing to be ashamed of. Closely connected with this habit of 'perfect work' is that of finishing whatever is taken in hand. The child should rarely be allowed to set his hand to a new undertaking until the last is finished."

Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooling Series - Vol. 1, pg. 160

We started with easy copywork from pretty young age.  In those earlier days my husband felt a lot more pressure to keep our kids on the level.  Anyone else have experience with this?  A husband who doesn't really get the whole more Charlotte Mason realm?  Well, he has loosened up somewhat as he sees the benefit of the 'education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.'  Bria (recently 7yo) in AOY1 has started copywork, but it isn't forced at all.  She does a lot of copywork apart from school entirely of her own initiative (writing letters, making play money and receipts, etc.).  I have not officially taught her handwriting yet.  Though over the last several months she has started to write on her own, having taken the last year to really master all the letters (we learn them in the form of the 70 basic phonograms a la SWR).  She is definitely learning by a more relaxed route.  We are still very much in the stage of fostering her love for learning.

How do you do copywork and dictation?  What age do you start?

The writing begins

A 7 year old non-writer turns writer in a matter of moments.

This is how it happened...

She was inspired as she watched Daddy, Javen and Cullen putting down on paper their still fresh memories experiences of last week's river trip.  They were journaling.

Previously she would sound out and write her own name plus other three word combinations like, mat, cat, sat, rat, dad, mom. Well, that and she copied words from everywhere... from Christmas cards to picture Bibles.  Her language study has consisted of being read aloud to and over the last several months we've been working on reading practice using Blend Phonics materials.  For some time we've been working on Spell to Write and Read's phonograms, of which she now knows all the basic phonograms and has a good grasp of many of the multi-lettered phonograms as well as many of the spelling rules.

But she didn't write until yesterday :)

Oh, girls are different than boys! She would attempt her first journal entry with a word like 'electricity'.  She sounded it out and then asked, is there a K after ele, or a /K-S/ (c),  and then again, /K-S/ (c) or just /s/ here at the end?  She had it all except the tricky /k/ and /s/ sounds.  Wow!

So, yesterday she decided to write her own journal.
So, yesterday we began to be writers :)

I use these word cards for reading practice found at donpotter.net: Download your own pdf copy of the Blend Phonics Decoding Cards. One of these days I'll write a post on our early reading practice... :)

A Writing Sample: 11yo

The assignment:
Use as many of the following spelling list words as possible
to write a fictional entry in your diary:

been	feel
capture	diary
broke	history
deed	dozen
exhaust	sorry
inspect	pear
practice	criticism
expect	else
vote	fifth
equip	yesterday

Rated P.O. = Parent's Only

for contents that include violence.

Dearest Diary,

I feel inclined to write the history of a dear, dear friend of mine, whose name was Buck Smith. He was tall, strong and the bravest of the bunch. Yesterday, five men walked through the town dressed in black and struck the town with the edge of the sword. But Buck came to the rescue! They were no match for Buck Smith! BOOM! BANG! CRASH! SMACK! Those were the sounds of his mighty club. He felled four of them like logs, but the fifth got away to tell his master. That made Buck hero of the year. People all around the world said, “That dude is awesome!” And the people of the town said:

“Let us make him our leader! Let him protect the world!”

So, he practiced Kung Fu to the highest level! He did the same with sword, ax, bow and arrow, and club fighting. But an army of infinity bad guys came. They were too much for Buck, but he fought bravely. He sent them up in the air by the dozen! BOOM! BANG! CRASH! SMACK! But he could not expect to beat those bad dudes. “Pick on somebody else!” he said. But they were very naughty dudes and did not listen. Then they captured him. They chained him between two poles and whipped him 'til his mortal wounds were many. When he was exhausted, and when they stopped laughing at him, they piled wood and hay around him and lit it. Then they threw oil on the fire. It flew high. They heard a crack, and then a roar, and out of the fire came Buck, hot chains swirling. And that was the last time we saw the bad dudes and Buck Smith.

Sincerely,
Rip Van Javen

** Written in the Kung Fu Panda style by:

Thoughts on Copyright

So, what can a person say that has never been said before?

What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.

Is there a thing of which it is said,
"See, this is new"?
It has been already
in the ages before us.

Ecclesiastes 1:9

A discussion of copyright led us to a little bit of research as to what's okay to copy and what's not.

According to US law, anything written "privately and originally" after 1989 is pretty much safely protected whether or not the author has registered a copyright. Legally, you may not copy someone else's stuff and they could come after you, unless you are just commenting on it, making fun of it, teaching it, etc, and then you can only use short and attribuited "quotes" from the original work.

This seems like an amazing piece of legislation to me. Nowadays there is SO much being written and blogged and in other ways communicated, that how can one know or better yet, prove that what one writes is one's very own? I can sit here and type this entry about copyright, but I've just come from several websites explaining copyright. Who's to say that some of what I'm thinking wasn't because of what they wrote... what if what I say sounds a lot like what they said, even though it's been through the mill and spit back out again? Would that be an infringement of copyright? What if someone is thinking the very same thing as I am and writes it on their own blog at this very moment? After all, someone has said, great minds think alike!

Sheesh. I don't get it. How does anyone write anything that hasn't been said or thought of before, and perhaps somewhere written down? Once they do write something, how do they prove to the world that it is original to them... are there any original thoughts?!

We started looking into copyright laws and I ended up perhaps a little foggier than before.

Here's what we did learn though:

1) All copiable (written, digital, photographic, printed, tape recorded, etc) information created after 1989 -1978 according to other sources, is copyrighted unless expressly noted that it is in the public domain.

2) Yes, one may never actually be called to attention by the author themselves or punished by law, but it IS still very much a matter of respect for others and of the law.

3) We should still be creative... but, honestly... not taking advantage of another's creativity, yet learning from it. Always giving full credit where credit is due.

4) Copyrights can expire. 70 years after the death of the author, the copyright expires. (But I remain foggy about whether widows, kids, grandkids, executors can renew?)

Maybe I've brought up a question or two that remain unanswered that have piqued your curiosity... Go for it! Research it for yourself.

A few links to explanations of copyright:

10 Big Myths About Copyright explained
US gov't site for Teachers and Students
Brief intro to Copyright by Brad Templeton
US gov't site on copyright
The Copyright Website

Amy