Scheduling Family Keeping

One question I asked in the January prompt for Keeping Company concerns scheduling: do you schedule your Keeping or has it already become a part of the family culture?  

For us, it's a bit of both.  I schedule our Keeping, even my own.  I do not do this because it's a chore for me--not at all.  I do it because sometimes it just doesn't feel like I have time to sit down and write in my commonplace or to sit down and paint in my nature journal.  (Sitting down without small people crawling on me is very rare here.  In fact, I often type these posts standing with a baby on my back! ;))  

But if it's on my schedule, it's a reminder to me that I do need to take that time--not because I don't want to, but because I do.  I pencil it in, just as I might a date night with my husband or a run with a friend.  I know the time out or the exercise is good for me, is needed for my mental or physical health, but if those activities don't have a place on my calendar, they're the first to go when a busy week rolls around.  The daily tasks of life have the tendency to engulf seemingly-frivolous pleasures if we don't guard them.  

So yes, to take the analogy further, my notebooks are much-loved companions, and I schedule dates with them to make sure I get some one-on-one time without the kids interrupting! ;)

That said, I don't tie my Keeping to a particular day or time, and I only schedule what I consider my personal minimum--the least I need to spend to feel like I got that intellectual Mother Culture time in.  Any Keeping I do beyond that is bonus.

Here are my personal minimums:

:: Weekly nature journal entry - We spend a morning each week on a nature study outing, and if the baby goes down for his nap when the toddlers do after we get home, I sit down and journal along with my kids.  If not (and more often than not right now, their naps do not overlap), I put our tray away for the day and pull it out on the weekend, when Daddy is home to watch the little ones.  Sitting down with watercolors is one of my favorite ways to spend a Sunday afternoon!

:: Weekly commonplace session - While I'm reading, I mark with post-its or dog-ear pages with quotes that I want to add to my commonplace book.  At least once a week, I spend some time transferring those quotes.

:: Weekly Calendar of Firsts and Life Lists review - This one we actually do as a family, but it's on my to-do list rather than my kids' since I'm the one that pulls it out and makes the entries.  Every week when my kids are doing their nature journals, we consider whether we have anything we'd like to add to our Nature Binder, which includes both our Calendar of Firsts and our Life Lists.  (As I've mentioned before, we keep ours more as a Nature Calendar than a true Calendar of Firsts, simply so that we can add a variety of seasonal observations.)  We usually have some notes to add each week, but not always.  I at least check in weekly, though.

My kids' routine looks slightly different:

:: Weekly nature journal entry - They are free to add whatever they would like from observations over the course of the week and particularly from our weekly outing.  They usually complete a page each week of notes and illustrations, probably because that is about what I do. :)

:: Five minutes copywork into their commonplace twice a week - This year is the first year my big kids are keeping a commonplace, which I call their "copybook."  Right now they have penmanship practice in both cursive and printing, so we alternate between the two, five minutes daily.  In cursive, we're still working on letter and word formation, so they do that on pre-printed practice sheets.  But for printing, they are now choosing sentences and passages from their school reading to copy.  They love choosing their own copywork, and they also love copying it into a book instead of on looseleaf print-outs.

:: Weekly mapwork entry - We have maps going of Europe, Asia, and the Holy Land this year, and they trace journeys and mark places read about in our readings.  We pull out the maps at least once a week to make additions.  This year, their work is more practical than lovely, but I hope to combine the two next year and make our map-Keeping an art project of sorts.

:: Weekly timeline entry - They each have a binder timeline that they have been adding to since Year 1.  At least once a week, they pull out their timelines and add any new figures or events that they choose.

(And just a note: my kids aren't old enough to have a Book of Centuries yet, but when they are, that will be a once-weekly task for us both as well.)

My personal goals get listed on my weekly planner...

...and my kids' goals are on our weekly schedule sheet.

So that's just how it works best at our house.  In the (far, far) future, I imagine I'll have free hours to fill however I like.  I'll take day-long hikes with my journal and watercolors, and I'll fritter away many an afternoon with a book and my commonplace by my side.  These are not those days. ;)  But I can still make a commitment to myself to carve out some moments of Keeping on my calendar and, at the same time, encourage my children in those habits.

