From the archives: a few useful things for teaching your own

First posted March 2016

Some useful stuff for teaching parents:

Discover Reading, by Amy Tuttle. How an experienced homeschool mom applies Charlotte Mason's early reading lessons.

Let's Play Math, by Denise Gaskins. Just about everything you need to be a great homeschool math teacher, all in one book. I was impressed by the fact that this is not just another book of website links: it's something I actually enjoyed reading (even without anybody homeschooling here now).

Some things you might like to listen to:

The most recent episode of The Mason Jar, with guest Naomi Goegan. You too can do nature study!

And more nature study: The Deputy Headmistress reads from a CM-era conference paper. The Reverend Thornley is said to have been a favourite guest with the student teachers at Ambleside.

Episode 13 of Your Morning Basket. About Plutarch. With guest...me. I hope you enjoy it. 

The long blog catch-up

So, yes, hello February. Like the groundhog, I'm coming out of our hole.

I think this is the longest blog hiatus I've ever taken in...fifteen years. (We started here in February 2005.) Although I don't have a 9 to 5 job, I do work at this and that, and the this and that seemed to wipe out blogging for the last while. 

I finished my Adult Ed courses early in December.

Then (aside from making cookies and stuff), I spent most of December working on a book project.

The current "other man" in my life is Pompey, as in Plutarch's Life Of. He's one of the few characters to earn a whole two terms of study in Charlotte Mason's schools (most just get one). Writing study notes for Pompey is like eating a foot-long sub instead of my usual six-inch. (We're Canadians. We still do not order subs in metric. Why's that?)

And then there has been thrift-store volunteering, books to read, places to go, and winter things. Not much snow shovelling here, though...at our former Treehouse, the driveway was a team effort and could take hours (depending on how much the city plow had added to nature's abundant gifts). Our townhouse has snow-clearing services, but occasionally you do want to clear off your space yourself.

Mr. Fixit and I have visited a few more antique markets and thrift stores around town than we usually do. This is partly so he can scout out electronics to fix, but also just for the fun of it, looking for household things, sometimes music or books. Or clothes. 

One day we went to an antiques place that had a vintage booth, and I left with a cowlneck sweater.

Purse from the Salvation Army store.

Artwork from Value Village.

Sweater and pants from the MCC store.

This white sweater is going to get a post of its own.

So what's new with you?

Frugal finds and fixes...and to be fixed fixes

Finds, clothes: I may have mentioned before (ahem) that I have bought my share of thrifted things that didn't work out so well. Either I misjudged the size (the too-small leggings, the baggy tank top), or I tried them on (again) at home and wondered what I was thinking (the old-lady pants).

So I dropped those things off this morning (volunteer day). And afterwards, I found a few things that do fit and that I do like.

Dark grey leggings with pleather trim:

A grey (maybe taupe) cotton t-shirt from "Gran Canaria," and a necklace with the same flower shapes:

Finds, not clothes: I was cleaning out cookbooks in the back room at the thrift store, and came across this box of recipe cards.

I didn't care about the cards; I just wanted the pretty box for a kitchen decoration.

But I might use some of the recipes too.

I brought home just one book: T.S. Eliot's play The Cocktail Party.

Fixes: Remember the thrifted necklace on the right?

I was putting it on last Sunday, and the thread broke. Luckily, only a few of the beads came off, and Mr. Fixit says he can mend it with some knots and fabric glue (on hand).

Proofreading a new book also counts as fixing. (Coming soon.)

Quote for the Day: What Rebecca Read

A thrill of delicious excitement ran through Rebecca's frame, from her new shoes up, up to the leghorn cap and down the black braid. She pressed Mr. Cobb's knee ardently and said in a voice choking with tears of joy and astonishment, "Oh, it can't be true, it can't; to think I should see Milltown. It's like having a fairy godmother who asks you your wish and then gives it to you! Did you ever read Cinderella, or The Yellow Dwarf, or The Enchanted Frog, or The Fair One with Golden Locks?"

"No," said Mr. Cobb cautiously, after a moment's reflection. "I don't seem to think I ever did read jest those partic'lar ones. Where'd you get a chance at so much readin'?"

"Oh, I've read lots of books," answered Rebecca casually. "Father's and Miss Ross's and all the dif'rent school teachers', and all in the Sunday-school library. I've read The Lamplighter, and Scottish Chiefs, and Ivanhoe, and The Heir of Redclyffe, and Cora, the Doctor's Wife, and David Copperfield, and The Gold of Chickaree, and Plutarch's Lives, and Thaddeus of Warsaw, and Pilgrim's Progress, and lots more.--What have you read?"

