"If a woman chooses to stay at home with her children, she has the opportunity of nursing her baby in the peacefulness of her own home, caressing her precious little one, singing sweet lullabies to comfort and please the child's deepest emotional desires. She can offer them the restfulness of long quiet naps in their own bedrooms. She has time to enrich the home environment with beautiful sights and smells- from the aromas of homemade soup bubbling on the stove to the beautiful pictures in books- and arrange outings that foster budding intellects and awaken curiosity. And she has the flexibility to change her schedule to respond to teachable moments - those times when children's natural curiosity leads them to question and learn."
The Undivided Heart (ch3), Mission of Motherhood, Sally Clarkson
"In every undertaking it is well to have an ideal end, and a scientific means for realizing that ideal."
"Good apparatus, clean school books, and perfect order are simply essential. Our last and greatest materials for "mind-building" are "ideas."
"We believe in an "open-door policy" for our children; the larger and nobler an idea, the more fit are the children to receive it, for their hearts and minds are like a great open porch, not yet bricked up by prejudices."
"We therefore adopt a time-table calculated to give ideas and experiences in as many branches of our relationships as possible."
"No lesson is valuable which does not promote self-activity by making the child think, exercising its powers of narration or reproduction, or laying the ground-work for some future mental habit, making the idea given a well-spring of activity."
"No, it is the child who has to become accustomed to an idea, or led to discover a fact with as little of the teacher as a middleman, and as much "direct trading" as possible."::
"Address the ear, then, first of all and principally. Afterwards take as auxiliaries the eye and the hand in reading and in writing. The ear is the prime minister of the intelligence" Gouin, Art of Teaching and Studying Languages, page 139.What I needed was a completely customizable curriculum, that could be used for multi-level and multi-age groups! That is a tall order, but it's filled by none other than Charlotte Mason ala Gouin! Oh yeah!
"Having a child learn a short sentence that describes his own actions, or the activity in a vivid picture, can help in mastering verbs. Indeed, this is similar to methods used in teaching reading at the preschool level today. Focus on high frequency words, and stick to just one form of the verb at first. The child will learn to conjugate as he encounters the verb in different contexts. Continue reading at Raising a bilingual child in Montreal - Montreal Parenting & Education | Examiner.com
Language.––In Language, by twelve, they should have a fair knowledge of English grammar, and should have read some literature. They should have more or less power in speaking and understanding French, and should be able to read a fairly easy French book; the same with German, but considerably less progress; and in Latin, they should be reading 'Fables,' if not 'Cæsar,' and perhaps 'Virgil.' vol 3 pg 236
French should be acquired as English is, not as a grammar, but as a living speech. To train the ear to distinguish and the lips to produce the French vocables is a valuable part of the education of the senses, and one which can hardly be undertaken too soon. Again, all educated persons should be able to speak French.
v1 p300-7
CM records Goethe describing a language experience of his.
"But now it seems necessary to set forth more circumstantially and to explain how, in the midst of such events, I got hold of French, more or less easily, though I had not learned it. My inborn gifts came to my aid, so that I easily grasped the sound and ring of a language; the movements, accent, tone, and other external peculiarities. Many words were familiar from my knowledge of Latin, Italian helped still more, and in a short time I heard so much from servants and soldiers, sentries and visitors, that though I could not start a conversation, I could at least understand questions and answers." But he tells us that all this was nothing compared with the help which the theatre brought him. His grandfather had given him a free pass, and every day found him there, against the will of his father, but with the connivance of his mother. At first his entertainment consisted only in catching the accent and watching the gestures of the players. Then he found a volume of Racine at home, and hit upon the plan of learning long speeches by heart and delivering these, so far as he could, as he had heard them, though without understanding their drift.
And now he made a friend––a nice boy connected with the theatre. The two became inseparable companions, for in the dearth of boy companionship the stranger managed to understand young Goethe's French, and by aid of familiar intercourse with him 'the Boy' made progress that surprised his friend. The two haunted the theatre, and presently found their way into what served as a greenroom, where Goethe saw (hardly comprehending much) what he described as taking place in the scratch company whose doings he chronicles in Wilhem Meister. He and his friend discussed many things, and "in four weeks (I) learned more than could have been imagined; so that no one knew how I suddenly, as if by inspiration, had acquired a foreign language."
Possibly, when the entente cordiale has become acclimatised, let us say, children belonging to the two countries may come to visit each other's families, and more French may yet be learned in a month from the companionship of a nice French boy than the best master in the world would succeed in teaching in a year. The desire to communicate with each other would doubtless bring about the power. v5 p330-31
'every teacher should realize that a very large proportion of every student's work must lie outside the classroom... The study of Nature is both entertaining and instructive, and it is the only true method that leads up to a clear understanding of the great natural principles which surround every branch of business in which we may engage. Aside from this, it encourages investigation and stimulates originality.'In another brochure he added that the
'thoughtful educator... also understands that the most effective and lasting education is the one that makes the pupil handle, discuss and familiarize himself with real things about him, of which the majority are surprisingly ignorant.'So. In summary, would I read the book again?! You betcha. And now that I have it in our library, I'll also have my up-and-comings try it on for size too!
{The following links, I selected because of the potential helpful content for us the teachers. I didn't thoroughly screen the sites, though in most cases I did look through the pages that are actually linked to. I mostly had teacher reference in mind though, so please don't set your students loose with them just because you found the links here ;) }Schmoop - an online poetry textbook, boasting a great variety of classic poetry, and as they say, 'we speak student'. Shmoop.com is a digital textbook publisher and, as the site describes itself, "every teacher's and student's new BFF." I enjoyed reading this site :)
{These links seemed very student friendly, and I did not see any unwholesome ads, but again, please always be careful!}Poetry Meter
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