E-mail update

I have just forwarded an email reminder from Karen about the upcoming meeting. If you didn't receive it, that means that you aren't on my email list. If you'd like to be added to the list, please email me (talsma at cyg dot net) and I'll make sure you're included.

New WHHE Facebook Group

If you are on Facebook, you can now find a WHHE group there. It's a great venue for questions and answers, connecting with other WHHE members, etc. Simply follow this link to join.

And if you're not yet on Facebook, you can use the same link to sign up.

Thanks Karen, for getting this started.

Using the Handbook of Nature Study

Barb at the Handbook of Nature Study blog, has just posted an excellent piece on Nature Study in Home Education and making use of Anna Botsford Comstock's wonderful resource, Handbook of Nature Study.

Fall is a great time of year to give nature study a try if you haven't already been doing it, and a wonderful season to explore more deeply if nature study is part of your family's identity already.

Comstock's book is full of narrative descriptions of plants, animals, and insects, but did you know that she even has chapters on soil, minerals, and climate?

You can find Handbook of Nature Study through most home education retailers, on Amazon, and, for those of you who want to take a look but aren't ready to buy, you can get a free download of entire book from Internet Archive, including the diagrams and illustrations!

I want so much to reflect on our first meeting of the year, but my children need me! One is down with a fever and sore throat, the others are floundering...

Thoughts and reflections will come, but until then: thanks Karen, for opening your home to us again, and for starting us up so beautifully; thanks Liz for your thoughtful questions and input about the relevance of CM today; thank you Christine, for sharing your experiences and knowledge of scheduling, and for offering the freedom for each to find what works in their own family; thanks to each woman who attended, participated in the discussion, and made the meeting worth having; thanks Helen, for getting the library started smoothly and putting together the bookmark-schedules; thank you to all who brought desserts to share.

Here we go! Another year!

2009-2010 Library Listings now linked on the blog

After spending a day in late August with three other women going through the entire WHHE library collection, there were bins of books stacked in my living room, front porch and hallway! Now all 30 bins of books have all made it to Karen's home and have been subjected to the first sign-out time of the school year.

Thanks to those who worked on inventory with me: Sandra, Laurel, and Sandy. And thanks to Helen for stepping in to fill some of the void in library management.

If any of you, as members of the group, are willing to volunteer for library tasks (one time or ongoing), please leave a comment or email me (talsma at cyg dot net). We need help with set-up, check-out, clean-up, ordering missing parts for games, book repair, etc. Please indicate what kind of involvement you'd like to have, and we'll match you up with the right position.

There is now an up to date listing of WHHE books available for you to look at. It is organized by genre or subject and I hope you will find it easy to locate what you are looking for. Sign out of books will continue to be first come first served after the meeting - no holds will be permitted. Please look through the list, and if you are interested in a particular item that you don't see listed, put it in a comment on the blog and we'll do what we can to order it if it is suitable for a Charlotte Mason library. (Please note that we do not have books which are easy to find in the public library system - Dickens, for example.)

This morning I managed to get the current listing of library books uploaded to Keep and Share. This is a file sharing website that allows anyone to view a file, but not edit the shared version. To access the Library Holdings file, click the link in the right side-bar and Keep and Share will open, asking you if you want to download the file. It isn't a big file, and on my non-high speed Internet connection it took less than 30 seconds to download, so it shouldn't be onerous for most of your computers to handle.

Our First 2009-2010 Meeting is Coming Soon

You are warmly invited to kick off the school year with the Whole Hearted Home Educators’ Chocoholics Extravaganza on Tuesday, Sept. 15. The evening will feature a much requested discussion on how to plan and schedule your homeschool day, led by Christine Gayfer, home educating mother of 6 children ranging from 17 months to 15 years old. Christine, a popular speaker at the KWCHEA conference, has “a passion to encourage moms that the CM method is wonderful and doable in the midst of their busy lives”.

We will also be introducing this year’s wonderful book, When Children Love to Learn, by briefly discussing Chapter 1. As always, our extensive resource library will provide you with an abundance of the best materials available to support you as a homeschooler.

This year promises to be an exciting one, as we add in breakaway sessions for those who are home educating highschoolers. Eleven years ago, our group began to pursue a vision of educating our children at home in a way that would create a love for learning, rich in good literature and ideas, using the Charlotte Mason approach. This year, we want to explore how to do that with our highschoolers. How can we prepare our children in these final years of home educating in such a way that they can gain entrance to the future of their choice without losing their love for learning? How can we prepare our teens to be world changers who have been equipped for the purposes to which they have been called?

