Raymond and Dorothy Moore Quotes

Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore are considered "pioneers" in the homeschooling movement, and certified teachers. I am reading their book "Home style Teaching" right now

Here are a couple of quotes that I thought were good to share:

~When you are convinced that a student knows a subject thoroughly, you will
not dog him with more assignments nor try to make him regurgitate mental food he has already digested. Great education calls for few work-books.~
Home style Teaching, pg 21

~ Many teachers thoughtlessly conclude that all children in the same class or of the same age should learn the same amount of the same things about the same time and that they will come off the assembly line in about the same shapes with about the same equipment. It never occurs to them that some youngsters are "triangular," some are "cylindrical," some are "rectangular," and some are oddly shaped. But they try to drive them all through the same "square" hole.~

Home style Teaching, pg 30

A Sad Mourning in the History of American

For those of you who follow this blog. It's been awhile since I posted here. And what I want to write here doesn't have much to do with homeschooling, it could very well in the near future...

With that being said, Please visit my other blog Heart of A Mommy and read the post I have there.

Pray for our country!

What's Been Going On in the Schoolroom

My intentions were to write about what happened during the previous week in school. I am lagging behind. :)

So I am going to play catch up tonight.

Our first two weeks we learned about the Creation. Sweetie made a chart depicting the seven days of creation, and a "Creation Book" illustrating the seven days of creation. I have "good intentions" on having it professionally spiral bound at Office D*epot. I am hoping that it will be a keepsake for her.

From there we learned about the Sun. I went to the library and checked out many books on the sun.

There is *SO* much we learned about the sun. I need to have Sweetie dictate to me in her own words what she learned, and then I will post it on here.

Some of the things we learned about the sun is where it is in relation to the earth, what it's made out of, how the earth revolves around it, how to tell time with the sun, how big it is, how day and night work, that plants use it for food, etc. Those are just some of the things we learned about the sun.

For our spiritual aspect of the learning about the Sun, we learned that Jesus *is* the light, the true light of the World.

Here are some pictures from our week of learning about the sun :

We did an experiment on these grapes. We set them out in the sun to see what the sun would do to them. We made up a chart and drew the changes in the grapes with each new day. We worked on our chart for four days.We also learned that the earth is spinning on it's axis, making day and evening. We made our own sun dial out of clay, a folder and a pencil. Sweetie got to see that the shadow of the pencil moved as the earth spun and turned away from the sun. She really enjoyed this experiment. :)

So that was what our third week in homeschooling was like in a nut shell. Of course there were the "regular subjects" such as math, reading, and writing. Sweetie painted a Monet type of painting of the sun. It turned out beautiful and we will be entering it in our county fair which will be happening next month. :)

Books in the Home

My friend Esther Ruth posted this on her My Space page. I thought it was interesting enough to share myself. :)

I am not sure where she read it though.

"Books in the home, even if they aren't necessarily read by the parents,
promote better scores not only in English, but also in science and math. The NEA
study indicated that shelves of books are more important than income or parental
educational background.Homes with 10 or fewer books yield the lowest test
scores, and the scores increase steadily with more books in the home, in
history, civics, math and science. The issue is not income, according to the
study, or even whether the parents have a college education. "Students of
high-school-educated parents living in homes with more than 100 books outscored
students with college-educated parents and 0-10 books in the home", the study
notes."A poor family, with books in the house, will produce a child, on the
average, who will do better in those subjects than a rich kid with no books in
the house...the data just shows the power of the home environment."

This is one of the first things you see when you walk in the front door. It's no wonder my kids are so smart, huh? ;-)

A New Name

Well, I thought and thought of a new name for this blog yesterday. This is what I came up with. I hope it embodies the Charlotte Mason Philosophy. What do you think?

Ooops! Correction in Order!

Today, I opened up a very surprising email. It was both flattering, and also one that made me want to slap my hand on my forehead!

Due to my foggy mommy brain, and reading alot of materials on homeschooling, I mistakenly thought that Charlotte Mason coined the phrase "The Gentle Art of Learning"

I was deeply mistaken. It was Karen Andreola, author of "The Charlotte Mason Companion" that coined the phrase.

Her husband sent me a kind email informing me of this error, and asks that I rename the blog; Which I gladly will do.

I ask my sincerest apologies to anyone I may of misled regarding this phrase. And my deepest apologies to the Andreola family!

More On Charlotte Mason

Since this blog is anything "homeschooling", then whatever is on my mind at the moment about this subject will likely find it's way here. :)

This is my first year of homeschooling, and I am still forming my "style". It will probably change and evolve over the years as I gain better understanding, wisdom, and experience.

Charlotte Mason is a lady that I deeply respect and admire. There are few things in her ideas that seem a bit "off" to me. But that's ok. It isn't a huge deal; just something I won't eat. ;-)

My friend sent a link to me of a great article as an overview of the Charlotte Mason Philosophy of learning.

Please CLICK HERE to read. :) Have a wonderful day! :)

A Homeschool Compliment

At times, the responsibility of homeschooling can overwhelm me. But I know that I am doing what is best for Sweetie.

Yesterday, I had to visit our local target, which just happens to have a Starbucks inside of it. And they just happened to have pumpkin spice frappechinos. ;-)

While we were waiting in line, a friend from church walked into Target. I stopped to talk with her. Sweetie joined in on the conversation with me.

