A few years back I gave a talk at an AO conference about the riches. I told a story about my grand-daughter Lizzie and a trip her family took to their local art museum. Lizzie was only five at the time and so most of the advanced preparations her mother made were focused on her older brother, who was school aged. But Lizzie met a painting called The Grief of the Pasha, and Lizzie fell in love. Those were her mother's words in an email she sent about the visit, and they are quite apt. (for the full story, you'd need to listen to the recording of the talk, information below)
Falling in love is an important key to learning. Picture study takes perhaps five or ten minutes every other week, but it can be the beginning of a life long love affair, and the door to learning other things as well. Picture study also will help your students improve their moods and sharpen their thinking for other studies during the day as well.
Subjects undergoing an MRI while looking at artworks they considered most beautiful showed increased blood flow in a certain part of the brain by as much as 10 per cent – the same brain area and same increase in blood flow as when gazing at a loved one.The Power of Art
Viewing art triggers higher-order mental processing The human brain is designed to enjoy art
A study from the University of Westminster found that participants' stress levels decreased after a lunchtime visit to an art gallery. Participants who came in w/ high levels, had lower concentrations of cortisol, commonly known as the stress hormone, 30 min. later. And the effect was most marked for those who were most stressed. Think about what this means for improving the atmosphere while doing lessons! Spend a few minutes looking at your art for the week right after a stressful lesson- art isn’t an extra, it’s a basic necessity for school.
Normalisation of salivary cortisol levels and self-report stress by a brief lunchtime visit to an art gallery by London City workers, Clow & Fredhoi
After analyzing 15 studies that had people looking at art for different reasons, neuroscientist Oshin Vartanian explained in a Q&A that "areas of the brain involved in processing emotion and those that activate our pleasure and reward systems are also being engaged." Essentially, parts of the brain that are associated with contemplation are automatically sparked when viewing art, even if they aren't thinking about it critically
The fantastic effect of art on mind and body
Drawing is another part of the curriculum often skipped, but drawing helps with learning and memory as well. I would suggest you try this at home with reluctant artists/narratorsm but don't tell them ahead of time what you are doing. Just during the day tell them two different stories, similar in length and interest. Have them sketch what they recall of one, just move on through your day without drawing the other. Later in the day, ask for a short narration of each and see what happens. Drawing helps you remember, how well you drew is irrelevant, Science Daily: If you need to remember something, draw it., even if you only have 4 seconds; Drawing helps memory, even if you only draw for four seconds. TechTimes
Nature Journals (and nature studies) are, regrettably, frequently skipped until people can get their schedules under control, but this is a beautiful thing in its own right, and it also, happily, well help your other subjects go more smoothly:
Karen Matsumoto wrote a beautiful article on nature journaling, published on John Hopkins’ School of Education website. She says: “In my experience working with children, I have found that the act of drawing and writing helps students to see and know nature through attention to and expression of their feelings. Feelings are a part of learning; it is now known that feelings are essential to deep understanding and sound decision making. Because attitudinal, emotional, and aesthetic considerations are important for growth and development, journals can be a good vehicle for "starting where children are." Rachel Carson, naturalist and writer, suggested that feelings help start the process of children wanting to know (1956). "Once the emotions have been aroused - a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration, or love - then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response. Once found it has lasting meaning."." Nature Journaling by Matsumoto
And the same day I found that article, I read this comment in one of our groups, by Rusty Parker, enthusiastic over all the new thing she was seeing in her own backyard- “It's amazing what I'm seeing now that I care!” This gives new depth and meaning to Mason's comments on what matters most at the end of our school days is not what we know, but how much do we care, and about how many things do we care, doesn't it?
Go outside and look at the natural world. Find things that make you all share a collective sense of amazement, of awe, things that make you go, "Ahhh!"
