Advent & Christmas 2013

I thought I should update this post for 2013 as some of the links have changed (or are dead) and we have changed up some different things for the last couple of years. Mind you, this is not a CM list of activities - just ones we have enjoyed over the years.

I just have to go buy our candles for our Advent wreath. I always seem to forget to do that each and every year. So, it is off to Hallmark tomorrow with hopes that they will have a set of tapered Advent candles, otherwise, I will buy individual little ones and work with that (which might be safer from little fingers anyway).

For myself, I am reading Ann Voscamps's The Greatest Gift: An Advent Devotional.
 
Print the 2013 Inductive Advent study. Print it now so you are ready for Sunday (or since I just updating this, uhm....so you are ready for tomorrow & can play catch-up).

Free ebook from Knowledge Quest - Figgy Pudding, Stollen and Tamales when you sign up for their newsletter (if, like me, you already receive their newletter, just enter your current email addy - you will still get it).  Plus, you will be helping them send gifts to the needy through Gospel for Asia!

We have a Jesse Tree from HERE. When we did it, we made it simple. I printed the sheets, colored in the pictures with pencils and laminated them. Perhaps, I will print them again and have my older 2 do something a bit more formal with them.  The place I meant to buy cross-stitch patterns for the ornaments went out of business, it seems. But, there seem to be no shortage of other ideas that you can purchase out there.

We have enjoyed reading Jotham's Journey, Bartholomew's Passage, & Tabitha's Travels. We are on our 2nd reading of Tabitha's Travels for this year.

Here are a couple of freebies that are also available:
Free Nativity Lapbook for younger children
Free Christmas Symbols lapbook

Free TOS Digital Holiday Supplement - lots of great stuff here for Thanksgiving & Christmas!
You can also email to ask for their newest (?) supplement here. The information how to ask for it is on the right hand page.

Homeschool Radio Shows has an offer for The Cinnamon Bear. 

From the Ambleside Online page we have a list of Christmas Carols and they are available in a printable PDF format, Christmas Poetry, and a list of Christmas books to read.

That and along with making a few Christmas presents for some people, cookies, lots of Christmas themed books, a Christmas concert at church, driving around to see the lights (love the displays downtown!), some old radio shows I purchased several year ago from Homeschool Radio Shows and hopefully, some caroling, we should have a fun, Christ-centered month leading up to Christmas.

I hope some of these are of help to you as well. Feel free to share some of your favorite resources in the comments.  Have a blessed Advent.

Christmas Bells by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Don't panic. Yes, it is the middle of October, not mid-December. But, if you have children performing things for Christmas at church, recitals, concerts, & the like, you have started hearing Christmas music being practiced in your home.

My oldest child had been practicing the Casting Crown version of I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day for a group at church. Sadly, that isn't going to happen now for various reasons (not because of her - ah, the accompanists life). However, the song has stuck with me and for whatever reason, it has resonated with my soul this year.

The history behind it Longfellow's poem Christmas Bells interesting and inspired by events in his life at the time. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned the words during the American Civil War (it was published in 1866).  Apparently, his son went to fight in the Civil War against his father's wishes and ended up being seriously wounded. Mr. Longfellow also lost his wife during this time period as well due to an accidental fire.

While we don't have cannons going off here in the USA (let's keep it that way - okay?), we do have much evil in the world and we are pummeled with it daily, via the media, to such an extent that we may often feel that, as Longfellow said in the poem,

"And in despair I bowed my head; 

“There is no peace on earth,” I said;

Yet, much like it says in the song My Father's World 

This is my Father's world.  
 O let me ne'er forget 
 that though the wrong seems oft so strong, 
 God is the ruler yet.  

Longfellow comes back and reiterates:

 Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
    The Wrong shall fail,
    The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.

While we won't have true Peace on Earth until Christ returns, we can look for the bits of peace and goodness out there in the world around us. We can continue to pray for peace and anxiously await his return.

So, while my daughter may not be playing the Casting Crowns version of Longfellow's poem on the piano this year, we will still be memorizing Longfellow's original poem this year as a family. I have put the words below (and they are going up on the whiteboard shortly in my house).


If you are not familiar with the Casting Crowns rendition, here is a (link) video with words of their song:

Christmas Bells

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
    And wild and sweet
    The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
    Had rolled along
    The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
    A voice, a chime,
    A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
    And with the sound
    The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
    And made forlorn
    The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
    “For hate is strong,
    And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
    The Wrong shall fail,
    The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival: Knowledge of Man - Art & Music

This summer, I had the opportunity to go to the Art Institute of Chicago with all 4 of my children, a wonderful friend & her daughter who were visiting from Australia, and another wonderful friend & her husband from Indiana. We had a wonderful time (well....except when the little ones had had enough... ;) ).. But, the best part was being able to see the paintings of the masters up close - not just a small print on the bulletin board by the dining room table. 