{From My Commonplace}

"But there's where things have to start--with a dream.  Of course, if you just go on dreaming, then it stays a dream, and becomes stale and dead.  But first to dream and then to do--isn't that the way to make a dream come true?"

from Meindert de Jong's The Wheel on the School

{This and That}

Gianna blends right in with the landscape!

Thank you so much for your participation in our January Keeping Company link-up!  I have really enjoyed reading through the posts and participating in the discussions that are going on in everyone's comment boxes.  I hope you have too!  There's still plenty of time to join in, so hop on over and share what Keeping you or your children have been doing when you get a chance.

Later this week, I'll be sharing a bit about our own Keeping schedule, and next week, I'll post our prompt for February.  (How is it already almost February?!)

~~~

I wanted to let you know about a few other link-ups going on right now in the CM blog world...

Lizzie at StongHaven is hosting A Mother's Feast, where we can chat specifically about Mother Culture.  I loved her introduction to this month's link-up.  Let's just say I can totally relate. ;)

Amy at Crossing the Brandywine encourages us to share the handicrafts we're doing with our children in her monthly link-up Learning by Hand in Charlotte Mason's Workshop.  I'll admit: this is a habit I struggle with being consistent about, but little by little, we're getting there!

Nature Study Mondays is back at Amy's!  I always enjoy reading others' nature-related entries.

And Amy made some changes to the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival for this year: you can now link-up your own posts!  So if you're writing about CM education (or enjoy reading about it!), head over there for more.

And this isn't a link-up, but if you're new to Charlotte Mason education and haven't already heard about Brandy's Newbie Tuesdays, please do head on over and sign up for her free monthly e-newsletter specifically geared toward homeschoolers that have just started using the CM method.  (And yes, you can sign up even if you're not new--I did!)

~~~

Last week, we read the chapter "Kaa's Hunting" from The Jungle Book.  Baloo and Bagheera are worried that Kaa won't be interested in their proposal to help rescue Mowgli from the monkeys if they catch him at the wrong time, since "He sleeps for a full month after he has once eaten."

And an hour later, we happened to pick up our next family read-aloud, The Little Prince, and read its opening lines:

Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal ... In the book it said: 'Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion.'

I cannot tell you how often this sort of thing happens.  Always and everywhere!

And this is exactly why children don't need unit studies to make connections across their studies.  A varied diet of good living books provides for much richer connections than any we could manufacture--and they're all-natural and organic too. ;)

~~~

Looking for something free and fun to watch?  My husband and I stumbled upon a program available to stream on the PBS website: The Queen's Garden, an in-depth look at the Buckingham Palace Gardens.  I am no royal groupie, but the focus in this program was the history of the gardens and--even more--the natural history, focusing on the changes through the seasons.  Fascinating cinematography too!  Definitely one I would suggest to any nature lover.

~~~

Okay, so I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I noticed that over the course of that program, every time the narrator talked about robins, I was picturing this...

another wiki photo

...but instead, up popped a sweet phoebe lookalike on screen.  

photo thanks to wiki

Other than his red breast, obviously, he doesn't look much like a robin at all.  Hmmm.

And then I got to thinking: hey, is that why we call it an "American Robin"?  Because, um, there are other kinds of robins out there?

Yes, yes, indeed.  Meet the European Robin--or perhaps more properly, just "the robin," since this guy was the original "robin redbreast" (which he was named all the way back in the 15th century!).

