After a while, she comes to me (while I'm trying to finish reading the last half of the 6th and final volume of Charlotte Mason's work, Towards a Philosophy of Education. I'm reading the paraphrase in modern English. I had intended finishing all 6 before we began homeschooling, but that didn't happen.) and says "Mom, can't we please read Peter Pan while we are outside?"
So, I run in and grab our copy of Peter Pan (the original book by J.M. Barrie, with illustrations by Mabel Lucie Attwell. You can get it for free here. We bought a 2013 edition by Dalmatian Press at a used book sale somewhere. I see the $1.00 price scribbled in pencil on the first page.) and a fabulous made-of-denim quilt we use for outdoors (made with lots of love by my sister a few years ago. I bought denim squares at a thrift store and mailed them to her in Ontario and she made me a quilt with a water-resistant backing for outdoor use. I guess it is all my doing that she has now become an avid quilter. Correct me if I'm wrong, that was your first quilt, right CB?).
We find a lovely tree to sit under and I read chapters 2 and 3 to her. Aren't these lovely colours?
She was listening so intently, it was quite something. There is something incredible about reading outside, lying on a blanket. Dad met us at the park after work and we walked around the path for a little while. We walked home (we live about 100 ft from this park) and Fina wasn't ready to come in yet. So she did a couple of episodes of her favourite yoga for kids out on our lawn.
I sat on our steps and read a bit more of my volume 6. The mosquitoes started coming out at about 6pm, so we finally headed in for supper.
For those of you who know and love me, you will know that last November (November 3, to be exact), Fina and I started ourselves on a 1000 Hours Outside challenge. Basically it is a movement to get kids (and adults) outside more, rather than inside watching tv etc. The website was started by a couple of moms (influenced by Charlotte Mason's ideas that kids should be outside for 4-6 hours a day) who wanted to counter the statistic that the average American kids watches 1200 hours of tv a year. You can find their explanation here. Well, you will be proud to know that as of yesterday, we are 995.75 hours. And it is only the end of September! I am proud to know that we will very soon make it to our goal and I hope to greatly surpass it. You can imagine that this isn't always easy in a Manitoba winter (or worse, a mosquito-riddled Manitoba summer). Thankfully, Fina isn't bothered by the -40C (yes, that is -40F too, for my American readers!) cold, so we did get out a lot this winter as well.
Try it yourself. Adults, kids, whatever. Even an hour a day outside is probably more that what many people are doing. It does make all the difference. I can't express how much I love it. Homeschooling is going to make this possible for us even now, during the schooling years. (Though kids do it while attending regular school as well. Their families just have to be more intentional about using non-school days, weekends, holidays, etc).
Another website and FB page that I really enjoy is http://www.activekidsclub.com/. This is the brain-child of a Toronto (via Norway) mom who gives lots of tips and resources for spending time outside with kids, in all types of weather. (A shout out goes to my own Canadian-Norwegian friend who introduced me both to this website and the love of the outdoors with kids). We do, as a culture, spend way too much times sitting inside (at a computer, tv, etc etc). Being out in the forest, out in a meadow, splashing through puddles, sliding down snow hills (tiny ones, this is FLAT MB after all), climbing on trees, looking at leaves, bugs, squirrels, flowers - these are activities that refresh us. We much prefer these free-play activities than scheduled extra-curricular ones.
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Well, time to start our day.
We did our morning prayer (and we have been doing night prayer in bed before going to sleep as well).
Fina decided to do some Handicrafts today (embroidery) before starting with her school work. She also swept the kitchen floor, and swiffered it with the dry swiffer cloths (she wanted to swiffer wet it too, but she got distracted with going upstairs to play with her doll house). We ended up not doing any school work until after lunch.
Poetry: Fina recited her two poems. We read a new poem today, "The Land of Nod." I had thought she might like to recite it, but we have decided to wait for a "better" poem.
Burgess Birds Book, Chapter 1 "Jenny Wren Arrives." Narrated it well. I had her colour in a colouring page of a Carolina Wren, and that did not work. She, unlike most kids, didn't seem to concentrate as well while colouring. Funny!
Gen 8:13-22. Narrated the end of the flood well.
Cursive "s". Fina is still having trouble being consistent with her letter s. We wrote "as" and "sass."
So, I pulled out the old "cornmeal in a container" trick and we are working on forming the letter s with here index finger. I hope this will help. I am trying not to let her get frustrated, but she wants to do it right and just can't seem to form it properly consistently.
Yup, even in the cornmeal, she didn't really want to make an s. So she made an a. She made some s's, but was still not happy with them, nor forming them easily the right way. We will start with the cornmeal s tomorrow.
Paddle to the Sea. We read chapter 2. She doesn't have the attachment (yet) that other kids seem to have to the story, but we are only on chapter 2. She listens to it and does narrate it.
"Bridge at Nantes." We looked at the painting and described it again.
Then, I wanted to try the second painting by our artist for the term, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, "Chartres Cathedral."
I tried something different this time so she wouldn't get all freaked out like the first time. We looked at it and spoke of it, and without warning I turned it over and both her and I tried recreating the basic idea of it on paper. (This probably wouldn't work with all kids, but she did well). Hers is on the right, mine is on the left. I am NOT an artist, but I thought I had better do it alongside with her.
Then we started trying to reproduce it while looking at it. Mine has a splash of colour on it.
She didn't get very far before wanting to move on and sculpt with her Thinking Putty for a bit.
We made people on our fingers.
Lastly, Fina did just a little bit of MUS, from 11C p 2 through to 11D.
We listened to Brahms a bunch of times through the day today.
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A few things I've learned today:
- we need to slow down and repeat and repeat with the cursive. The letters a, m and n are ok, but s needs work before moving on.
- do not try homeschooling in the afternoon, unless absolutely necessary. It wasn't terrible, but it flows much more smoothly in the mornings. And now we didn't get outside, or do the other bunch of things we had done yesterday, for example. It slows us right down! (Fina also woke up at 6am this morning, instead of the 7:30 or 8 she is used to, because she had a bad dream. She went to cuddle in bed with dad to talk until after 7 when they came down. I think she is pretty done! We finished math around 4).
- keep at the artist study because Fina does have a good eye. I need to keep trying other ways of looking before moving back to the look-at-it-then-cover-it-up-and-narrate style.
- Fina doesn't work well with colouring while listening for narration. At least not now. We might try that again at a later date.
I will get the folksong in at some point. Right now, I don't want it to feel like a chore (for me or for her!) so we will come to it eventually. That, and the nature study painting with water colours. I haven't forgotten. I just need to work our schedule so we can do it.
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