"...awe helps bind us to others, motivating us to act in collaborative ways that enable strong groups and cohesive communities." The importance of shared awe
"we tested the hypothesis that awe can result in a diminishment of the individual self and its concerns, and increase prosocial behavior. In a representative national sample (Study 1), dispositional tendencies to experience awe predicted greater generosity in an economic game above and beyond other prosocial emotions (e.g., compassion). In follow-up experiments, inductions of awe (relative to various control states) increased ethical decision-making (Study 2), generosity (Study 3), and prosocial values (Study 4). Finally, a naturalistic induction of awe in which participants stood in a grove of towering trees enhanced prosocial helping behavior and decreased entitlement compared to participants in a control condition (Study 5)." (Shared experiences of awe increase social cooperation and decrease self-centeredness)
Narration and discussion, saying things out loud, also helps with memory: John Muir Laws on saying aloud: Prompts for deeper nature observation: Saying aloud helps you remember later
Many will find the materials here to be helpful: http://beetlesproject.org/
A few days after their visit to the art museum, a friend shared a poem about the Pasha's grief w/ Lizzie's mama. It is a long poem, written by Victor Hugo in 1827, and I would not think most 5 year olds would have cared for it or understood it. Lizzie's mama read her the poem anyway (linked here: https://www.joslyn.org/Post/sections/375...lation.pdf) and reports that in conclusion, Lizzie was running around the house hollering "I was right! I was right! He was sad because his tiger died!"
The riches are not extra. They will nourish your souls and bind your hearts together, give your studies energy, life, and vitality. Do not skip them.
You can buy the recording of this talk here. The recording has a lot of additional material. It is not a duplicate of this post.
Who am I? Christian, Mom of 7, grandma to 14, 'retired' homeschool mom after 29 years, AmblesideOnline Advisory member. I've camped on the Al-Can highway, snorkeled in the China Sea. I blog about Charlotte Mason, books, travel, and more. Posts often include affiliate links. I promise not to waste your time.
Showing posts with label amblesideonline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amblesideonline. Show all posts
Thursday, May 23, 2019
Monday, May 6, 2019
Deep and Wide: A Charlotte Mason Education
I stumbled across an interesting train of thought while online looking up something else, as one does.
There's this interesting quote from Henry Fielding’s History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
. Before I share that, I should tell you that I loved this passage, but I have to say that none of my children that I recall were ever willing to read more than a few pages of Tom Jones. They thought it was bawdy, unedifying book. Bawdy and ribald it certainly is, but I cannot agree that it is wholy unedifying. However, children being born persons, I did not mortify them by forcing the issue and making them continue reading.
There's this interesting quote from Henry Fielding’s History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
. Before I share that, I should tell you that I loved this passage, but I have to say that none of my children that I recall were ever willing to read more than a few pages of Tom Jones. They thought it was bawdy, unedifying book. Bawdy and ribald it certainly is, but I cannot agree that it is wholy unedifying. However, children being born persons, I did not mortify them by forcing the issue and making them continue reading.
I mortified them enough in plenty of other ways.
That said, let me share some food for thought from Fielding's Tom Jones
“To prevent therefore, for the future, such intemperate abuses of leisure, of letters, and of the liberty of the press, especially as the world seems at present to be more than usually threatened with them, I shall here venture to mention some qualifications, every one of which are in a pretty high degree necessary to this order of historians.”
“this order of historians” is writers of plausible fiction, like Tom Jones. And can I say that the line about how the "world at present" is more than usually threatened with intemperate abuse of the liberty of the press made me giggle. That was published in 1749. So here are some requirements one should be able to check before writing plausible fiction:
“The first is, genius, without a full vein of which no study, says Horace, can avail us. By genius I would understand that power or rather those powers of the mind, which are capable of penetrating into all things within our reach and knowledge, and of distinguishing their essential differences.These are no other than invention and judgment; and they are both called by the collective name of genius, as they are of those gifts of nature which we bring with us into the world. Concerning each of which many seem to have fallen into very great errors; for by invention, I believe, is generally understood a creative faculty, which would indeed prove most romance writers to have the highest pretensions to it; whereas by invention is really meant no more (and so the word signifies) than discovery, or finding out; or to explain it at large, a quick and sagacious penetration into the true essence of all the objects of our contemplation. This, I think, can rarely exist without the concomitancy of judgment; for how we can be said to have discovered the true essence of two things, without discerning their difference, seems to me hard to conceive. Now this last is the undisputed province of judgment, and yet some few men of wit have agreed with all the dull fellows in the world in representing these two to have been seldom or never the property of one and the same person.”