There was a special exhibit called Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity going on during the time of our visit. They had taken the masterpieces and recreated the clothing shown in the paintings. For my oldest, it was pure bliss. Our children participate in historical reenactments several times a year with some dear friends. Those friends also have made the clothes for them to wear and taught my oldest daughter about what makes a dress (or guys outfit as well) appropriate to their time period and what things changed as time went on. As we walked through the exhibit she went from dress to dress explaining the time periods and why. It was so fun. Then for her to see them so beautifully done on canvas was such fun for her. The outfits themselves were truly works of art.

So, with that, on to the Carnival!

This edition of the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival's topic is...

Knowledge of Man: Art & Music

• From Harmony Fine Arts, we have a free art unit about Renaissance Art.

• From All Things Bright and Beautiful, we have selections of Art, Music and Poetry: Jean Baptiste Camille Corot - Hagar in the Wilderness, John Philip Sousa - The Belle of Chicago, John Milton - Samson Agonistes, Robert Louis Stevenson - Bed in Summer

•  From The Winding Ascent, we have some wonderful ideas of how to expose your family to Music to Soothe the Weary Soul.

• From Our Journey Westward, we have Cindy’s Top Ten Nature Study Supplies - what a fantastic list!

• From Windy Hill Home School we have a visit into their week and see the results of trying a new art curriculum:AO Year 3, Week 8

• From In The Magpie's Nest, we have a look at how they do art, art history, and some of their projects at How Art We Doing?

• From Letters From Nebby, we have some thoughts on Teaching Art

• From Fisher Academy we have a look at Nature Study through September's Nature Study Monday'.

• From Snowfall Academy, we have a look at how using Charlotte Mason's ideas help the children to make their own Connections.

• From Journey and Destination, we have a look at how they are doing Ambleside Year 6 with a 13 year old

• From Archipelago,  "Stick with me, class...who can tell what educational principles Miss Perkins violated?"  Let's find out How to be a better teacher than Miss Perkins (it's not hard) 

• From Sage Parnassus we have St. Luke's Little Summer - a lovely experience through Miss Read of the last vestiges of warm weather before winter comes to visit 

Find out more HERE about upcoming carnival topics & how to get yourself on the e-mail list to receive reminders and announcements so that you never miss another edition.


Submit any Charlotte Mason Education posts on any topic at any time to charlottemasonblogs (at) gmail (dot) com!

Nature study is fun, easy, & can be done anywhere!

Sometimes, I think that too many parents try to make Nature Study (ala Charlotte Mason) far too intimidating to themselves. I believe some of that intimidation is simply because the parents themselves are simply not very familiar with God's creation and have no idea what they are looking at.

When my first 2 children were born, we lived in an apartment. In the city. On a busy road. In an area of town, that by the time my 2nd child came along, I no longer felt comfortable taking walks with the children by myself anymore. So, we improvised. We were lucky to have a small balcony. Before the babies started coming, we already had planters that we hung on the railing. We just added more things up on that railing in in containers in the corner. We watched ants, bees, moths, spiders, & the occassional butterfly. We put a very small inflatable pool on the patio along with a 1"x2" plastic container of sand on that small balcony. There was not much room for me out there (seriously - it was a pretty small balcony!) and often, I actually sat on the carpet right by the door or on the bit ledge that one stepped over to get to the balcony and watched the little ones play and learn. There was a light mounted on the building right by our balcony, so it always attracted bugs - which attracted spiders. I think the most memorable thing for all of us was watching the newly hatched spiders float off on their bit of web in great bunches (no, you don't want to be outside when this happens - ack!). We found dead bugs in the pool and before I tossed them over the side, we looked at them. I got a bug id book and we learned what a few of them were. It was fun, it was very basic, but they were only 1 & 3 when we moved to a different, ground level apartment with a tiny bit of yard out in suburbia.

So, I say all that to say that yes, you can start nature study when they are old enough to toddle around. It does not have to be in depth. It does not need worksheets. It is not hard.

Fast forward a decade and I am doing this again with the other 2 children that God blessed us with. They are, for the moment, 2 & 4. 

On this lazy Saturday morning (before chores kick in), I was drinking my coffee & eating a bit of oatmeal while reading my emails, checking the Ambleside Online forum, & scrolling through facebook. My computer desk is a corner of the kitchen/dining area right by the patio window/door area. I love that I can be almost outside while I do that.  Because of that, I often see things out of the corner of my eye and can call the children over to look quickly if needed. And today, that resulted in this post on Facebook a little while ago and then turned into this post:

"CM Nature study.....from our patio window's: Today, G3 & I had the chance to watch a pair of mourning doves work their way around our patio & the flower beds. We talked about their feather colors, their spots, how they bobbed their heads back and forth as they walked. We watched them grabbing bugs & such off the ground. Well, until M3 ran over and yelled, "A BIRD!" and banged on the window, lol! But, then we got to watch 3 chipmunks being all kinds of silly on our patio, the flowerbed & the fence by the flowerbed. They were hilarious in their antics and we all had a good time watching them. And to think that we studied nature through the glass...."