"I've never happened to read those partic'lar books; but land! I've read a sight in my time! Nowadays I'm so drove I get along with the Almanac, the Weekly Argus, and the Maine State Agriculturist.--There's the river again; this is the last long hill, and when we get to the top of it we'll see the chimbleys of Riverboro in the distance. 'T ain't fur. I live 'bout half a mile beyond the brick house myself."

Rebecca's hand stirred nervously in her lap and she moved in her seat. "I didn't think I was going to be afraid," she said almost under her breath; "but I guess I am, just a little mite--when you say it's coming so near."

~~ Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Proofreading Plutarch

The newest Plutarch study guide will be out soon!

Good reading today at Circe: History all around us

Joshua Gibbs has posted his typical intro to a medieval history class on the Circe Blog. A sample:

"You learn about Pearl Harbor, Charlemagne, the age of Martyrs… the past gets closer and closer to you until you can’t really tell the difference between 1000 BC and yesterday. You learn about Charlemagne, you learn about yourself, your father, your children, the future. History is the human things, the eternal things, the always things, the omnipresent things. Charlemagne isn’t in the past. Charlemagne is in your blood. The study of Charlemagne isn’t the study of a man who was, it’s the study of a man who is. For the Christian, the past is above us, not below us. For the Christian, the past is not without us, the past is within us."

Worth a visit!

A Honnie Sweete Wednesday Hodgepodge

Notes from our Hodgepodge Hostess: "Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog then hop back here tomorrow and add your link to the party. See you there!"

1. It's National Waffle Day (August 24th)...what decision are you currently 'waffling over'? (or share one you've recently 'waffled over')

That's a rather waffle question, because I can't think of any good answers right now. 

2. It's the middle of August, but I'm already seeing lots of autumn-related posts. Do you think we rush the seasons? If so, does that bother you? I saw (here) an end of summer bucket list that included-

make s'mores, read a new (or favorite) book in the park, eat something delicious and bad for you at a state fair, be a tourist for the day, have a pot luck picnic, book a last minute summer getaway, relax by or in the pool, take a hike to watch the sunset, have a day on the lake, try a new summer recipe

Which activities on the list might you squeeze in before summer officially comes to a close? 

I don't know if I'll get to do any things on that list before the end of August, or even the end of September. I was looking forward to cherry tomatoes but I think the dry season killed them for this year. Mr. Fixit and I have tried a couple of new foods, but they all came in packets at the Euro store, so I don't think that counts as recipes.

It's been an at-home, working summer, more than a vacation; but I'm looking forward to the extra amplfication of voltage that happens in the fall. Some people are trying to be less busy, more peaceful, and I totally get that. Me, I need things that energize and keep things going (coffee doesn't count).

3. Your favorite summertime 'art' found in nature?

Clouds. Sunsets. Birds. A couple of roses that popped out unexpectedly. Bees that pollinate the roses.

4. Stephen R. Covey is quoted as saying 'We judge ourselves by our intentions, and others by their actions.' Agree or no? Do you define yourself based on your intentions, your actions, or something else? 

Another waffle thing to ask, and I'm sorry, I don't know the answer.

5. Are you useful in a crisis? Elaborate. 

I am usually pretty good at keeping calm and thinking of possible ways around a problem. I also have a lot of poems and songs in my head that I draw on. 

6. What's been your go-to dish this summer? Is it something you'll continue making as the seasons change?

Um...asking Mr. Fixit to barbecue things?

7. Adult coloring books are a thing now. Have you jumped on the bandwagon? If not is this something you think you might enjoy?

I adored colouring as a child. If I had a little one around who wanted a colouring buddy, I would do that. But I can't see the enjoyment in colouring for myself. I'd be thinking of other things I should probably be doing. Like finding a go-to dish and pondering Stephen R. Covey.

8.  Insert your own random thought here. 

A quotation I liked from Thomas North's (1579) translation of Plutarch's Life of Phocion (one that I bet even most of the Plutarch-reading homeschoolers haven't read yet):  "For he that correcteth them that offend, seemeth to cast their adversitie in their teeth : and he that telleth them plainly of their faultes, seemeth also to despise them. For like as honnie sweete by nature, applied unto woundes, doth bring both smart and paine : even so, sharpe words, though profitable, doe bite the unfortunate man, if they be not tempered with discretion and curtesie."