Emphasis added. Really, it seems to me, one could live a long, fulfilling, and useful life on the talent of “sagacious penetration into the true essence of all the objects of our contemplation.”
“But though they should be so, they are not sufficient for our purpose, without a good share of learning; for which I could again cite the authority of Horace, and of many others, if any was necessary to prove that tools are of no service to a workman, when they are not sharpened by art, or when he wants rules to direct him in his work, or hath no matter to work upon. All these uses are supplied by learning; for nature can only furnish us with capacity; or, as I have chose to illustrate it, with the tools of our profession; learning must fit them for use, must direct them in it, and, lastly, must contribute part at least of the materials. A competent knowledge of history and of the belles-lettres is here absolutely necessary; and without this share of knowledge at least, to affect the character of an historian, is as vain as to endeavour at building a house without timber or mortar, or brick or stone. Homer and Milton, who, though they added the ornament of numbers to their works, were both historians of our order, were masters of all the learning of their times.”
Emphasis added again. This is the answer to those who say it doesn’t matter what the children learn so long as they learn how to learn. It’s nonsense. Of course it matters what they learn- what they learn will also inform how they learn. They cannot be separated. knowing how to learn is something most of us already come equipped with- babies are voracious learners. Really, what most people mean when they talk about learning how to learn is learning how to use reference materials, how to find things out, and how to remember those things. But if you aren't learning anything that matters, you just have some pretty tools hanging unused on the clean and shiny walls of your mind. and the are useless if they are not being used with the real material of solid mind-stuff- history, says Fielding, and the wide field of literature (belles-lettres).
“Again, there is another sort of knowledge, beyond the power of learning to bestow, and this is to be had by conversation. So necessary is this to the understanding the characters of men, that none are more ignorant of them than those learned pedants whose lives have been entirely consumed in colleges, and among books; for however exquisitely human nature may have been described by writers, the true practical system can be learnt only in the world. Indeed the like happens in every other kind of knowledge. Neither physic nor law are to be practically known from books. Nay, the farmer, the planter, the gardener, must perfect by experience what he hath acquired the rudiments of by reading. How accurately soever the ingenious Mr Miller may have described the plant, he himself would advise his disciple to see it in the garden. As we must perceive, that after the nicest strokes of a Shakespear or a Jonson, of a Wycherly or an Otway, some touches of nature will escape the reader, which the judicious action of a Garrick, of a Cibber, or a Clive, can convey to him; so, on the real stage, the character shows himself in a stronger and bolder light than he can be described. And if this be the case in those fine and nervous descriptions which great authors themselves have taken from life, how much more strongly will it hold when the writer himself takes his lines not from nature, but from books? Such characters are only the faint copy of a copy, and can have neither the justness nor spirit of an original.”
David Garrick, Kitty Clive and Susannah Clibber were all actors. Shakespeare, Jonson, ycherly and Otway were playrights. Merely reading the lines of a play doesn't give you the insight and depth of character that seeing the play fleshed out by actors, no matter however gifted the dramatist who created those characters may be.
In addition to book learning, we need the jostling and bumping that comes from real conversations and interactions with real people, with real things, with real work, and exposure ‘in the round’ to the things we study in books. Life and learning are not confined to school books and school hours. Real life adds depth to our reading, as well, and feeds and nourishes the mind so the imagination (which grows by what it gets and thus expands) can flourish and . No description of a place can convey the feel of the air, the smell of the place, the knowledge of what it feels like to walk on cobblestones or smell the sea or feel the strength of a tropical sun. I have never been to the Amazon jungle, but not too long ago when I was reading a description of trying to take notes on paper in a hot, muggy, 100% humidity climate, I was able to picture it clearly because of my time spent living on tropical islands. Every experience we have also informs other experiences, and reading as well.
