Science & Natural History with a 15 Year old

A few pages from Bengy's Science Notebook. For the past few months he has been concentrating on physical science. An ongoing project at present is a daily weather record:

Natural History using William Gillies' book, Insect Life in Australasia. The Emperor Gum Moth, which is also known as the Australian Silk Worm:

Excellent information here at Museum Victoria:

Many people contact us noting that they don’t see EGM caterpillars anymore, as they did when climbing trees as a kid. Which prompts a question in return: "When did you last climb a tree?"

Intellectual Culture and a Boy's Commonplace Book

I've been encouraging Bengy, who has recently turned 15 years of age, to keep a commonplace book. In Sir Walter Scott's novel, Rob Roy (Ch II), there is an instructive example of how not to go about doing this. Frank Osbaldistone was a young man whose father was a man of business and he required his son to keep a journal related to that field of endeavour. But the young man was more inclined to the poetic, of which his father had no appreciation:

"...Have you kept your journal in the terms I desired?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Be pleased to bring it here.”

The volume thus required was a sort of commonplace book, kept by my father’s recommendation, in which I had been directed to enter notes of the miscellaneous information which I had acquired in the course of my studies. Foreseeing that he would demand inspection of this record, I had been attentive to transcribe such particulars of information as he would most likely be pleased with, but too often the pen had discharged the task without much correspondence with the head. And it had also happened, that, the book being the receptacle nearest to my hand, I had occasionally jotted down memoranda which had little regard to traffic. I now put it into my father’s hand, devoutly hoping he might light on nothing that would increase his displeasure against me.

Unfortunately for Frank, a piece of paper containing a poem fell from his book as his father was reading the contents:

"What’s all this? — verses! — By Heaven, Frank, you are a greater blockhead than I supposed you!”

I wanted my son's quotes to be something he connected with personally and not something I forced upon him. Keeping a book of quotes isn't something that came naturally to some of my offspring but that didn't mean that their reading had no impact upon them. Often when Bengy narrates he'll make a comment about something that aroused his interest as he read. I want to encourage him to record those sparks of interest and delight in order to help cultivate his power of appreciation. 

I know myself that if I don't record these impressions when they are fresh, they pass through my mind and go unappreciated.

Yesterday he chose a couple of quotes that showed something of his character:

The first one gives a hint of his sense of humour and how he likes to stir his mother up by asking why he has to study so much history when he wants to be an engineer etc...

"Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; But knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind." 

 - Plato, circa 400 B.C.

This one shows more where his heart lies and it gave me a little thrill to see that he'd written this in his commonplace book/reading-diary:

"Resolved, never to do anything which I would be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life."

- Jonathon Edwards 

'...intellectual culture...the young people must get at home, or nowhere. By this sort of culture I mean, not so much the getting of knowledge, nor even getting the power to learn, but the cultivation of the power to appreciate, to enjoy, whatever is just, true, and beautiful in thought and expression...'

Formation of Character by Charlotte Mason, Part III

Looking Down the Mountain - Reflections from a Homeschooled Graduate

I originally posted this two and a half years ago when Zana was in her second year of university. She graduated at the end of last year and this week she started teaching a Year 6 class. Well done, my lovely girl. You've worked hard and will make a wonderful teacher!

Looking down the mountain after a hard climb - Mt Kosciusko, New South Wales

  An unedited post from my 19 year old daughter, Zana, our third child:

So I have just finished uni for the semester and my mother has finally managed to corner me into writing something for her blog. Looking back on my home-schooling experience is interesting now that I’m in my second year of uni. I guess now I’ve had a fair amount of experience with something other than being home-schooled to give myself another perspective. I’m studying primary school teaching which is somewhat ironic considering my own education, but it’s what I enjoy and feel called to do. 

The thing I loved most about being home-schooled was the freedom to focus on the aspects of learning that I loved. An example of this was my music. In year 12, I was spending around 15hr a week on average either playing or studying music. If I had an HSC work load, this would have been very difficult. I also really appreciate the fact that I was encouraged to read and to love books. I didn’t do much formal history throughout school. Instead, I just read books…probably hundreds of them all up…simply because that was the way I liked to learn. I’m doing an English major as part of my uni degree and I love it. I find that even if I absolutely hate a text, I can still enjoy studying it. I also appreciate the fact that I never thought of friendships as being ‘restricted’ to my own age group like many people I know did while school-aged. My best friend is a year & a half older than me and my friends are a wide variety of ages. On the more trivial side, I am not a morning person at all…so not having to get up early to go anywhere was definitely a positive!

My mum is not the most organised person on planet earth. Throughout high school, I scheduled my own work and managed almost everything for myself. I was also encouraged to think for myself and not accept things at face value. I liked this sense of independence, and it’s served me very well at university. A lot of my friends who went to school complained about it being hard to adjust to uni. I haven’t had any issues with the workload or style of learning and it really hasn’t required a lot of adjustment. I may have been the ‘most hated/envied’ person amongst my friends for not doing the HSC, finishing school 6 months earlier than everyone else, and studying online uni units for the rest of the year. I think the HSC places far too much stress on students and I have no regrets about not doing it!!

I do think that home-schooling parents have a tendency to shelter their children from the real world to a certain extent. However, if they make that extra bit of effort with social activities, I think home-schooling can be very positive. There are a lot of things about school that I’m not sorry at all to have missed out on. I think I would have enjoyed the social side and things like group sports; however, I got involved with similar things outside of my home as well. Personally, I think I might have disliked home-schooling if it weren’t for the fact that we have a big family. However, that may have something to do with the fact that I would probably go mad having all the attention on just me all the time. I like my independent learning!