Lady: Hubby is out of town. I *Hate* it when he goes out of town!

Sweetie: You know what? Daddy went to work one day, and worked *all* night! He didn't even sleep! And when he got home, he took a nap until SUPPER TIME!

(She said this with much drama, and animation as she could)

By this time my coffee was ready, and there was a lady there waiting for her coffee. This lady asked me what grade Sweetie was in, and I told her kindergarten. She asked where she went to school, and I informed her that she is home schooled.

This lady then says, "I can tell! She is very smart. I am a first grade teacher, and schools love to have children like her. Her use of words, and willingness to participate is what they want."

I thanked her politely. Encouraged that someone in edcuation was impressed with Sweeties skills.

But, today I realized something. Schools wouldn't like Sweetie, I don't think. Now, why would I say that, after that nice lady gave me a genuine compliment?

Well, even though Sweetie is *very* smart, they would probably classify her as ADD.

She has a hard time staying on task. They wouldn't appreciate her creativity then.

She is a very hands on and a visual learner. She wouldn't fit in well with their curriculum of staying at a desk for hours doing seat work.

She tends to hum while she works. They would want her to be quiet so as to not disturb the other students.

Nope. I don't think they would love to have Sweetie after all. I know I am doing the right thing homeschooling her where she can learn in an enviroment that can tolerate her. I think I'll keep her here with me. ;-)

Nature Walks

One of the "big" things in Charlotte Mason's philosophy is nature study.

Three days, last week, I took the kids for a walk around our neighborhood. Hoping, to find something new and different, that we have never seen before, or unique and that usually misses our eye, because we are "busy".

Every time, before we walk out the door, we have asked the Lord to help us spot these things. And every time, we pleasantly discover something new and unique that we've never seen.

On the first day, we saw horses on neighboring properties. We, ourselves don't live on property, but,our neighborhood backs up to an area that has a few "mini" farms. This provides ample opportunity to find interesting things.

I am so grateful to live in an area like that. We are not totally "in the country" but it is close enough for us to enjoy some of the benefits. :)

One day I brought the camera along. I would like to share some pictures of what we "discovered" that day.

And we found this guy in our front yard as we came home from a walk. We had tons of fun playing with him, and using him as a subject for our turtle photo shoot. :)

Our First Day Of School

September the 8th was our first day of school. I know we started a wee bit late, but that's ok. We have plenty of time to make up for it. We don't have snow days, or teacher work days, and half days, etc. :)

The first day of school this year was kinda specialm because Grandma, from out of state was visiting with us. So Grandma also got to get in on the fun.

Our day started out early. I went to my first MOPS meeting for the semester. I dressed Sweetie and Bean in new hot pink dresses.

Then we took pictures. I have each child hold up a sign showing what year of school they are in

Then it was off to MOPS.

We came home, and had a nice lunch deli chicken sandwiches. I put Tiny Boy down for his nap and we began our school work.

I am using "My Father's World" Curriculum. It is based on the methods of Charlotte Mason. Thus the title of this blog, "The Gentle Art of Learning". That is a phrase that Miss Mason coined.

In "My Father's World" there is an introduction; a foundation to the whole program. For the first two weeks of school we focus on the Creation.

In these two weeks Sweetie completed a chart depicting the seven days of creation. She also illustrated a Creation book, which I have plans on binding it together later.

The first day with the academic department (The Three R's) we just reviewed the basics. ABC's, 123's, and read a few stories. I also had to focus on teaching Sweetie how to narrate. That was bit of a challenge. She was trying to memorize word for word the literature selection, rather than telling me in her own words what happened in the story. I think she is beginning to grasp the concept now though.

Narration, in case one is unfamiliar with the concept, is a term that Charlotte Mason used to "re-tell" the story in your own words. So, I read Sweetie a portion of literature and she is to tell me in her own words what she just listened to. This develops reading comprehension, and also challenges her to be creative by using her own words, rather than the usual question and answer approach.

As she get's older, she must try to recall the important details. For now, as she is learning this concept I am happy with anything she tells me. :)

Ok, back to our first day. :)

After our academic portion, The girls went to their rooms for "quiet rest time". I have always done this in the afternoon. It gives me a break, and I can rest myself. ;-)

During quiet Rest time, I set a tea party up, using real tea cups, and a tea pot. I set the table in a "back to school" theme. Using Fruit for a center piece. I also tried to make place cards that looked like little slates.

Before school began I went shopping for "special" school supplies. Things like pencils with designs on them, fancy shaped erasers, pretty notepads, mini staplers, etc. I put them in a gift bag and put them on the table.

When the children awoke from their naps, they had a beautiful tea party to attend. I served them sugar cookies and peppermint tea. Bean and Sweetie did not care too much for the tea, but Tiny Boy enjoyed it thoroughly. ;-)

After the tea party they went outside to play on their swing set while I finished dinner preparations.

After they came in, and Daddy got home we had Tacos and Brownies for Supper. A menu that Sweetie chose herself.

I wanted to make the 1st day of school a special and memorable one for Sweetie as well as Bean. Bean is "listening in" on Sweetie's lessons while she works on her Rod and Staff Preschool books.

Tiny Boy just hangs out and does what he likes. Usually, he tries to get in on the action. Especially when we sing. He likes that. :)

So there you have it. Our first day of school. :) Hopefully, I will be posting once a week on this blog depicting our schooling events of the past week.

Have a great day! :)