Our goal is to provide a stimulating evening in which home educators with children of all ages will be able to come away with fresh vision and skills. We wrap it all in a welcoming atmosphere with lovely refreshments to give a special night out to all of you deserving home educating mothers.

Please email Karen at rkpowell at 295 dot ca if you need directions.

Last year my family participated in this Monarch Rearing program and it was a fantastic Nature Study experience for us. We're doing it again this fall, and heard from Wings of Paradise that they still are able to accept orders for the kit.

(If you want to see some of our fun with the caterpillars and butterflies, click on the link to PeaceLedge in the sidebar, and then in PeaceLedge's topics list, choose butterflies.)

I couldn't upload the pictures from the email they sent me, but if you go to the Wings of Paradise website, you can find lots of info about the Monarch Rearing Program.

Monarch Butterfly Rearing Kits are still available!

Order yours today!

• Last order date is September 11, 2009
• Monarch Butterfly Rearing Kits are available while supplies last.
• A limited number of kits are available

---

Once again we are taking orders for Monarch Butterfly Rearing Kits - everything you need to Raise, Tag & Release your very own Monarch Butterflies!

Be amazed as your caterpillars miraculously develop into beautiful Monarch butterflies! Plus, this kit provides everything you need to RAISE, TAG & RELEASE your butterflies and track their migration to Mexico as part of the MonarchWatch international research project.

• AVAILABLE BY PRE-ORDER ONLY
• PRE-ORDERED MONARCH KITS MUST BE PICKED UP AT WINGS OF PARADISE ON SEPTEMBER 12th, 2009 between 10am and 4pm
• RECEIVE FREE ADMISSION FOR YOU & up to 3 GUESTS WHEN YOU PICK-UP YOUR KIT ON SEPTEMBER 12th, 2009 between 10am and 4pm

EACH KIT INCLUDES everything you need to RAISE, TAG & RELEASE five Monarch Butterflies: 5+ Monarch Caterpillars 1 Potted Milkweed Plant 1 Deluxe Collapsible Cage Caterpillar-Care Manual Lifecycle Poster 1 Pack of Milkweed Seeds 5 MonarchWatch Tags Monarch Watch Datasheet & Info

Combining High School Biology and Nature Study

Barb at Handbook of Nature Study has a new post offering suggestions for working both Nature Study and Biology into a High School year. She shows one option of using Nature Study as the core, the other using a HS Biology curriculum as the core (in this case, Apologia).

A New Link

Sadly, it looks like LindaFay is no longer going to be blogging at Higher Up and Further In. (I'm not sure if this is a temporary stop or a forever one; you'll have to ask her that.)

She has, however, set up a website to help those getting started with a CM education. She calls it Charlotte Mason Help. You might like to check it out. It has links to articles she's written for Higher Up and Further In that relate to Charlotte Mason, as well as a history schedule for 12 years, yearly booklists, and weekly schedules for each year. She also has a link on her website to Leslie Noelani Laurio's modern English version of Charlotte Mason's volumes.

Art and Music Appreciation - Free plans available

Are you looking for a simple, prepared composer and artist study to use with your children? Barb at Harmony Art Mom has several such resources, and she has made one of them available free this summer! Here's what she says about it:

How would you like to have some relaxed plans for art and music appreciation this summer? I have pulled together six weeks' worth of ideas for you to use with your family. I have chosen an artist and a composer for you and put down some specific plans for listening, viewing, and follow-up for each.

I have packaged them all up into a neat little PDF for you to download for free.

The plans introduce the music of Felix Mendelssohn and the paintings of Claude Monet in this mini-unit. The plans also include every print I suggest and you can view them in the PDF, online, or you can print them out if you wish. I have created simple artist biography and composer biography notebook pages for you to print out as well.

To access the pdf, go to her blog post about the resource, and you'll find the link to click on. That will bring you to a Lulu page of ebooks, etc., that Barb has available, and the free summer art and music appreciation one is at the top of the list. (At least it was when I checked a minute ago!) From there you can download the ebook pdf onto your computer.