It was one of those days when I'm certain the tagline for this little blog should be, "Joyous Lessons: where one clueless mom just tries her best to keep up with her kids."  (Because, really?  If they had been watching along with us, I'm sure they would have cleared up my confusion without even needing to Google!)

~~~

inspired by georgia o'keeffe

Happy Monday, friends!

Third Grade in Our Home :: Morning Basket, Term 3

First, a note: I use the term "Morning Basket" to refer to all the work we do together as a family, with the littles. Even though I call it Morning Basket for organizational purposes, it is really broken up into two parts: one done over breakfast, and one done at the end of our Naptime School block.  Our Morning Basket is still very much the same as we did it last year, so if you'd like to read more specifics about how it works for us, feel free to click over to read more.  ~~ You can read about our Morning Basket for Term 1 and Term 2 of this year.

We finished a few books this past term that we have been working on since the beginning of our school year back in July:

:: Thomas Tapper's Music Talks for Children

:: Benson's A Child's Rule of Life and An Alphabet of Saints

:: Kingsley's The Water Babies

:: MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind

I added a couple new ones to our rotation, but I'm also leaving a couple empty slots because I'll be adding in some Lenten reading shortly.  So we'll have a slightly lighter schedule until Ash Wednesday, which is just a few weeks away.

A look at our Morning Basket plans for Term 3 of this year...

Over Breakfast

Calendar Work - in English and Italian (daily)

Poetry - a poem from our poet for the term, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (daily)

Short Reading - from one of the following:

:: the Kirbys' The World at Home (two chapers per week)

:: Opal Wheeler's Handel (a chapter per week)

:: Pilgrim's Progress (a short section per week, following the AO 72-week rotation)

Read-Aloud - with any breakfast time I have left before the babies start fussing, I read from one of our scheduled read-alouds: Crossbows and Crucifixes, The Wheel on the School, and The Little Prince

In the Afternoon

Memory Work (daily) - includes review of that day's items from our memory "notebook" as well as our current selections:

:: Hymns - "Attende Domine," "Stabat Mater," and "Bring Flowers of the Fairest"

:: Folk Song - "Highland Mary" (finishing from Term 2), "Pull for the Shore," "Golden Years are Passing By"

:: Bible - The Parable of the Good Samaritan (finishing from Term 2), Matthew 5:13-16

:: Prayers - The Divine Praises and St. Alphonsus' Night Prayer

:: Poetry - Longfellow's "The Tide Rises," "The Arrow and the Song," "Snow-Flakes," and "A Day of Sunshine"

:: Shakespeare - Much Ado About Nothing 4.1.216-221, Hamlet 1.3.76-81

:: Bird Calls - California Quail, Belted Kingfisher

We move on to a new selection once we have the previous selection memorized rather than on a regular schedule, so our plans are just that--plans.  I'll update our Memory Work index with the ones we cover.

Italian Memory Work (daily) - The older three and I cover new concepts, games, and conversation at a different time of the day, but we do our Italian memory work with the littles:

(We took a bit longer on the previous unit than I expected, so we're still working on several from last term.)

:: Rhymes - "La bella lavanderia" from Filastrocche Italiane

:: Songs - "Tu canterai, "Cosi fan," "Giro giro tondo" from Teach Me Everyday Italian

:: Series - "I do something every day"

Picture Study on Georgia O'Keeffe (once weekly) - two weeks for each piece, alternating between observation/narration and a picture sketch

:: Landscapes: Canyon with Crows, 1917

:: More Landscapes: Cliffs Beyond Abiquiu--Dry Waterfall, 1943

:: Flowers in Black and White: Black Hollycock, Blue Larkspur, 1930 and The White Trumpet Flower, 1932

:: Flowers in Color: Red Poppy, 1927

:: Bones: Summer Days, 1936

:: Abstract: Music--Pink and Blue II

Music Study on Handel (once weekly) - including attentive listening and discussion

:: Water Music (four weeks)

:: Royal Fireworks Music (four weeks)

:: The Harmonious Blacksmith (one week)

:: Zadok the Priest (one week)

:: Messiah (two weeks)

{From My Commonplace}

"You see,” said the stick, “there were as pretty little children once as you could wish to see, and might have been so still if they had been only left to grow up like human beings, and then handed over to me; but their foolish fathers and mothers, instead of letting them pick flowers, and make dirt-pies, and get birds’ nests, and dance round the gooseberry bush, as little children should, kept them always at lessons, working, working, working, learning week-day lessons all week-days, and Sunday lessons all Sunday, and weekly examinations every Saturday, and monthly examinations every month, and yearly examinations every year, everything seven times over, as if once was not enough, and enough as good as a feast—till their brains grew big, and their bodies grew small, and they were all changed into turnips, with little but water inside; and still their foolish parents actually pick the leaves off them as fast as they grow, lest they should have anything green about them.”

