Pilgrim's Progress Notebook

Pilgrim's Progress is a wonderful read aloud which suits a broad range of ages. I read it to 4 of my children aged 7 to 17 years of age over a number of months and my 15 year old decided he'd do a pictorial narration. These are some of the notebook pages he did. It got out of order in the way I scanned it but it gives an idea of what he did.

 

 

Presenting Miss Jane Austen

My introduction to Jane Austen didn't occur until I was an adult. Even my husband had read Pride and Prejudice before I had. It was a different story for my two older girls. When JJ was about 12 years old, she was bemoaning the fact that there was nothing to read, even though we have wall to wall books, and Dad, upon hearing this, suggested she read Pride and Prejudice. She wasn't keen at first because the title suggested to her some sort of morality tale about avoiding pride but my husband set her right and told her it was one of his favourite books.

Zana was fortunate in that the BBC production of Pride & Prejudice came out when she was at an age to enjoy it and that was her first introduction to Jane Austen.

I probably have good reason to dislike this movie. A number of years ago six of our seven children became sick with chicken pox. I was house bound for about six weeks by the time it went through everyone. The 13 and 15 year olds were absolutely miserable and one night Zana, the younger one, came out of her room crying because she felt so terrible. We were just about to go to bed and I didn't know what to do with her, until Dad suggested that I watch P & P with her to help take her mind off her misery. Six hours later, I felt disgusting but Zana was a bit better so we both went to bed.

When she was about 14 years old I discovered Presenting Miss Jane Austen by May Lamberton Becker, which was originally written in 1952 and re-published by Bethlehem Books in 2006. By this time she'd read and re-read just about everything Jane Austen had written but this biography, written for ages 12 and up,  was another link to Jane Austen's world and she found it very interesting and enjoyable.

Miss Becker's biography gives us a lively and intimate account of Jane's childhood, her closely knit family and the literary atmosphere that enveloped them and which was such an influential part of her life.

Through poetry new and old Jane's father guided her reading; better still, he read aloud to the family - history, travel books, lively essays...

The whole family read The Vicar of Wakefield...whose people were spoken of in the family as if they lived just around the corner - as Miss Jane Austen's people are spoken of now.

Quotations from Jane Austen's correspondence with her beloved sister Cassandra and other family members give us an insight into her personal life and the background that formed the fabric for her novels. Her immediate family were as familiar with the various characters in her writing as though they had been real people.

For the people in this blessed book did not come to life on the first page and dissolve on the last. They were alive before Chapter One, and they went on living after the book left them, and Jane knew very well what they were doing, before and after. She knew what Mr. Collins was like in his clumsy school days, long before he made his pompous, peerless proposal to Elizabeth, and where he had picked up, on the way towards the patronage of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, that, "mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self-importance and humility" that makes him so great a comic character. I am convinced that she knew what Lady Catherine de Bourgh looked like in her perambulation, though she spares us that grim sight.

No one outside of her family knew of her writing ability, let alone that she had already published a book, until her brother let the cat out of the bag and her secret was uncovered. Her nephew, James Edward who had read and enjoyed the earlier novels, unaware that his Aunt was the author, wrote to her when the secret was revealed:

No words can express, my dear Aunt, my surprise 

Or make you conceive how I opened my eyes, 

Like a pig Butcher Pile has just struck with his knife, 

When I heard for the very first time in my life 

That I had the honour to have a relation 

Whose works were dispersed through the whole of the nation.

This book is a perfect introduction for anyone who is interested in Jane Austen's background whether they've read her novels or not. The age 12 recommendation is certainly suitable content wise but some children might enjoy it more when they are around 14 years of age and have a bit more maturity to appreciate the minutiae the author includes.

G.K. Chesterton: The Romantic in the Rain

It's our first day of winter and it's raining for the first time in a while.

 

But the scheme of rain in itself is one of an enormous purification. It realises the dream of some insane hygienist: it scrubs the sky. 

Its giant brooms and mops seem to reach the starry rafters and Starless corners of the cosmos; it is a cosmic spring cleaning.

While it decreases light, yet it doubles it. If it dims the sky, it brightens the earth.