I have read about the division between North and South Korea many times and places. I’ve seen it on screen. The deepest impression, however, came from a conversation with a complete stranger- a South Korean man we met on a bus in Seoul the week that the wall came down in Germany. His mother had been pregnant with him when North and South Korea were cut off forever- and his father was on the North side. Father, grandparents, aunts, uncles- and not just paternal relatives, but some of his mother’s people also- all contact suddenly stopped, and at the time I met this man kind enough to stop and explain to a foreigner and her little daughter just what it meant to Koreans to see the fall of the wall dividing two Germanies.
It is truly a thing to marvel and wonder over, when one considers how interconnected it all is- while that conversation made the deepest impression on me, it wouldn’t have been the same without already having some context in which to put the story, and that context at the time came mostly from what I had read. Mr. Lee’s personal story brought what I knew to life, gave it a face and a real human story- but in order to do that, I had to first have the bones, the form, the structure of the story.
In a different vein, I could read about staining the skin with black walnut in Kipling’s story of Kim, but until I played with black walnuts in my grandfather’s woods as a child and then tried to wash off the stains myself, I did not have a complete understanding. The story informed my understanding of why my hands were so stained and how many days it took to wash that off, and my experience first hand deepened my understanding of the story as well. It's reciprocol, it's webbed, it's fractal- it's stunningly beautiful to discover these connections and feed your mind through them.
“Now this conversation in our historian must be universal, that is, with all ranks and degrees of men; for the knowledge of what is called high life will not instruct him in low; nor, e converso, (on the other side- Wendi) will his being acquainted with the inferior part of mankind teach him the manners of the superior. And though it may be thought that the knowledge of either may sufficiently enable him to describe at least that in which he hath been conversant, yet he will even here fall greatly short of perfection; for the follies of either rank do in reality illustrate each other. For instance, the affectation of high life appears more glaring and ridiculous from the simplicity of the low; and again, the rudeness and barbarity of this latter, strikes with much stronger ideas of absurdity, when contrasted with, and opposed to, the politeness which controuls the former. Besides, to say the truth, the manners of our historian will be improved by both these conversations; for in the one he will easily find examples of plainness, honesty, and sincerity; in the other of refinement, elegance, and a liberality of spirit; which last quality I myself have scarce ever seen in men of low birth and education.”
Be willing to learn from and converse with people from all walks of life. Don't look down on people who live in trailer parks or do menial labour - there are things you can learn from them. Don't look down on millionaires, either. Treat people as people and be humble enough to be willing to learn something from everybody you know, regardless of race, colour, creed, political spectrum.
Nor will all the qualities I have hitherto given my historian avail him, unless he have what is generally meant by a good heart, and be capable of feeling. The author who will make me weep, says Horace, must first weep himself. In reality, no man can paint a distress well which he doth not feel while he is painting it; nor do I doubt, but that the most pathetic and affecting scenes have been writ with tears. In the same manner it is with the ridiculous. I am convinced I never make my reader laugh heartily but where I have laughed before him; unless it should happen at any time, that instead of laughing with me he should be inclined to laugh at me. Perhaps this may have been the case at some passages in this chapter, from which apprehension I will here put an end to it.
I think what Fielding is saying here is that if you want to write well, you must feel what you want your audience to feel, you must be able to imagine yourself in other's shoes.
. . . Arguments about the relative merits of quite different disciplines seem, for the most part, a waste of time. We need and wish all kinds, for the more complex the discipline, the more likelihood is there that the result will be a many-sided personality--a true citizen of the world. But where the conditions forbid any one of the many doors being opened--for education is largely giving keys into children's hands--then there is apt to be a blasting of some bud, a numbing of some initiative; and a morbid growth."
All truth is God's truth. All is grist for the intellectual mills of those who are humble enough to be teachable, interested, and willing to learn. And we do not omit subjects for utilitarian reasons or because we haven't found a need to know this. Education is wide and generous.
Footnotes: Horace: Quintus Horatius Flaccus, December 8, 65 BC-8 BC, born to a freed slave, he became the foremost lyric poet in the time of Emperor Augustus, the same timeframe which saw Rome transfer from a Roman Republic to the Roman Empire.
