A Taste of the Feast

I like to think that our MSJ Schole homeschool encompasses a do-it-yourself, academically challenging, comprehensive education. My goal is to provide a classical education with a Charlotte Mason bend to it. One that's thorough yet gentle.

I'm continually trying to figure out exactly what teaching and learning classically, gently (or maybe gently classically) really means. Classical Academic Press, The Well-Trained Mind, and most recently TriviumMastery  guide me on my classical quest while Charlotte Mason and Ambleside Online encourage a gentle approach and provide wonderful living book lists. They all provide me with much food for thought.

Classical Academic Press elegantly describes classical education as the cultivation of the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty by means of the liberal arts. Christopher Perrin offers a few analogies of classical education. It is like a museum, an art gallery, or (my favorite) a banquet table laid with all different kinds of exquisite pleasures just waiting to be tasted.

The Well-Trained Mind is somewhat more specific.

• It is language-intensive; not image-focused. Students use and understand words rather than video images.
• It is history-intensive. Students are given a comprehensive view of human endeavor from the beginning until now.
• It trains the mind to analyze and draw conclusions.
• It thrives on self-discipline.
• It produces literate, curious, intelligent students who have a wide range of interests and the ability to follow up on them.

Trivium Mastery breaks all this down and gives examples that explain how to actually make all of the above happen. I've discovered that by teaching the trivium I'm guiding our children as they develop the skills necessary to discuss and interpret ideas. The trivium is actually three skills: 1. Reading (Grammar) 2. Thinking (Logic) 3. Speaking and Writing (Rhetoric). These are developed simultaneously throughout life according to the individual's personality and learning style. 

Thanks to Diane Lockman and Trivium Mastery, I have an outline to lead me in the process of teaching my children the skills necessary to be lifelong learners. In preparing our daughters' end-of- the-year portfolios, I've compiled a list of specific skills that they each worked on this year. The following is an outline of the skills my 9 year old tackled (gently) this year and the resources she used to help her achieve them.

 9 year old daughter

                        IIFP personality (Introvert, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceiving)                   

Nurture by Nature

READING SKILLS - Grammar

How to read:

• Read a-loud favorites: The Wheels on the School, James and the Giant Peach, Black Ships Before Troy, Bambi, The Wanderings of Odysseus, The Back of the North Wind, Archimedes and the Door of Science, From the Mixed Up Files of Basil E. Frankweiler, Understood Betsy (hands down favorite), The Wind in the Willows, Robin Hood, The Magician's Nephew, Gentlemen of Verona, Romeo and Juliet, Cymbeline, Macbeth.
• Independent reading favorites: Mary Poppins, The Family Under the Bridge, The Borrowers, Heidi, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, A Triumph For Flavius, Matilda, The Tale of Despereaux, Thimble Summer, Rabbit Hill, The Mysterious Benedict Society, The Trumpet of the Swan.
• Favorite books read to me and/or narrated: Our Island Story, Trial and Triumph, Seabird, Burgess Book of Animals, Burgess Book of Birds, Parables of Nature.

How to spell:

• Find and correct errors in book excerpts that I have edited.
• Learn how to spell some of the the most common words in the English language and the spelling rules associated with them.
• Learn spelling rules. (Logic of English)
• Divide syllables. (Logic of English)
• Play spelling games. (Logic of English)
• Use the dictionary.

How to write

• Refine print and cursive handwriting. (Using Language Well)
• Copy classic authors - Maintain a commonplace book.
• Learn to use a computer and to type. (on-line history, Kahn Academy math, and end of the lesson latin games)

How to punctate and capitalize (Logic of English and reading books)

• Learn rules of usage
• Add missing marks and capitalize
• Find and correct errors 

How to use proper grammar

• Memorize the eight parts of speech (Logic of English and Classical Conversations memory work)
• Understand how they are used in sentences. (Shurley Grammar)
• Diagram sentences. (Classical Conversations and Shurley Grammar)
• Begin learning latin noun declensions and verb conjugations. (Classical Conversations and Lively Latin)
• Use proper grammar in everyday speech.

THINKING SKILLS - Logic

How to arrange data according to systems

• Classify into categories (Classical Conversations, A Child's Geography, Earth Science, Real Science 4 Kids)
• Describe attributes and recognize similarities and differences. (Burgess Book of Animals, Burgess Bird Book, and Bees, Birds, and Bugs: The First Book Library)
• Recall and relate patterns. (nature journal)
• Keep a running timeline of people and dates through history. (History of Art, Classical Conversations, literature books)
• Memorize the countries of Asia, Africa, South America, Europe, and recognize the majority of their capital cities. Be able to locate them on a world map. (CC challenge A geography, Geography Songs) 

How to solve problems (Saxon 5/4, math games, Classical Conversations)

• Identify and complete sequences.
• Explain the steps of various word problems.
• Memorize mathematical operations and formulas.
• Answer puzzles and  riddles.
• Work through high-order thinking activites.