Linked from the Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

Plutarch quote for the day: Get it right, you stupid bird

Julius Caesar, painted in 1892 by Clara Grosch

"Furthermore had not Caesar him selfe in person, and Asinius Pollio with him gone out of the campe to the rescue, and stayed them that fled : the warre that day had bene ended. There was also an other skirmish where his enemies had the upper hande, in the which it is reported, that Caesar taking the ensigne bearer by the coller that caried the Eagle in his hande, stayed him by force, and turning his face, tolde him : See, there be thy enemies." ~~ Plutarch's Life of Julius Caesar, translated by Thomas North

On swimming with books while being shot at by Egyptians (quote from Plutarch)

"The third danger was in the battle by sea, that was fought by the tower of Phar: where meaning to helpe his men that fought by sea, he lept from the peere, into a boate. Then the Egyptians made towardes him vith their owers, on everie side: but he leaping into the sea, with great hazard saved himself by swimming. It is sayd, that then holding divers bookes in his hand, he did never let them go, but kept them alwayes upon his head above water, and swamme with the other hand, notwithstanding that they shot marvelously at him, and was driven somtime to ducke into the water: howbeit the boate was drowned presently."

from Plutarch's Life of Julius Caesar, translated by Thomas North

June 1 Daybook

What I'm playing with: a new-to-me skirt.

What I'm reading: Plutarch's Lives of Agis and Cleomenes. The Greek Way and Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea, because I thought I knew something about the Spartans (black bread and Laconic answers), but it's obviously not enough. This rabbit trail could be a long one, but there's no hurry.

What's for supper: make-your-own taco salads. Caesar-salad-flavoured green pea chips and tamari almonds leftover from a meeting. Marshmallow cookies leftover from a meeting. (It was an eclectic snack menu.)

Something to listen to: Nancy Kelly on Plutarch

If you like listening to podcasts: Liz Cottrill recently interviewed Nancy Kelly on how to teach Plutarch's Lives.

Shiny new books

Now live on Amazon!

Plugs and podcasts, now with an extra link

Some useful stuff for teaching parents:

Discover Reading, by Amy Tuttle. How an experienced homeschool mom applies Charlotte Mason's early reading lessons.

Let's Play Math, by Denise Gaskins. Just about everything you need to be a great homeschool math teacher, all in one book. I was impressed by the fact that this is not just another book of website links: it's something I actually enjoyed reading (even without anybody homeschooling here now).

Some things you might like to listen to:

The most recent episode of The Mason Jar, with guest Naomi Goegan. You too can do nature study!

And more nature study: The Deputy Headmistress reads from a CM-era conference paper. The Reverend Thornley is said to have been a favourite guest with the student teachers at Ambleside.

Episode 13 of Your Morning Basket. About Plutarch. With guest...me. I hope you enjoy it. (There is a new volume of The Plutarch Project coming out soon too.)

Quote for the day: don't write clerkly

"But in my fancy, the ambition and contention to write or to speak more clerkly than others, sheweth always a base envious mind, like a scholar full of his school points." ~~ Plutarch's Life of Nicias, translated by Thomas North

Lydia's Grade Eight: Some things to do on a Monday

A change of pace for hymns:  Come People of the Risen King, by Keith and Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend.

Read Theodore Roethke's poem "The Waking"

Plutarch's Life of Crassus, Lesson 10 (see previous post about that), and read the Scripture about King David in similar circumstances

French lesson.

Read some of Out of the Silent Planet.

"These things are not strange, Small One, though they are beyond our senses. But it is strange that the eldila never visit Thulcandra." 

"Of that I am not certain," said Ransom. It had dawned on him that the recurrent human tradition of bright, elusive people sometimes appearing on the Earth - albs, devas and the like -might after all have another explanation than the anthropologists had yet given. True, it would turn the universe rather oddly inside out; but his experiences in the space-ship had prepared him for some such operation.

"Why does Oyarsa send for me?" he asked. 

"Oyarsa has not told me," said the sorn. "But doubtless he would want to see any stranger from another handra." 

"We have no Oyarsa in my world," said Ransom. 

"That is another proof," said the sorn, "that you come from Thulcandra, the silent planet." ~~ C.S. Lewis

Lydia's Grade Eight: Plans for Term One, Week Eleven

First off, I have to point you to this quite marvellous post on Afterthoughts, Teaching Our Children the Way of the Reason. "Marvellous" for two reasons: first, that Brandy mentions a Lloyd Alexander book I've never heard of, The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen. (Now going on hold at the public library.)  Second, it's a perfect description of what some call the Grand Conversation. 