You can find his works to read at Gutenberg, archive.org, free at Amazon, in several different editions and publications for sale, including the gorgeous Loebe Library volume.
The poet Eugene Field translated Horaces Sabine Farm. You can get it free or Gutenberg or for about 3 dollars at Amazon.
$5.00- Education for All, a new CM journal, Feed Your Mind! This issue contains several articles on handicrafts, outdoor play, nature study and science. See sidebar for purchasing options if you are in the Philippines.
$3.00 Five Little Peppers and How They Grew Copywork (grades 2/3, carefully selected with an eye toward finely crafted sentences, lovely bits of writing pleasant to picture in the mind's eye, and practice in copying some of the mechanics of grammar and punctuation typically covered in these years.
$5.00- Education for All, vol 2- the Imagination (and more) issue!- transcript of the imagination talk from the AO Camp meeting, with additional material I had to cut to save time.
$5.00- Education for All, a new CM journal, Feed Your Mind! This issue contains several articles on handicrafts, outdoor play, nature study and science. See sidebar for purchasing options if you are in the Philippines.
$3.00 Five Little Peppers and How They Grew Copywork (grades 2/3, carefully selected with an eye toward finely crafted sentences, lovely bits of writing pleasant to picture in the mind's eye, and practice in copying some of the mechanics of grammar and punctuation typically covered in these years.
$3.00 Aesop's Fables Copywork for Year One! Carefully selected with an eye toward well written sentences, memorable scenes, and some practice copying sentences that model the basics of capitalization and punctuation. Suitable for use with children who have already mastered the strokes and letters for basic penmanship.
Picture Study! Miguel Cabrera's beautiful, diverse families, painted in 18th century Mexico this package includes 9 downloadable prints along with directions for picture study and background information on the artist and his work. $5.00
Common Kitchen: What's for lunch? Isn't that a common problem in homeschooling families? What to fix, what is quick, what is frugal, what is nourishing? How can I accomplish all those things at once? We homeschooled 7 children, and I was a homeschooling mom for 29 years on a single income. I collected these recipes and snack ideas from all over the world. These are real foods I used to feed my family, my godsons, and sometimes my grandkids. Includes some cooking tips and suggestions for sides, and for a variety of substitutions. I think every family will find something they can use here. $5.00
Thursday, April 25, 2019
Imagination, from AO Camp 2019
 |
| From Imagination talk. Pics on right from our Philippine mission |
Poll. Strawberry Story. Aesop's frogs.
Then I have a couple paragraphs of actual notes, and then something vague again.
Also, I crossed things out and rearranged them as I went along in my talk, and one of the things people especially liked was something I kind of said off the cuff on the spot- it's not in my notes at all. I won't even be sure exactly what I said until the recordings are finished and available for purchase.
People also wanted to know about the parts I cut to make up for the time I ate up by giving those off the cuff remarks, but I've been asked to speak at L'Harmas in Canada this October, and I plan to share some of that 'director's cut' part of the talk there, and I want it to be fresh.=) (pro-tip- if you are American and not interested in traveling outside of the continent, a passport card is about half the price of a regular passport and you can use for driving into Canada).
Nonetheless, I wanted to share something about it for all the people who asked, so here's what I settled on doing:
First, I have an awesome summary to share. It's awesome because I did not write it and summarizing is simply not my gift. I am indebted to my longtime internet friend Linz(at)Home (I finally got to meet her at AO Camp!) for the following summary of my plenary. Her Instagram acct is here.
Here are her notes, shared with permission (Thanks, Linz!!)
"The reading of stories to children can empower imagination and empathy, “putting oneself in another’s shoes.”
Active sympathy is an act of imagination.
Children need fairy tales not for their own amusement but because they build the mind and squeeze out self-preoccupation.
“The weak diet of school texts produce people with little moral imagination.” (CM)
Imagination is a seed that grows from what it gets.
Living books fill the imagination and POINT IT OUTWARDS.