One Week Left

The countdown is on:  the ChildLightUSA Charlotte Mason Conference will begin in one week, on Wednesday, June 10, 2009.  It's not too late to register and attend!  This year promises to be another inspiring, informing conference, including an all-day workshop on narration.

Will we see you there?

Another year is done, ladies, and we'll be planning for next year at the end of June.  In the meantime, I hope you'll join me in thanking everyone who played a part in this year's meetings:

Karen, for opening her home to us every six weeks, and showing us lovely hospitality.  And Karen's family, for clearing space for all of us!

Sandy, for keeping our library vibrant and relevant, and for being so willing to share her insights into CM with us.

Those who led meetings this year:  Sandra, Laurel, Karen, Sandy, Christine, Cathy, Helen, and Liz, and, um, me. 

All who brought desserts to meetings - I can't even begin to list all of you, but you are thanked mightily!

Anyone who contributed to discussion, either during or after meetings, about CM and home education.  The group is richer for your participation!

Those who attended for the first time this year, you are so welcome among us, and we hope to see you continue with us.

Please join me by adding your thanks in the comments, and please let me know if I've missed naming someone.  Also, as leaders, we would love to hear feedback about what you liked/didn't like about this year, what you'd like to see in the future, etc., so we hope to hear from you about that as well.

Blessings to all of you as you prepare for the summer.

Jennifer

The 6 C's for High School and Beyond - Notes on the KW workshop given by Diane Wolf

(Note from Jennifer: these notes were submitted to me by Sandy M.  If you want more information about the workshop or its content, please comment below, and we'll see if someone reading can fill in some more.)

This talk was given by Diane Wolf from Trent University. She came up with this list based on her own experiences and frustrations of teaching in a post secondary setting.  Diane was very positive about the quality of home-education she had encountered and the preparedness of students she knew who had been homeschooled.  Much of her talk was personal anecdotes and stories but I was able to take down these points.

::

What are the "skills to nurture"  to prepare our students for Post secondary Education?

A. Critical thinking skills: Students need to be able to back up their opinions and be able to critique and understand how to evaluate sources of information. These skills have been widely lost in educational systems and are sadly lacking in post secondary students today. Teach students how to assess arguments and information, to understand common logical fallacies, to ask the questions,  "Why? Why do I think that way? Why do I believe that idea? What evidence is there for ...... ?" etc.

B. Character: This is what really makes students stand out in a post secondary setting. Students who are people of integrity and who can accept consequences are few and far between. 

C. Creativity: There is a great need for students who can creatively solve problems, who can discover for themselves the things they need to know, and who are adaptable. Content gaps really don't matter if the student is resourceful, creative, and an independent learner. Students need to be able to figure out their own strategies when they are lacking knowledge or technical expertise and not depend on someone else to solve their problems for them.  The ability to ask for help when needed is one of those strategies, not the tendency to expect someone else to jump in and help them.

D. Communication skills: It is very important for students to know how to work with others in a group setting. Much post secondary education is done in groups. Co-operation and teamwork skills are essential.

E. Comfort with Computers: Although the ability to use computers and to navigate common programs is essential she also highlighted that students need to know when not to use computers and how to show self control and restraint. She touched upon the vast amounts of time wasted and "negative" impact of this. She also mentioned that students won't know every computer program needed but stressed the importance of openness to learning new programs, and the importance of knowing how and when to ask for help if they don't know how to use a required program.

F. Common Sense: Sadly lacking in many students is the ability to use your head and think before you act.  (During this part she mentioned that the older students were the more they took ownership of their courses and were successful; she pointed out many students enter university at 17 years old because their parents want them to and they are completely unprepared for the independence and level of responsibility required.) She discussed the value of homeschooling in developing people who have lots of life skills, lots of common sense and are accountable for their own learning.

::

This was a great workshop, very inspiring, very affirming. I felt convicted that homeschooling during the highschool years was a perfect opportunity to develop these qualities in my kids and to prepare them for whatever adventures and responsibilities God was calling them to. I am so thankful to have attended this seminar!

Blessings,
Sandy M.

Posters

And this note came from Sara:

I recently received about 10 posters (birds, reptiles, caterpillars/moths, mammals, flowers) from the Canadian Wildlife Federation for free - you can donate but there was no talk of it on the phone - just in the pre-message part.  

Just call 1-800-563-WILD and ask for whatever complimentary posters they have available and give them your address.  They're very nice!