"After our reading of this chapter, the children and I discussed it. I asked them what Li Kwang's mind did when he was tempted. Together, they were eventually able to discern that his mind sought to justify the sin he wanted to commit. I read once again of Li Kwang's desire to be rid of tempting thoughts. We discussed how he was looking for an outside source to do that for him."

So where do I hope that we'll have some Grand Conversations this week of Remembrance Day?

Westward Ho!, Chapter 29. How the Virginia Fleet Was Stopped at the Queen's Command
From the AO study notes: Amyas seems to be unable to see matters clearly, in more than one area of his life. What advice does his mother give? What is his return argument?
How is Salvation Yeo becoming a less positive influence on Amyas? Has his disappointment over the "maiden" darkened his own view?

Can you have a grand conversation over the topic of temperature? (Apologia Physical Science, Module 3) Maybe. How about the hole in the ozone layer? Definitely.

Keeping a Nature Journal
This week's challenge is to take as much time as you need and draw a natural object in close detail. How does this close study change your perception of whatever you're looking at?

Plutarch's Life of Crassus, Lesson 10.
From the AO study notes: Why did Crassus send Publius to charge the Parthians? Do you think he might have hesitated to send his son into that battle, or would he more likely have been proud to do it? Why? Comparison to a Bible narrative: read 2 Samuel 18:24-33 (David's reaction to the death of his son). Note any similarities to the story of Crassus and Publius, though David's relationship to Absalom was somewhat different. Why does Plutarch say that Crassus "shewed greater courage in this misfortune, than he before had done in all the war beside," or in Dryden's words, "outdid himself in this calamity?"

Picture Talk: Titian, Three Ages of Man (caution: semi-nudity)

"In life, we are in death, the philosopher tells us. In an age when people died so young, perhaps Titian is reflecting the same attitude by placing all of these figures in the same landscape. Perhaps the angel is not only protecting the infants, but also reminding us that in Titian’s day, children died at a frightening rate, inconceivable in this modern age, and his/her home in heaven is the destination to which they will soon be transported." "Shakespeare’s sonnets, That time of year thou mayest in me behold [we read this a couple of weeks ago], Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, and When I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'd; Coulehan’s poem, “Sunsets”; and Roethke’s poem, “The Waking” (all annotated in this database) are equally applicable literary companion pieces." (Literature, Arts and Medicine Database)

And a couple of related additions: the History of English Literature chapter on Sir Walter Raleigh mentions Millais's painting The Boyhood of Raleigh, and The Roar on the Other Side includes the poem Ozymandias.

Dr Tongue's 3-D House of Grade Eight (Some fun for Friday)

(If you read on a feed, you miss the subject lines!)

Plans for October 31st:

1.  Poetry: Shakespeare's Sonnets 71 and 73. ("Bare Ruined Choirs")

2.  Out of the Silent Planet, one chapter

3.  Nature notebook scavenger hunt, if it's not raining

4.  Plutarch's Life of Crassus, Lesson 8.  "But now as Crassus was passing his army upon the bridge he had made over the river of Euphrates, there fell out sudden strange and terrible cracks of thunder, with fearful flashes of lightning full in the soldiers' faces: moreover, out of a great black cloud came a wonderful storm and tempest of wind upon the bridge, that the marvellous force thereof overthrew a great part of the bridge, and carried it quite away. Besides all this, the place where he appointed to lodge, was twice stricken with two great thunder claps. One of his great horse in like case, being bravely furnished and set out, took the bit in his teeth, and leapt into the river with his rider on his back, who were both drowned, and never seen after. They say also, that the first eagle and ensign that was to be taken up when they marched, turned back of itself, without any hands laid upon it. Further it fortuned that as they were distributing the victuals unto the soldiers, after they had all passed over the bridge, the first thing that was given them, was salt and water lentils, which the Romans take for a token of death and mourning, because they use it at the funerals of the dead." (Who needs horror movies?)

5.  Musical Interlude 1: Sofia Opera's Flash Mob, Ride of the Valkyries (3 minutes long)

6.  Reformation Day and Church History: Martin Luther's Defense before the Diet of Worms. Such an interesting connection: who was the Holy Roman Emperor before whom Luther appeared?  Hint: Titian painted him twice in 1548.

7.  Musical Interlude 2: Verdi vs. Wagner (6 minutes long)

8.  Latin Lesson.  Play Concentration with some seasonal vocabulary: "cucurbita" (pumpkin), "vespertilio" (bat), "cornix" (crow).