Oh, in a little bit, we will will have lunch (already?!) and I will toss all 4 children outside and they will run like little wild things. But, I know, later after they have burned off some of that energy, M3 will bring me a bug of some kind (that little girl has NO fear of bugs, lol!). G3 will come tell me about some birds he has seen. M2 will go with him to see what he has found and if she knows, she will tell him what plant/bug/bird/creature that it is. If not, I will come look and see. Most times I know, but sometimes, we have to go look it up. And that is okay. Sometimes, the little ones draw a picture of what they have seen. Sometimes not. I don't push it because I want them to enjoy it. When they are older, I will encourage them to draw in their journals. Until then...no worries.

Remember to keep it simple. It is simple when they are so young. 

A visit from a Monarch! Hurray!

 Apparently, Monarch Butterflies have had a rough year and they have been few and far between in Wisconsin. 

We grow Milkweed outside our back patio door so that we have every chance to see them. We have dear friends who purposefully grow milkweed along the side of their garage for the same purpose. They even go out and watch for recently hatched caterpillars and bring them (along with leaves) into a cage for safe keeping so they can eventually cocoon and become butterflies to help the population along. 

Today, after waiting all summer long - we finally had a visitor to our milkweed patch. Each year, this is a much waited for day - because it means that we will have a chance to watch the amazing metamorphosis.

Our little friend spent about 15 minutes with us before moving on.

 It visited the newest milkweed plant along with the big, mature plants.

 It took a rest on my begonia (which is, thankfully, recovering from the few short, very hot weeks of summer and then a major drenching.).

It visited the unknown plants in my planter on the back step.

Laying eggs! Notice the abdomen curved down below the wings at the leaf!













It even obliged us by posing prettily on the top of the fence!

 A side view.

A close up. She is actually laying an egg here, but my position doesn't allow you to see it.  I will post the egg picture after my camera battery recharges!

 

Bye-bye butterfly! We now await the emerging of your young so we can watch them grow into full grow caterpillars, make their chrysalis (one of the most beautiful ones out there, in my opinion) and then emerge to join you.

Edited to add in the picture of the Monarch egg. It is that whitish green dot on the leaf.

The birds

We have an amazing amount of birds that visit our yard and the yards around us. We have several mature trees in our yard as do our neighbors. We see many "common place" birds, but sometimes see the more unusual as well. 

This little one is about as common as you can get - a simple House Sparrow.

Daddy bird waiting. Humans, please go away.

We have watched as they add bedding to their nest each season. They are very protective of the nest after the eggs are laid and even more so after the eggs hatch.  We often get "yelled" at by them when we are too close. The parents, if intent on feeding the babies, will either leave without feeding or wait until we are suitably far enough away for their comfort before they will feed them.  These pictures were taken from about halfway across the yard.

Mama feeding her babies.

This particular little house usually has 2-3 clutches of eggs each year with 2-3 . We can hear the little ones in the house because of its location between the upper and lower bathroom (I know, TMI, but really, that is why we are as aware of them as we are when we are inside - especially when we are potty training, lol). My clothes line is in the area where this nest is on the outside, so it give me (and the older ones who help at the line) plenty of extra observation time.

As they get bigger, they get louder. Eventually, if we are lucky, we get to see 1 fly for the first time.

3 beaks - the one on the right looks odd.

As they get bigger, it is also fun to try to figure out how many little ones there are in the nest. This clutch resulted in 3 birds. At this size, besides being hungry, they are curious and peek out to see what is going on. We have noticed that if they see or hear us nearby at this age (ie hanging clothing), they do get quiet. They still look, but are careful not to call attention to themselves.

3 beaks, but the 3rd is harder to see this time - just barely there on the upper left.

House sparrows don't have a fun call like the chick-a-dee does. It is essentially a cheep cheep sound. 

We do have cardinals, black-capped chickadees, hummingbirds, grackles, crows, the occasional red-tailed hawk, house finches, gold-finches, mourning doves, a couple kinds of woodpeckers, orioles, robins, and a couple more that I know I have forgotten. We have had an owl in the area, but I have not hear it this year.

Watching birds in your yard can be this simple. If you want to encourage various kinds of birds to visit your yard, putting out food/water for them will encourage them to visit. It may take some time for them to realize there is food there, but once 1 or 2 of them find it, the word gets around quickly. Keep in mind, while birdseed is good for some, others like fruits & nuts. I encourage you to visit a nature center or your local library to find out what birds are in your area and what they like to eat. 

What is it?

I grow this in one of my flowerbeds. Most people don't. But, the flowers on it are spectacular in smell. They actually grow right by our patio door because they have such a great smell and because the plant itself has a very specific purpose in our garden. They don't need ANY special care at all. They don't get direct sunlight in our yard but they are currently around 5 ft. tall.

Because of its specific purpose, it gives us a dual benefit for nature study (and not just the little ones!). We all enjoy it.

Do you know what it is?