from Kingsley's The Water Babies

(Linking up with Wednesdays with Words this week, as usual!)

Nature Study Outing :: Life and Death

I mentioned that we took a little hike along the coast on New Year's Day.  One wonderful thing about where we live is that there are wildflowers all year, of different sorts. These two were in bloom during our chilly outing:

And our daffodils are, right on schedule, pushing themselves up through the cold muddy ground out back.

It is so heartening to see these bits of life blooming even on cold, foggy mornings of winter.

But not all nature study is wildflowers and daffodils.  I hate to say it but dead birds have been a theme around here lately.  For whatever reason we have seen quite a few in the last few weeks!  

We have been lucky in that twice now those birds were new sights for our Life Lists, and also that each time they have still been wonderfully whole.

And now, sensitive readers, avert your eyes!

This Common Murre was washed up among the wrack:

It looks almost elegant, lying still there like that.  I have seem murres at the aquarium and afar on the rocks by the bay, but never up close on the beach.

My 5yo daughter, the daintiest little girl you'll ever meet, asked if I could "please take a picture because I want to nature journal it, Mommy--especially that black, black eye."  Okay then.

And on a similar note, my oldest daughter took these up-close-and-personal photos of another freshly-dead bird, this time at a local park, while I was busy at the other side of the playground with the babies.

The colors and the texture of the feathers are beautiful, aren't they?  She wasn't the slightest bit squeamish, and I didn't know until I browsed the photo roll that she had gotten so close.  A friend's older son chuckled when I finally noticed and said (rather proudly, I think), "Yep, she sure was right up next to him with that camera!"

Thanks to her careful photos, we were able to identify this poor guy as a Varied Thrush, which aren't super-common in our part of California.  (They come down from the northern coast during winter, but usually stop around San Francisco, so we're at the tail end of their migration area.)  We had never seen one, but I know we'll all remember his striking coloring now.

And wouldn't you know it, at this week's nature study outing, we found three (!) dead pigeons at different spots in our park.  I handed Gianna the camera again, and since they were all fascinated by the claws, she took a few close-ups.

It may not feel like it when I'm trying to make sure my toddler doesn't accidentally step on dead sea gulls (true story!), but it's a gift for my suburban children to experience the natural order of life and death in these simple weekly ventures out and about.

And as my son pointed out, it's a lot easier to identify a dead bird than a live one! ;)

{From My Commonplace}

Of a woman who has too long indulged the consolations that come from others' good opinion:

"The heart that found itself so unappeased would have liked, every now and again, to add to them, and enjoy, too, the consolations of religion; but these only come to those who renounce the others; as a shipwrecked man must open his hand and let go the seaweed which he has seized by instinct, if he is to grasp the plank that may bring him safely to the shore."

from Alessandro Manzoni's The Betrothed

Keeping Company :: January Link-Up

Are you all ready to share your Keeping?  I've already seen a few relevant posts floating around here and there, and I'm excited to open up the linky so we can start collecting them in one place.  And more than that, I'm looking forward to sitting down and reading each one, so I'll be "visiting you" soon!

First, a quick announcement...

Are you on Instagram?  I am, and I wanted a way to include the enthusiastic Charlotte Mason community over there in our fun.  (And besides, I think its format is so conducive to a Keeping link-up!  A meshing of photos and words is a great way of recording notebooking habits.)

So, if you have Keeping photos (or want to add them) over on Instagram and want them to be included in this link-up, tag them with #KeepingCompanyCM.  I'll be checking that tag and hope to pull some of the examples from over there as I curate a monthly round-up/announcement post.

Okay, on to the link-up...

Instructions:

You should see the linky below.  Click on the "Add my link" button, and it will prompt you to include the information for your post.  Once you submit it, your link will be added to the list, and others will be able to click over and read what you have shared.

Guidelines:

:: Remember to link to a specific post and not to the homepage of your blog.  

:: Posts on private blogs obviously can't be included.

:: Any posts about CM-style Keeping are welcome!  The prompt is optional.  Your post can be as simple as a photo of your commonplace book!  And please don't feel like you have to be an expert.  We are all looking to grow in these habits together. :)

:: Feel free to add more than one post.  The link-up will be open for a month, so you can come back and add more if you are so inclined.

:: You can grab the button over there on the sidebar if you'd like to add it to your post or your own site.

:: Questions?  Feel free to ask me in the comments.

I'll be adding my own thoughts on how we organize our notebooks next week, but for now, I'm looking forward to reading about all the Keeping you're doing in your homes.  Thank you for sharing!

An InLinkz Link-up

What We're Reading :: January

For this month's "What We're Reading," I'll let my annual snapshot-share of the Christmas book haul stand in...because that's pretty much all my kids have been reading since Christmas Day!

But first, my own reads and our family read-alouds...

Me:

Alessandro Mazzoni's The Betrothed (moving along!)
The Christian Mother: the Education of her Children and Her Prayer (dipping in here and there)

To the Big Kids:

Goudge's I Saw Three Ships (just finished this lovely Christmas read)

Crossbows and Crucifixes (for a Catholic perspective on England under Queen Elizabeth)

Brinker's Caddie Woodlawn (on audio--not enjoying the reader as much as Cherry Jones, but the story is great, of course)

MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind and Kingsley's Water Babies (we'll be reading these two AO Y3 "free reads" slowly over the course of the whole school year)

The Christmas Books for the Littles...

first, goodies from Grandma and Grandpa!

for 8yo Vincent

for 8yo Gianna (and that blue hardback at the bottom is a lovely edition of Lang's Rainbow Fairy book)

for 5yo Cate

for 4yo Xavier 

for 3yo Bridget

for 2yo Clara

Almost all the books were bought used from the thrift store or used online, which is how we can manage to gift so many!  As I buy used treasures through the year, I hide them away in a box to pull from when the next holiday rolls around.  I love selecting books from my secret stash for each child that I know he or she will love.

There was also a stack of music books for my big kids to enjoy, and my parents gifted me with the Chronicles of Narnia series on audio, which I'm looking forward to listening our way through this summer!

These books kept the kids happily occupied during their vacation days.  Did you have any favorite bookish gifts this Christmas?

{From My Commonplace}

A Minuet of Mozart's by Sara Teasdale

Across the dimly lighted room

The violin drew wefts of sound,

Airily they wove and wound

And glimmered gold against the gloom.

I watched the music turn to light,

But at the pausing of the bow,

The web was broken and the glow

Was drowned within the wave of night.

A bit meta here: art about art.  Read this one aloud and delight in it.

"Mommy, hear the rhythm?  It's like music!  Oh--It's like Mozart!"

Yes, yes it is.

An Invitation :: Keeping Company

There's been a lot of talk about notebooking this past year, thanks to the release of Laurie Bestvater's wonderful The Living Page, companion resources from Jen at Wildflowers and Marbles, Brandy's great December series on the topic at Afterthoughts, and more.

I have gained so much through this increased discussion--a better understanding of Charlotte Mason's principles, a renewed sense of the importance of notebooking as a homeschool and lifelong practice, and a desire to strengthen habits of Keeping with my children.  I know many of you feel the same.

I think the place to go from here is a firm, tangible commitment to make Keeping a habit.  After all, these "forms of vitality," as Bestvater calls them, are only "vital" if they come to life in our own homes.

Brandy provided some wonderful suggestions on how to actually "get it done" last month--how to put those principles into practice.  Another step toward building a habit (or enjoying one that has already formed!) is accountability, and I want to invite you to do that here at Joyous Lessons, in the form of a monthly link-up.

I'm calling it Keeping Company, because I hope we can come together as companions, sharing the Keeping we are doing ourselves and with our children.

I hope this link-up provides a space for us to discuss how we're notebooking in our homes and to hold ourselves accountable to the Keeping habits that are so integral to a Charlotte Mason education.  

The very welcome by-product is that our sharing will form a resource for those interested in what CM notebooking looks like in practice.  I've seen time and time again a request for examples, examples, and more examples!  That's why I began sharing the weekly peek into my commonplace, and it's also why I have posted pages from my nature journal now and then.  I hope to do that more regularly, and I hope you all will join me now too--and link up to it here!