9.  Extra readings as needed (finish up any history or science readings).

10.  Choice of board games.

If you liked our previous Plutarch lists...(link added)

I've just gone through a few more vintage P.U.S. programmes, mostly looking for Plutarch studies (okay, some people go shopping instead).  If you're interested in knowing what the favourite studies seemed to be, way back when, here's an updated list.  These are all from Form III programmes (middle school), and I know that occasionally Form IV (grade 9ish) did something different, but I haven't had a chance to look at the corresponding Form IV's yet.

Programme 110, Jan-March 1928: Paulus Aemilius, from the Cambridge Press edition  (a book of four Lives, edited by P. Giles--that's why it is used only for these few terms)

Programme 111, Spring 1928:  Agis and Cleomenes (Cambridge Press)

Programme 112, Fall 1928:  Tiberius and Caius Gracchi (Cambridge Press)

Programme 113, Jan-March 1929:  Cato (Blackie edition)

Programme 114, Spring 1929:  Aristides (Blackie)

Programme 115, Fall 1929:  Alexander (first half) (Blackie)

Programme 116, Jan-March 1930:  Alexander (second half) (Blackie)

Programme 117, Spring 1930: Julius Caesar (Blackie)

Programme 118, Fall 1930: Themistocles (Blackie)

Programme 119, Jan-March 1931: Nicias (Blackie)

Programme 120, Spring 1931: Solon (Blackie)

Plutarch never stops being relevant. (Cool phrase for the day)

"Now Timoleon being busy in levying of men, and preparing himself : letters came to the Corinthians from Hicetes, whereby plainly appeared, that Hicetes had carried two faces in one hood, and that he was become a traitor."  ~~ Plutarch, Life of Timoleon (Thomas North translation)

Dollygirl's Grade Seven: Plans for Tuesday (Updated)

New Testament: Gospel of Mark:  continue reading at your own pace, making notes as you go.

Citizenship Part One: Current events.(This is what we talked about.)

Geography Game: Brainbox "The World."  We added our own variation to the game: if you roll a 5, instead of answering the question for that number, you have to find your country on a map of the world.

Citizenship Part Two: Plutarch: Cicero, Lesson 4 

"If so many people suspected Catiline of conspiring to overthrow the government, why couldn't they just arrest him?"

"Why did the Romans "mislike" to see Cicero wearing armour under his outer clothing? Weren't they glad to see he was protected?'

"When the Senators heard the proof of the conspiracy, how did they react? How did Catiline "thumb his nose," so to speak, on his way out of town?"

Transcription (Copywork):

WE should not mind so small a flower,
Except it quiet bring
Our little garden that we lost
Back to the lawn again.
So spicy her Carnations red,      
So drunken reel her Bees,
So silver steal a hundred Flutes
From out a hundred trees,
That whoso sees this little flower,
By faith may clear behold      
The Bobolinks around the throne,
And Dandelions gold.  (Emily Dickinson)

Natural History: The Spring of the Year: bobolinks, bird coverings, crows, and broken feathers.  Look up bobolinks online (I like  this site) and find out why you may not have seen any yourself.  The book has a "note to students" at the back suggesting that you could look for diagrams of bird feathers in a dictionary or bird reference book; we have the DK Guide to Birds which has good illustrations.

Math:  Saxon Algebra 1/2, Lesson 44.  Review any problems with questions 1-5.  Make up your own word problem based on question 6.  Solve questions 8-11 "on the board."   Homework: questions 12-15, 25, 26. (Re question 26: there are 5,280 feet in a mile.)

English History: "Personal Liberty and Trial by Jury."  "No man shall be punished in any way except by Law, and that whenever he be charged with any crime, he shall have the right to be tried before a jury of his countrymen before he is found guilty."  Read independently, and narrate, maybe with.a dramatization?

Poems and metre practice: "The Solitary Reaper," by William Wordsworth

French (review recent work)

Citizenship Part Three: Ourselves Book II: pages 70-73.  'But most of us have little chance of seeing men and things on a wide scale, and our way to an instructed conscience is to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest."  Some thoughts on poetry, novels, and essays.

"...this is the line that influences our living, if it speak only-- 'Of old, unhappy, far-off things, / And battles long ago.'  A couplet such as this, though it appear to carry no moral weight, iinstructs our conscience more effectually than many wise saws."  ~~ Charlotte Mason, Ourselves Book II, page 71