(Moralizing) twaddle doesn’t help you put yourself in another’s shoes, it makes you judgey and priggish. 😬
With Littles, be generous with the positive stories and save the heavy truths for later.
Accurate observation builds imagination. Picture to yourself the story. It builds a web of knowledge (not linear, stacked facts),
self-knowledge, not self-absorption.
Find a connection to what you’re reading -“oh, grandpa was from this country..” Emotions are engaged and reading widely can show us truths about ourselves.
Stories are also conversations through the ages. We meet people in other times and places.
Use stories that don’t have a perfect, tidy end. There is value in the questions “then what? Was that the right thing?” Let them wonder. It opens connections in the brain."
I think Linz did a fabulous job.
For those interested in the more in depth stuff from my notes, including multiple quotes, and much of the material I had to cut, plus excerpts from the articles I used in my research (except the material that will be part of my talk at L'Harmas), I have gathered all that and more together, tidied them up, organized them, and included them along with several new Parents' Review articles (new as in they are transcribed online in readable form for the first time as far as I know), and some other goodies in the newest, hot off the press, just finished, e-zine of Education for All! You can purchase that here: https://gum.co/TOSfc
And here is my rough bibliography if you want to do your own research:
Bibleography:
- Children and Books, https://www.amblesideonline.org/PR/PR00p000ChildrenandBooks.shtml
- Early Bible Reading, http://amblesideonline.org/PR/PR04p497EarlyBibleReading.shtml
- Emotions and learning: https://www.learningandthebrain.com/blog/emotions-learning-and-the-brain-exploring-the-educational-implications-of-affective-neuroscience-by-mary-helen-immordino-yang-edd/
- Hero-Worship as a Factor in Education by Miss L. H. Montagu,Volume 12, no. 8, August 1901, pgs. 561-573 http://amblesideonline.org/PR/PR12p561HeroWorship.shtml
- Children’s Playtime: http://amblesideonline.org/PR/PR14p785Playtime.shtml
- The Choice of Literature for the Young: http://mail.amblesideonline.org/PR/PR09p561Literature.shtml,
- Dawes, Forgotten Pioneer http://www.amblesideonline.org/PR/PR15p000ForgottenPioneer.shtml
- Children and Books, presented by Mrs. Conyers Alston, President of the P.N.E.U. Branch, Stellenbosch, C.P. South Africa https://www.amblesideonline.org/PR/PR00p000ChildrenandBooks.shtml
- Imagination as a Power Factor in a Well Balanced
Mind by E.A. Parish, http://amblesideonline.org/PR/PR25p379
Imagination.shtml Volume 25, no. 5,
1914, pgs. 379-390, Read at the P.N.E.U. Conference, held at Darlington, March,
1914
- Imagination as Cultivated by the Teaching of Geography and History, by M.P., Volume 6, 1895-1896, pgs. 110-117, https://www.amblesideonline.org/PR/PR06p110ImaginationGeographyHistory.shtml
- Reverence, or the Ideal in 'Education., BY T.G. ROOPER, H.M.I. Parents’ Review, Vol 1 p. 881
- Talk to Nurses, by Dr. Helen Webb, 1911, (suggestions on chores and responsibilities for children) http://amblesideonline.org/PR/PR11p437TalkstoNurses.shtml
- The Choice of Literature for the Young, The Parents' Review. [1897] Vol. 08, No. 09 p. 545-612
- The Parents' Review. [1894] Vol. 05, No. 03 p. 161-240
- PR article Our Girls by Emily Miall Emily may have been the daughter of Edward Miall, https://prabook.com/web/edward.miall/3725920
- The Parents' Review, volume 15, No. 08
- The Religious Training of Children (PR article)
- The Training of Citizens.by Miss L. H. Montagu Volume 10, 1899, pg. 521 https://www.amblesideonline.org/PR/PR10p521TrainingOfCitizens.shtml
- Training in the Service of Man, by J.L. Paton
- Training of Citizens: https://www.amblesideonline.org/PR/PR10p521TrainingOfCitizens.shtml
- Virtues of Simplicity https://www.amblesideonline.org/PR/PR11p543VirtuesofSimplicity.shtml
- Our relations to our fellow creatures, Bray The Parents' Review. [1902] Vol. 13, No. 07 p. 481-574
- https://archive.org/stream/p481-574PRv13n7/p503-518PRv13n7#page/n4/mode/1up
- Volume 13, PR, a conference address miss Mason wrote and somebody else read for her.