So let's chat a bit about the hows, whens, and whats...

How will this work?

I'm still figuring out the best way to organize this link-up, but here's my current plan:

:: Every first Tuesday, I will post an announcement/reminder for that month.  I hope to spotlight some of the posts shared in the previous link-up as well as provide a discussion prompt for those who like an "assignment."

:: Every second Tuesday, I will open up that month's link-up, which will remain open for a month, until the next link-up is posted.  You can come back to the link-up throughout the month to add your Keeping posts.

:: All the monthly link-ups will be archived together (you can already see the "Keeping Company" tab along the top bar) as an easy place to direct fellow homeschoolers interested in Charlotte Mason notebooking.

And as always:

:: You can get reminders about the link-up by subscribing to Joyous Lessons via email, feed reader, or Facebook.

What kind of posts can be included?

:: A snapshot of your commonplace book

:: Field notes from a recent nature study outing, with or without photos

:: A sketch from your Book of Centuries
:: Your daughters' most recent commonplace selections

:: An entry from one of your Life Lists

:: A look at how you have your Calendar of Firsts set up
:: Your son's most recent math notebook entry
:: Favorite lines from your music notebook

:: A discussion of your weekly Keeping routine

:: Some quotes culled from Miss Mason that are encouraging you in your notebooking

...and that's just a few of the topics you might choose to write on.

And the format is open to your preference as well.  Your post might be just a photo, or a photo with a caption, or just a passage, or a long and fully-illustrated post ...the options are many.

Can I link to more than one of my posts?  Yes!  You are welcome to add any and all relevant posts, current or from your archives.

Do I have to link to a recently-written post?  No, all posts about Keeping within a Charlotte Mason framework are welcomed.

Do I have to write on the provided prompt?  No, the prompt is completely optional, just for those who like something formal to write about.

I'm no expert.  Should I still share?  Yes!  One thing I have noticed about discussions surrounding Keeping is that fellow homeschool moms love seeing concrete examples of how principles get put into practice.  This is one of the reasons I blog, despite being no expert myself. ;)  Of course, I find gorgeous penmanship and lovely dry-brush drawing to be completely inspirational and an absolute pleasure to view.  So please do share, artistic mamas!  But I think we all appreciate seeing less-than-perfect work too.  Process is so much more important than product, and it's the habit that's particularly valuable, not just the beautiful results.  So don't by shy!

Should I share this link-up with others?  Yes, the more the merrier!  Just remember that the goal here is Keeping from a Charlotte Mason perspective.

Can I grab a button for the Keeping Company link-up to share on my site?  Yes!  You'll find it over on the right sidebar.  If you are so inclined, please do include the button on your posts and/or in your blog sidebar so that your readers can also read the many other entries I hope we'll have here each month.  (I am somewhat tech-challenged, but that code should work.  If not, let me know and I will attempt to troubleshoot. ;))

For this month's prompt, let's ring in the New Year!  I have a two-part question with a January flair...

:: How are you planning to commit to Keeping habits for this new year?  A weekly entry in your nature journal?  Reading with your commonplace and a pen by your side?  Working on your Calendar of Firsts once a month?  Sitting down to make a Book of Centuries entry with your high schooler each week?  (And speaking of kids, feel free to chat about goals you have for your children's Keeping as well.)

:: Or for those that already have habits in place: how do you organize or schedule your family's Keeping?  Do you have a method for getting these tasks get done?  Are you past that point, so that it has become a part of our family culture?  Do you have a way of organizing your commonplace that works well for you?  I'd love to know how those of you who have been at notekeeping for a while now have found success.

(And remember, the prompt is always optional--some people like to have an assignment for accountability purposes.  All posts about CM-inspired notebooking are welcomed!)

So that's that!  I'll open the link-up on the second Tuesday of January, one week from today, which is the 13th.  

And please feel free to comment or email with questions.  (My contact information is over there on the sidebar, under my introduction.)

So will you all keep me company here once a month?  I hope so!