For indeed this is one of the real beauties of rainy weather, that while the amount of original and direct light is commonly lessened, the number of things that reflect light is unquestionably increased. 

The Romantic in the Rain

Book Substitutions When Using Ambleside Online - Some Considerations

About eighteen months ago I modified Ambleside OnlineYear 9 for my 16 year old son, Nougat. He'd previously done AO Year 8 as is, with a couple of exceptions, but Year 9 is heavy on American History so I decided to change things to suit our Australian situation.

It's not until you try to make large adjustments to the Ambleside Curriculum that you realise how much work went into its preparation in the first place, so where possible I'd much prefer to follow it as written.

Year 9 covers the time period 1688 to 1815 which fits well with early Australian History so I made the decision to use this year to focus on that.

What I was concerned about most in making changes to AO (besides the amount of time, effort and research involved!) was:

1) Keeping the page counts of the books I used as substitutes as close as possible to the original count.

2) Keeping the chronological order and flow of the time period that Year 9 covers.

3) Choosing appropriate living books as substitutes.

The following are some thoughts and ideas related to the three concerns above that were helpful to me as I made these adjustments:

1) Comparing the amount of pages that Charlotte Mason had her students read at different levels. I wanted to make sure my son wasn't going to be short changed by my choices and that he was suitably challenged. This page on the AO website addresses this.

2) Churchill's History (Age of Revolution) used as scheduled for Year 9 helped me keep a sense of continuity. Written by a British author, this series of books scheduled throughout AO's upper years, is suitable for any country that was or is part of the Commonwealth. This comparative chronology - which I found online at archive.org. helped me in places where I needed to substitute a book and keep the chronological flow intact.

3) Living books is a term that's widely used and I've seen all sorts of books given this label by people from many different educational slants. Seeing that it was Charlotte Mason who coined the term, it makes sense to know what her opinion was. The quotes are taken from her Home Education Series volumes 2 & 6 unless otherwise noted:

The books shouldn't be twaddle (worthless, tedious, trivial, feeble).

They should be written with literary power.

They should contain 'mind stuff,' both quality and quantity.

They should not be watered down and drained of literary flavour.

The book should enable the child to receive,

'impressions new and vivid from some other mind which is immediately receiving these impressions; not after they have been made stale and dull by a process of filtering through many intermediate minds, and at last find their way into a text-book.' Vol 2: pg. 278

It must be, 

'living, vital, of a nature to invite the living Intellect of the universe.'

They must have the best,

'...children must have books, living books; the best are not too good for them; anything less than the best is not good.'

A.W. Tozer said something similar, although he was not talking only about children:

'Since what we read in a real sense enters the soul, it is vitally important that we read the best and nothing but the best.'

The books should require mental labour. A Parent's Review article said that some books,

'give children the minimum of mental labour and the result is much the same as that left on older persons by the reading of a magazine. We find on the other hand that in working through a considerable book the interest of boys and girls is well sustained to the end.

The boys and girls gain knowledge as they dig for it; labour prepares the way for assimilation, that mental process which converts information into knowledge...'

Sir Walter Scott, an author admired by Charlotte Mason, wrote:

'Children derive impulses of a powerful kind in hearing things which they cannot entirely comprehend, and therefore to write down to children's understanding is a mistake.'

I like to know something of an author's background when I read anything they've written for the first time. Knowing something of the author's history and character may help determine whether the writing has a living quality or not. This quote from a Parent's Review article is an insightful thought on the 'living' author. The whole article is well worth reading:

'... good literature is the natural result of that sane outlook which only comes from a share in the active life of humanity and a living conviction of the significance of daily toil, of words and deeds and human relationships, and, above all, of the beauty of the world, and from a living faith too in God, and the triumph of Good over Evil. As soon as men cease themselves to live, and only write, the effect is evident in a certain lack of virility in their outlook.'

The book should not be just informative:

'For the mind is capable of dealing with only one kind of food; it lives, grows and is nourished upon ideas only; mere information is to it as a meal of sawdust to the body.

'... it seems to be necessary to present ideas with a great deal of padding, as they reach us in a novel or poem or history book written with literary power. A child cannot in mind or body live upon tabloids however scientifically prepared; out of a whole big book he may not get more than half a dozen of those ideas upon which his spirit thrives...'

