Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival 04.08.14

It's that time again- Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival. I always feel so privileged when my blog hosts the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival. The topic this go-round is “Some Unconsidered Aspects of Religious Training,” but any CM related post is always welcome. As I'm fond of doing, I've categorized the submissions but in no way do I mean for them to be read that way. Pick and choose or go in order. Either way: Grab your favorite drink and cozy up to read all these great submissions.

Religious Training

Nebby at Letters from Nebby- "It is our hearts God wants, not our outward obedience only. But He does want our outward obedience as well and I have largely been won over by Charlotte’s emphasis on habit training."

Amy at Crossing the Brandywine- "I started searching for how to show my children truth, goodness and beauty. I realized how fundamentally wrong our culture’s education is, indeed our culture itself. Always doing, and, what’s worse, valuing people by what they DO."

Carol at Journey and Destination- "You are not worshiping God as you should if you have departmentalized your life so that some areas worship and other parts do not worship. ~A.W. Tozer"

Patti at School Days Scrapbook- Reading George MacDonald's book, The Baronet's Song, she is reminded "of a quote by Charlotte Mason from Home Education, "The Essence of Christianity is Loyalty to a Person--Christ, our King. Here is a thought to unseal the fountains of love and loyalty, the treasures of faith and imagination, bound up in the child. The very essence of Christianity is personal loyalty, passionate loyalty to our adorable Chief..."

Tammy at Aut-2B-Home in Carolina- "Every family and situation is so unique, I can offer no answers. You probably know a family dealing with autism who never makes it to church but wishes they could. Why not ask them what you can do to help make church work better for their family? Then, see what you can do about making it happen. Even if it doesn't work, they will appreciate that you tried."

Penney at Changed by Love- "My overarching philosophy is “Values are caught more than they are taught”, so my first thought about this is that parents model reverence for God, and then children automatically revere and honor God, too. It may not always turn out that way, but I believe this is generally what happens."

Art/Composer Study

Patti at All Things Bright and Beautiful- "Jacob von Rueysdale - Sailboats, Georg Philipp Telemann - Water Music in C; A A Milne - Come Out with Me" {this site automatically plays the music; the player is down at the bottom of the screen. Don't scroll, just look down.}

Barb at Harmony Fine Arts at Home- "Intimate Impressionism – Edouard Vuillard"

Narration

Cindy at Our Journey Westward- "In this post, I’d like to show you some simple lessons I’ve used with Eli, my seven-year-old. He’s been doing short narrations for quite some time, but as we’ve transitioned into larger selections, he’s struggled a bit with story order. Here are some easy ideas for narration help. They specifically teach the skill of story order."

Rebecca at Down a Rabbit Trail- "When narration is at its best and most effective, it flows naturally. Within a family oriented lifestyle of learning, narration is the art of talking - abundant conversation, open discussion, good spirited debate. Questions are asked, answers found, opinions shared, stories are told, details given, funny moments relayed, perspectives pondered and widened. Informal conversation is the key - hearing it, participating in it, reading it and eventually writing it down."

Blossom at North Laurel Home & School- "Often times when narrating, they start with one point {usually around the beginning of what they read but not always} but before they are done, they’ve made the connections in their minds again and cover more of what they’ve read. There are quite a few times when a narration starts with, “that was a difficult passage to narrate on” because..."

Nature Study

Amy at Crossing the Brandywine- "So, it appears nature study is more than drawing pictures of flowers in a nature journal. I realize that the Handbook of Nature Study is an older resource, but it provides a good jumping off point. Plus, the lessons which are done with the children are mostly experiments (or models) and questions to help their observations and to follow those observations to a logical conclusion."

Amy at Fisher Academy- "When just beginning one should spend lots of time (months?!) simply getting outside, with the priority of opening eyes and hearts to nature. After some time (err on the side of too much rather than too little), you and your kids will begin to recognize some birds and plants and whatever other by sight. Next, you'll probably notice those same things in other areas (roadside, friends' houses, etc), and THEN is the time you might look for the names of those new acquaintances in a book or by asking Someone Who Knows."

Geography

Celeste at Joyous Lessons- "These rich connections are partly due to the breadth of our studies this year, partly due to our heightened awareness, partly due to our broad approach to geography, and partly just one of the joys of this style of liberal arts education. Thank you, Miss Mason, for living books, the Science of Relations, and "learners awake"!"

Curriculum

Brandy at Afterthoughts- "I want to spend my time becoming a better CM teacher. In the PNEU world, teachers were not curriculum designers, and that was okay. Division of labor is a good thing. Your time might be better spent honing your knowledge of local flora and fauna, making entries in your commonplace book, and all the other disciplines Miss Mason expected from her teachers."

Other CM related submissions

Brandy at Afterthoughts- Free audio download of Brandy's 2013 Bakersfield Home Education Conference talk. 

Barb at Harmony Fine Arts at Home- "Good habits are hard to break so if we teach our children from the start to do their best job at everything they put their hands to, they will be able to achieve so much in life. We must teach them that good habits and perseverance are what make us successful, especially in God’s eyes. Col 3:23"

Anne at Archipelago {AO Advisory's official blog!}- "You might say that some contemporary approaches to education are about picking the chocolate chips out of cookies, examining them, and then trying to put them back in again; CM is more of a whole-cookie approach. It is definitely different from the "industrial model," the "brick in the wall" or piling-up-information model of education. It emphasizes respect for the individual, process over product, context over unconnected facts. It is a way of learning that is both innovative, cutting edge, stretching to the future, and also very much part of the classical tradition, reaching back towards the past."

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Thank you for visiting to read the latest Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival. Don't forget to submit a post to the next Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival, April 22nd. Submit posts anytime to charlottemasonblogs (at) gmail (dot) com
See the schedule at this link.