This Quote from CM has got to be the “light bulb” moment for why some people say they are struggling with CM. I wish I could have read that last year, it would have saved me a ton of grief.  I’ll list both the Original and the Modern English version.

The reader will say with truth,––”I knew all this before and have always acted more or less on these principles”; and I can only point to the unusual results we obtain through adhering not ‘more or less,’ but strictly to the principles and practices I have indicated. I suppose the difficulties are of the sort that Lister had to contend with; every surgeon knew that his instruments and appurtenances should be kept clean, but the saving of millions of lives has resulted from the adoption of the great surgeon’s antiseptic treatment; that is from the substitution of exact principles scrupulously applied for the rather casual ‘more or less’ methods of earlier days. (Vol 6 pg 20)

 Some readers might say, ‘I already knew all of this before and I’ve always acted more or less on these principles.’ All I can say is, the incredible results we’ve had didn’t come from adhering to these principles ‘more or less,’ but by following them strictly in practice. Joseph Lister must have had this same difficulty to contend with. Surgeons in his day knew that their instruments should be sterile, but it was only those who actually acted on that knowledge and sterilized their instruments each time with his chemical solution who saved millions of lives. That’s the difference between scrupulously following exact principles, and casually using them ‘more or less.’

 For Term 2 & 3 I am changing things up a bit. I will be using 3 – 4 good living books for history (more about them later) and then have him read about 20 – 25 books as independent reads. I’m going to try to separate the subjects a little, kinda like an extra literature class but this one for independent reading only. This will actually work great for my goal; that in 5th grade he would be reading almost all of his subject books on his own. The independent reading books that I’m choosing will be mostly living biographies with one or two historical fiction that will ether contain a real person or a real event. I will be using books that are one  reading grade level lower so he won’t have any problems starting out. I will still require narrations on all these and the Historical Fiction books will be on the shelf for free reading time.

I’m confident I am making the right choice and really how can I go wrong when they are all living books.

Charlotte Mason has changed our homeschool this year. On Aug. 10th I was done planning the whole year out, that has never happened before. I usually started school running behind on the planning or not having all the money together for all books needed. This year, not only do I have all books necessary, I am able to buy some extra science readers for fun!!

My biggest cost this year is going to be the SCM Organizer at $10 a month. WhooHoo, not that costly and I’m thinking of just going ahead and paying for a yearly subscription and saving on 2 months of payments. Because of this and the Planning DVD, I have had extra time this summer to spend with my kids. Both are soooo worth the cost. I’m thinking about ordering the newly published Books & Things Seminar, I know it’s as good as the other SCM products. I love spending money on the things (books, SCM products) that are going to be loved for a long time in our home.

More thoughts to come…..

Charlene

My daughter and I worked on creating her senior pictures and sending them out this week. I posted pictures in the post: Senior Pictures. She graduates on May 29th. She will have a graduation ceremony and we are still undecided as to what activity we will engage in afterwards. Just like when my son graduated, she will be handed a diploma and be dressed in cap-n-gown. We have already bought her’s; it’s hot pink, lol.

My son made the blue jello ocean cups recipe. I posted pictures in this post: Ocean Cups Update. He had a lot of fun with this and I can’t wait to gather more cooking recipes for him. I’ve put some in the history freebies section. The only negative was that he found the jello un-editable. He said the graham crackers on jello was nasty or Naaa-steee! My daughter also said it tasted funny. So, while pretty and fun to decorate, I’m not sure I can recommend eating it.

My son has been working on the History Pocket Jacques Cartier for his Discovery & Exploration unit. I found these reusable plastic envelopes at K-mart and I love them. I can put all the History Pocket material in it and just pull out the pieces as needed. It lays flat and makes for quick clean-up at lunch. It being plastic is great if something gets spilled. It’s also see-through and cheap. I only bought one because hubby was giving me that look. Ya know, the one that says “That’s a waste of money, what will she ever use that for.” Most of the time he’s right, I do buy impulsively, but this time I’m glad I did and can’t wait to get some more. Oh, I almost forgot, instead of a clasp closure, it has velcro, making it easier to close in a snap.

My son worked on creating his own masterpiece this week. Check out this post with pictures: Masterpiece. For his first painting I think he did a fabulous job. I’m going to try to create time for him to do this once a week. He had so much time, I may count this as part of his handicraft time.