Vol. 6 chpt. VI

Other considerations:

Two (or more) heads are better than one. Being a part of a community such as the Ambleside Online Forum provides access to a wide range of other home educators with various gifts, abilities and experience in home education and using CM's ideas. Tapping into these resources can save a lot of time and bring to light something we might have neglected to consider. Discussing ideas on the forum may also help someone further down the track who encounters the same need to modify the curriculum to suit the circumstances they are in.

I posted a weekly schedule for the first twelve weeks of the year here using the adjustments I made.

This post shows the Australian History & Geography selections I found for Year 9. He didn't use every single one of them but these were some I thought would work. I also tried to find books that were available free online or were easily obtained from an Australian library.

This post shows the breakdown of books in each subject area.

Nougat completed the year and I used his studies to give him a Year 10 equivalent certificate. He received a credit for every subject he covered fully for the year and to gain the certificate he was required to have 12 credits. For example, completing Saxon Algebra 1 was worth one credit, as was completing the assigned history readings for the year, as was doing his double bass practice, orchestra involvement and having weekly music lessons and so on.

To obtain a percentage for the grade level, I either averaged his test marks (maths) or based it on the quality of his written narrations, the completion of books scheduled for various subjects, pages done in his science notebook etc.
This is basically how I structured it:

With both Nougat and his older brother, Hoggy, we've had to produce something that employers can relate to as they didn't have 'official' documents. We were asked if I they had had any 'formal' education and our answer was, "Yes, but not at an institution."
Large training companies often have a compulsory entrance exam and both boys were able to do these and get good marks but we first had to put together comprehensive resumes/portfolios to show that they had the required academic ability and skills before we even got in the door. In some ways this was harder than navigating the university path for their three older siblings.

Nature Study - Outdoor Hour Challenge

I've noticed many people have trouble knowing how to get started using The Handbook of Nature Study. I found Barb's Getting Started section on her blog helpful and even though we live in the Southern Hemisphere many of the challenges she has put together on the blog can be used in our location, just at different times of the year.
We did the cat challenge in the mammal section this month which was fun because our kids love this great slug of a creature regardless of the fact that he's not very affectionate most of the time. It's amazing how much there is to learn about such a common animal and how much you take for granted just because it is so familiar.
He's three years old, sleeps most of the day and likes to find a cosy place where he can fall into a coma for a few hours between feeds. He squeezed into this box my Mother's Day present came in...






 He's made himself comfortable in a suitcase my husband had half unpacked after a trip overseas and one morning I found him curled up in an empty fruit bowl. He wouldn't condescend to sit on anyone's lap but does give the first one or two people he sees in the morning an affectionate nuzzle.
A few months ago he disappeared for a day or two and our neighbour found him curled up under bushes and brought him home. We noticed he had difficulty moving his back legs and was very docile, which is out of character for him, and we guessed he had a paralysis tick (Ixodes holocyclus). So off to the vet he went. One of the boys now checks him regularly for ticks when he's in his sleepy phase. If you can get them before they burrow into the skin they can be removed fairly easily. Once they burrow under the skin and symptoms start they need to be treated with tick anti-serum.

Poem and journal page by Moozle aged 9 years:

A close up of his whiskers

This month we tried to find an easier track to the bike trail we went on last month. We didn't find it but we had a good walk along a different trail that eventually led us back to where we first began our walk.
These days we don't take our notebooks as we're doing a decent walk and no one wants to carry anything. I take my mobile phone for photos and on this walk we tried out the compass app which I only just discovered I had on my phone.
We sometimes get confused where we are because the gum trees blot out a large part of the sky at times so we used the compass to help us to go in the general direction of the bike trail. We could also tell we were going in the right direction from certain landmarks but the bush was too rugged in places for us to go off the beaten track. Maybe next time...

Our local blue gum forest

Tree Ferns

Fungi

Pieces from the Fungi Above

Notebook page by 14 year old Bengy

I've put some pages from our Nature Notebooks on Pinterest.

Fruit of the Pittosporum (Wild Daphne) opened by the birds