CBC Radio Programs on Play and Early Childhood

Sandy Rusby Bell sent me the following note this morning, and I'm now feeling a little badly for not having pointed out the first part to all of you much earlier. I listened to the CBC Ideas podcast of The Hurried Infant several weeks ago and was finding myself nodding in agreement through much of it. This is so applicable to those of us who believe that Charlotte Mason was on the right track regarding early childhood development, and it is thrilling to me to hear these idea being brought to the public ear. If you want to listen to the podcast instead of using the link Sandy has given (below), you will find it on iTunes. If you need help locating it there, let me know.

Our National Public Broadcaster CBC seems to have become very interested in the importance of play in the lives of children. Last week they aired an amazing two part documentary called "The Hurried Infant". Fascinating work on the brain, confirms so much of what CM said.

Today, at 12:00 on the Science show they will be discussing the importance of play. I haven't heard it yet so don't know what it will be like but I thought you might like to listen...

Here Sandy gave the link to the CBC program Quirks and Quarks. The link doesn't actually pull up the broadcast, but I believe that this, too, would be available through iTunes podcasts. Sorry we didn't know about this early enough to get the info out to you before the show actually aired so you could listen to it as it was broadcast, but, I suppose, we can be thankful for the technology that allows us to listen to previously aired programs so easily.)

The SHIRE Co-op...

Note from Jennifer:  I received a request to post this to the blog.  Apparently the Co-ops offered here are fantastic.  If you have any questions about the Co-op, you will need to direct them to Stacey Larin at the contact given at the bottom of the post.  The links in this post are not active; you will have to put the web address into your browser to get to the website mentioned in the post.

The SHIRE Co-op...

...where Schooling at Home Is Real Education

The SHIRE Co-op is back! 

The SHIRE Co-op for homeschooled students ages 9-12 will return for the 2009-2010 academic year. This year’s theme: reading, writing, and recreating Ancient History!

The SHIRE is both our home and our homeschool in beautiful Ancaster. In previous years, the SHIRE Co-op has offered a variety of courses providing students with a strong foundation on which to build their high school years. For 2009-2010, the SHIRE Co-op will offer an integrated program of three classes: ancient history, historical fiction/ literature, and writing (oh--and lunch hour!) Students will watch the Nile flood, storm the walls of Troy, and relive the rise--and fall--of Rome through excellent children’s books, textual study, and hands-on activities. A few details: 

--All courses run from mid-September to early June, with holiday breaks.
--Classes will be held from 9:30-2:00--tentatively set for Fridays.
--Families are welcome to register students for one, two, or all three courses.
--Fees are $100 per student per year-long course; a sibling pays $80 per course.
--Refunds will be less 10% of the original amount per month from September onwards.
--Families are responsible to acquire all necessary books for the courses.
--Parents are asked to help out with a snack schedule and set-up/ clean-up schedule.
--All courses are taught by Shiremistress Stacey (aka Ms. Frazzle).

Interested in having your child join in an exciting co-op experience of academics and activity?

You can get a glimpse of former SHIRE years at http://www.freewebs.com/shiremistress

For further information, please contact Stacey Larin at: theshire@cogeco.ca.

Come join us at the SHIRE...where Schooling at Home Is Real Education!

In Which Sandy Rusby Bell Gives Us Oodles of Links for Greek Myths, Fairy Tales, and Poetry

What a wonderful meeting last night. As always, the atmosphere in Karen's home was warm and welcoming. And the cake!! We have some amazing bakers in our midst.

Thank you Liz for leading the discussion about the Will. It was not an easy chapter but you explained it so well.

I promised to send out some recommended resources that relate to our practical discussion last night. Here they are.

(Note from Jennifer: All items in colour are hyperlinks that will take you to a new website. If you want to open it in a different tab and keep this blog open, right click on the link and select "Open link in new tab.")

To look more deeply at the “Instructors of Conscience” that we spoke about see Charlotte Masons 4th Volume “Ourselves”, specifically Chapters 12-15. If you don't own a copy you can find it free online here. There is also a wonderful paraphrase of the volume in Modern English here.


Greek Myths

I'm only going to mention my favourites. You can of course find more in our library. If you'd like to see what we have in our library, remember, you can scroll down the right hand side of this blog and find a link to a “Keep and Share” document with a listing of our library books.

I've included a link so you can have a look at each book.

Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff – This is my very favourite retelling of the Iliad. We have this in the WHHE library.

The Wanderings of Odysseus by Rosemary Sutcliff- This continues the story describing, well, the wanderings of Odysseus!

Jim Weiss storytelling CDs: The Greek Myths and He and She Adventures in Mythology and Heroes in Mythology (which I forgot to mention last night).

The Heroes by Charles Kingsley. You can also read The Heroes free online .

Tanglewood Tales and The Wonderbook by Nathaniel Hawthorne -As I mentioned, I particularly like these books for after the student already has some familiarity with the myths. Hawthorne plays with the stories and makes some funny changes that kids love to be able to catch. Tanglewood Tales can be read free here. You can see the book and reviews here.

I don't think A Wonderbook for Girls and Boys is in the public domain yet, weird! But you can see it here.

Greek Myths by Olivia Coolidge. Woo Hoo! Last time I looked this book was out of print. It's expensive but at least it's available again.

Mythology by Edith Hamilton. This is a standard University text and is suitable for high school students. It has virtually all the “important” myths and very helpful explanations. “The Introduction to Classical Mythology” section is worth the price of the book (especially if you find it a library discard sale for a quarter as I did!).


Fairy Tales

In case you weren't convinced last night, or even if you were, please read the beautiful, beautiful blog post by Lori Lawing called “The Shout of a King”

Jim Weiss Storytelling CDs:
Best Loved Stories in Song and Dance
Fairytale Favorites in Song and Dance
Giants! A Colossal Collection of Tales and Tunes
Famously Funny!
Tell me a Story!
If you've never listened to Jim Weiss's stories, watch out, they're addictive!

I mentioned that I wrote a blog post about the moral imperative of developing imagination in our children. It is called, to my children's horror, “Naked and Blue at My Back Door”. You can read it here. (And I'd love it if you'd leave comments, hint, hint.)

Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book is the one with “Beauty and The Beast”. It can be read free here. Make sure you scroll down, when you first click on the page it looks like you can only purchase it. The Red Fairy Book is also available free here. We have some from this series in our library. I found this Wikipedia article about Lang's books very helpful:


Poetry

Remember there are two components to this: poetry reading and poetry memorization.

For Poetry Reading

I showed the “Poetry for Young People” series. You can see the the Robert Frost book here: You'll also see links to others in the series. We have several of these in our library.

We have a great selection of Poetry books in our library.

The Grammar of Poetry is wonderful for late elementary or early high school.

The Roar on the Other Side is also for late elementary or high school. It's probably best after The Grammar of Poetry.

For Poetry Memorization

I wrote a blog post on Composition for ChildLight USA. In it I discuss the importance of poetry memorization for writing skills. I refer to the article “One Myth, Two Truths” by Andrew Pudewa. Important stuff.

I recommend Pudewa's program “Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization”. It is pricey and not necessary. It has been tremendously helpful for me though. We actually do poetry memorization now. We have this in our library.

Unfortunately we ran out of time last night and we weren't able to discuss how Charlotte Mason actually did poetry memorization. It is quite different than you might expect. This article, “Memorization “Learnt without Labour” by Tina Fillmer explains it nicely. Jennifer has written well about her family's experience on her blog. Click on the 'memorization' topic on the left.

Whew, I hope I haven't missed anything!

May I just say that I came home so excited and energized last night. I am inspired by all of you incredible women. I look forward to hearing all of your insightful contributions every month. Thank you for sharing this journey with me. Every one of you is a gift.

I look forward to hearing about the High School breakout session last night. Please send us a note.

Warmly,
Sandy Rusby Bell

Why Do You Homeschool?

If you've heard this question asked you might like to visit Holy Experience and see Ann Voskamp's post on Why We Homeschool. Lovely reading. Inspiring reading.

If you go over to the ChildLight weblog you will find a new post by Sandy Rusby Bell about getting rid of the all-or-nothing mindset. It's a realistic post that I think you'll find encouraging.

New Subscription Feature on this Blog

Because publication of posts on this blog happens rather sporadically, I'm adding a "Subscribe by Email" gadget in the sidebar. If you enter your email address in the box and click "Submit" you will automatically receive an email notification when there is a new post. That just might save you the time and effort of going to the WHHE blog when there is nothing new, and it will highlight new posts for you.

I hope some of you find this useful.

Jennifer