This weekend he will begin his soap carving project. He will get to spend time with his dad; as they will be doing this project together. I think it sounds like fun and brings to mind my childhood of sitting on the front porch with my dad shelling peas or shucking corn. I really miss those warm sunny slow-moving summer days. We would come out to the front porch after dinner with our buckets of vegetables and an aluminum pan for the discards. We would sit together on the porch swing gentle swaying it in the warm breeze. We would talk about our day or sometime just sitting in silence enjoying the birds n the breeze. Life seemed to move slower back then and my Dad never seemed like he had to hurry to go someplace else. Made me feel like he had all the time in the world for me. I would love to creat memories like that for my kids.

We also finished all of our reading for history class; worked on solar system mobile; read lots of living math books; worked on Wordly Wise 3000 Ls #3 and read some in Ch 2 of Exploring Creation with Astronomy.

Feels like a good week to me.

Charlene

Check out other Mom’s who had fun this week:

These next couple shots are of him setting everything up.

Beginning to paint:

At this point he shoo’s me away; telling me to come back when he’s done…..

He tells me this is a night scene; dark sky with white stars; tree trunks with branches swaying, except the one on the far right it’s a cactus; orange earth. (We live in the South; lots of red-orange clay)

He painted facing outside and told me he used the trees outside as a guide. Brilliant child, proud momma!

Now we have all these seeds but what should we do with them? In art study we are working on Matisse and as I glanced through the art book; I happened upon some of his collages. I thought that would be perfect for the seeds. I drew out some flowers on black construction paper and let him glue the seeds on however he wished.  I love projects because I think it’s the perfect learning tool for independent work. Academic independence is something I will strongly need from my son in a few years, so we are working on a lot of hands-on projects in all of his subject matter.

My almost two-year old wanted to join in on the fun. I gave her a blank piece of paper with glue swirls and some unused seeds.

Here are the final results: {aren’t they wonderful}

Jacob’s:

Cyrena’s:

Blessings,
Charlene

In the 19 days since he’s been gone; he has bounced his checking account, struggled with not having enough food, learned how to get up with the alarm clock instead of oversleeping and being late for work, learned how much sleep he needs to function the next day, learned that not everyone with the label of “friend” really is, fought with roommates and has been kicked out.

Every time my husband has wanted to rush in and fix things. For the most part I’ve tried to remain calm and not be judgmental or give unwanted advice. I’m trying to remember that I was young once and made a lot of the same mistakes. I’m trying to remember that these life experiences are better faced now than later when he has a wife and kids to support.  Better learned now when his grandparents and ourselves are in a position to be there if he needs us.

I feel such an injustice for him. He rented a bedroom from a lady and her daughter. He was/is friends with them both. Because of that friendship he had a verbal agreement with her only. He paid her money on the 10th but when she kicked him out she said he could only stay until the 30th with no prorating of the rent money. The agreement when he moved in was that he had to clean-up after himself, could eat whatever was in the fridge (she said she was even grateful so she didn’t have to throw away spoiled food anymore), could come and go as he please but couldn’t have any friends over and she said she would do his laundry for him. He agreed and even liked these terms. 

He moves in and everything is great for the first week. Then the daughter’s boyfriend, the same guy that my son introduced her to and got him a job, moves in. He supposedly has the same terms as my son. My son gets some time off work and stays with some other friends for 4 days, when he comes back everything has changed. The lady leaves a note for him telling him that his rent money doesn’t cover food and especially if he is going to play with it and waste it. How could he play with it, he wasn’t even there. He had bought some food before leaving and upon returning found the food gone. He asked if the daughter and boyfriend had eaten it and both denied it. Yeah right!

The daughter tells my daughter that she is going to get Deven kicked out of her house because she thinks it’s not fair that he’s not cleaning her house. She thinks he should clean everything like she has to do. The bottom line is that the boyfriend is extremely jealous of Deven and the daughter. He has fits if Deven and her are left alone in the house. A day later Deven comes and asks my hubby if he can move back in and tells us some of the things that has happened. Now we are waiting to see if he moves back with us or in with his grandparents.

This wasn’t the most positive learning experience for his first time on his own, but I think he has matured and grown in some areas. I really hope he sees how important a written contract is, especially between friends. I think for myself, the low came when he visited me one day and told me how sad he was that the people he thought were good friends weren’t there for him when he needed them to be and how few true friends he really had. I almost let the tears fall then but waited till I was alone.

It’s so very hard to let them deal with life on their own and sit back and wait for them to need you. Deven has always had a very independant spirit but now I’ve seen him bowed lower than I ever have. I’m grateful that he will be away from this lady and her daughter and maybe with time he can have a friendship with them again. His journey is just beginning and I’m very proud of the way he has handled this thus far.

Blessings,
Charlene