How to use the scientific method (Classical Conversations, A Child's Geography, Real Science 4 Kids, Earth Science)

• Achieve familiarity with the general laws of science. 
• Perform and document experiments.
• Verbalize steps to observe, predict, and conclude.

How to analyze literature

• Become familiar with the vocabulary of literary structure. (Teaching the Classics)
• Begin discussing literature by way of a story chart.

How to listen

• Listen to audio books. Swallows and Amazons, The Story of the Amulet
• Learn about classical composers while listening to their works. (Harmony Fine Arts)
• Narrate understanding.
• Answer questions.

SPEAKING SKILLS - Rhetoric

How to maintain a conversation (Lifelong goals)

• Look at people when conversing.
• Shake hands and repeat names.
• Listen attentively.
• Answer the telephone and take a message.
• Exhibit proper manners.

How to give a speech and perform for an audience

• Memorize and recite poetry. (She has memorized over a dozen poems and has recited many of them in public)
• Maintain eye contact and use appropriate body language. (Classical Conversations presentations)
• Play both group and solo music at recitals. (piano and violin)

As you can see, teaching classically is all about teaching skills rather than teaching subjects. Being tied down to someone else's curriculum lesson plans isn't an issue. What a difference when comparing this method to modern education. Classical education is a never-ending, well planned feast rather than a check list of assembly line cafeteria food. Savor the tastings and enjoy the freedom!

Melanie

A Keeper of Life

Robert Leslie Smith M.D.

March 4, 1921 - March 27, 2016

He was a man of intelligence, wit, curiosity, gentleness, integrity, adventure, kindness, generosity, forgiveness, music, and talent.

He was also a man of dreams and disappointments; faith and doubts.

He was a man of God with all its glory, yet he was a man of flesh with all its flaws.

He was a keeper of mementos, poetry, and art.

He was my father.

I honor his life today by reflecting on a few of his own words and art: his keepings.

Rug Rolling

When I was a very little boy

I had a favorite ploy

     I used;

To get even with my mother

For something or other,

Bobby rolled up the rugs.

Not just throw rugs, two feet by four,

But big rugs that went from door to door

     in the living room.

If the floor was bare

And there was a chill in the air,

Bobby had rolled up the rugs.

Looking back in contemplation,

It was the reaction to frustration

     that made me do it.

Mom wouldn't let me do what I wanted,

I felt I was being taunted,

So Bobby rolled up the rugs.

Mom would wait until I cooled off, and then

Make me roll them back down again

     just as they were.

It's been a lesson for me to this day--

The futility of reacting in such ways

As rolling up the rugs.

The Advantage of Being Married to your High School Sweetheart

I'm so happy that our memories fuse

And if from the past I lose

A name or a face

You can remember who it was

Or when it was

And put it in it's proper place.

There must be many things that one forgets

In fifty years or so

Never to remember.

What a satisfaction to know

That if I've forgotten

You may have not and

A memory we might otherwise lose

Is right there where our memories fuse.

Footprints in the Snow

My early morning footprints

In fresh fallen snow,

Made even more distinct

With the sun's daybreak glow

Casting deep blue shadows

In the mark of heel and toe,

Remind me of some deeds I have done,

Both bad and good:

Soon after, in the sun,

They too stood

sharply etched for all to see.

The sharp contours of footprints

Are quick to go

With sun, wind, and more snow.

God's forgiveness of the bad we do

Is just like that, I know.

As for the good deed, I'm afraid

It too fades as snowprints fade;

And the good done by many

Which we at first acclaim,

Is soon forgotten, just the same.

Bittersweet Passage (written shortly after my daughter, Mackenzie, died)

The filly, mane flowing,

Runs to me in leaping strides,

Eyes wide.

Is she just playful or

Has she been spooked?

I step back to avoid the push,

She stops short and nuzzles my neck.

Not lost, but feeling too much

Of the holiday crowd around her,

She was there before I knew it.

Again she nuzzles.

This, before another girl

Painted a flower on her cheek,

A memento to last.

Without a backward look

Or toss of her head,

She streaks away

to the fields Elysian,

Too distant to see through tears.

Exit/Entrance

Hey, old man

You've done all you can

Here.

Why don't you let go?

Is it fear?

You never were afraid before

To open any door

Not knowing what was on the 

     other side.

It's not fear, but love.

When one abides

On Mother Earth

As long as I,

He grows to love her

And those who are here--or were;

Ah, there's the key--

All those I loved

Who in turn loved me

Are gone...I should join them;

Maybe tonight, we'll see.

He was a man whose living made a difference, and I loved him.

Melanie