There was a stage in my early teens when, if given the choice, I would have picked going to school over being home-schooled and if you’d asked me whether I’d home-school my own kids the answer would have been no. To be perfectly honest, however, that was more to do with the social side of things, and once I joined an orchestra, started playing futsal and started going to a youth group, that desire disappeared. 

I am thoroughly enjoying my teaching degree and I am looking forward to teaching in the school system. I have no intention of being a conservative teacher and I may turn a few heads with my ‘interesting’ ideas, but if anything, I think that my lack of ‘school experience’ will serve me very well. I don’t feel the need to teach in certain ways just because that’s how everyone else does it. What I want is for kids to come away from my classes with a love for learning and for books and the recognition that school doesn’t have to be a boring place to be.

So, would I home-school my own kids in the future?? I would definitely consider it. I think there are inherent issues in the way schools are run and how students learn & are taught in them. However, I am not anti-school. Personally, I think it’s more an issue of the teacher.

Bambi: a Life in the Woods by Felix Salten (1869-1945)

Bambi is the life study of a forest deer who begins his life under the care of his doting mother, happy and carefree, and surrounded by the other forest animals.

One day his mother disappears for a while and for the first time he finds himself alone. He wanders around troubled and in despair. In his misery be begins to call for her when suddenly, one of the father deer appears in front of him, proud and powerful.

"What are you crying about?" the old stag asked severely...

"Can't you stay by yourself? Shame on you!"

He is the old Prince, the biggest stag in the forest.

Before the younger deer could reply, the old stag disappears but Bambi is awed by the encounter. After this the great Prince is never far from his thoughts and Bambi longs to win his approval.

One day Bambi learns that danger lurks in the forest.

"What is it, Mother?" he asked. "What is it, Mother?"

His mother answered between gasps, "It - was - He!"

Bambi begins to learn about Man. The forest animals say He is all powerful. He kills what He wants and nothing can stop Him.

The old stag returns and visits Bambi from time to time. He teaches him wisdom and shows him how to preserve himself. He watches over Bambi and saves his life when he is wounded by Him.

Then comes the day when the old stag gives Bambi his final lesson. Following a terrifying scent, the old stag leads Bambi to where a poacher lies dead upon the ground.

"Do you see, Bambi," the old stag went on, "do you see how He's lying there dead, like all of us? He isn't all-powerful as they say. Everything that lives and grows doesn't come from Him...

He has the same fears, the same needs, and suffers in the same way...

Do you understand me, Bambi?"

Bambi was inspired, and said trembling, "There is Another who is over us all, over us and over Him."

Bambi is a gem, delicately and poetically written. As with some other notable children's classics (Pinocchio, Jungle Book and Grimm's Fairy Tales, for example)  the original book has been adapted to death, condensed, sanitised, swallowed up and presented as a movie that misses the real story. We know all about Bambi, Pinocchio, Mowgli and Snow White but we have not met them personally.

Felix Salten was the pseudonym of Austrian author and critic, Siegmund Saltzman. Born in Budapest, he lived in Vienna but settled in Switzerland after fleeing from the Nazis. He originally wrote Bambi in German in 1923 and in 1928 Simon & Schuster published the first English edition. This edition has a forward written by novelist and playwright John Galsworthy, who describes the story as 'delicious,' and, 'a little masterpiece.'

Bambi is scheduled as a free read in the Ambleside Online Year 4 curriculum.

Updated to add: the original book is online here.

This book is part of my reading for Back to the Classics 2015 (a Children's Classic), The Classics Club and the 2015 Classic Children's Literature Event.

Crazy Patchwork Project

This is a fairly easy project for a child with some sewing experience. My eldest girl, JJ did this when she was about 10 or 11 years old using a combination of machine and hand sewing. I was showing it to my youngest recently to see if she'd like to do something similar.

What you need:

1) Remnants of fabric - JJ used some velvet & satin scraps my sister gave me (there should be enough to cover the rectangle of cotton (see 2)

2) A rectangle of fabric - calico, homespun, cotton etc, for the lining

3) A rectangle of iron-on (fusible) pellon the same size as the rectangle of fabric. You could use a piece of muslin or even cotton

3) A rectangle of felt to fit inside, smaller than the lining - if you're going to make a needle holder bag, which is what JJ made

4) Rick rack, braid, embroidery thread (metallic looks pretty) or ribbon to cover the joins of the patchwork

5) A fancy button & some ribbon to close the bag

What you do:

*  Lay out the piece of pellon or muslin and arrange the fabric scraps to your liking.

*  Iron the pieces onto the pellon to secure them. If using another muslin or cotton you can sew around the edges of the pieces to secure them.

*  Sew the rick rack and braid over the seams where the patches are joined. You can embroider over the seams but just make sure you do a stitch that takes in both pieces being joined so you don't have raw edges showing.

*  With wrong sides together, sew the two rectangles together leaving a large enough gap to enable it to be turned turned the right way around. Iron inside to get it to sit nicely & sew the gap shut.

*  Centre the felt on the inside fabric and hand sew only going through the top layer.

*  Fold bag into thirds & sew button onto outside; attach ribbon just under the edge of the other end.

 Linking this to Learning by Hand @ Crossing the Brandywine