- Why Latin and Greek https://www.amblesideonline.org/PR/PR10p104WhyLatinGreek.shtml
Also, all six of Charlotte Mason's volumes on homeschooling, with a special emphasis on volumes 4 and 5, available online at AmblesideOnline.org, and the following books:
A Landscape with Dragons
Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child
Tending the Heart of Virtue
Beauty for Truth's Sake
Books that Build Character
I'm not a podcast person so I haven't listened to any, but I have no doubt that A Literary Life is excellent because I have never felt like Cindy Rollins has steered me wrong, and she and Angelina Stanford are doing this new podcast that looks so yummy I might have to try a podcast after all. (I did, it was!)
A Landscape with Dragons
Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child
Tending the Heart of Virtue
Beauty for Truth's Sake
Books that Build Character
I'm not a podcast person so I haven't listened to any, but I have no doubt that A Literary Life is excellent because I have never felt like Cindy Rollins has steered me wrong, and she and Angelina Stanford are doing this new podcast that looks so yummy I might have to try a podcast after all. (I did, it was!)
Regarding the material in my bibliography, the books I have read over the last few years. The articles I read or reread in the three months before my talk. I still have, literally, 25 tabs open to PR volumes I wanted to peruse before getting down to business and writing that talk, but... I finally had to slap my hands and tell myself enough was enough, I could read those volumes later when working on a sequel- or a book! Anyway, I'm a bit giddy about finishing up the second volume of Education for All. You don't have to read All the Things. That's just my personality. Research is one of my passions. But I share them here for those who want to read all the things, or for those who just like to wander here and there amidst the links, dabbling as you go.
Happy Wandering!! (see what I did there? It's a bit of an inside joke for those who were able to come to AOCMCamp!)
$5.00- Education for All, vol 2- the Imagination (and more) issue!- transcript of the imagination talk from the AO Camp meeting, with additional material I had to cut to save time.
$5.00- Education for All, a new CM journal, Feed Your Mind! This issue contains several articles on handicrafts, outdoor play, nature study and science. See sidebar for purchasing options if you are in the Philippines.
$3.00 Five Little Peppers and How They Grew Copywork (grades 2/3, carefully selected with an eye toward finely crafted sentences, lovely bits of writing pleasant to picture in the mind's eye, and practice in copying some of the mechanics of grammar and punctuation typically covered in these years.
$3.00 Aesop's Fables Copywork for Year One! Carefully selected with an eye toward well written sentences, memorable scenes, and some practice copying sentences that model the basics of capitalization and punctuation. Suitable for use with children who have already mastered the strokes and letters for basic penmanship.
Picture Study! Miguel Cabrera's beautiful, diverse families, painted in 18th century Mexico this package includes 9 downloadable prints along with directions for picture study and background information on the artist and his work. $5.00
Common Kitchen: What's for lunch? Isn't that a common problem in homeschooling families? What to fix, what is quick, what is frugal, what is nourishing? How can I accomplish all those things at once? We homeschooled 7 children, and I was a homeschooling mom for 29 years on a single income. I collected these recipes and snack ideas from all over the world. These are real foods I used to feed my family, my godsons, and sometimes my grandkids. Includes some cooking tips and suggestions for sides, and for a variety of substitutions. I think every family will find something they can use here. $5.00
Thursday, March 28, 2019
Composition Suggestions from a CM trained Teacher
"Written composition begins to take the place of oral work in Class II."
What did that look like?
Have you ever wished you could hear directly from a teacher trained by Charlotte Mason? Wouldn't like to hear how the method worked for her, how she implemented the philosophy and how she taught her students?
We can!
The House of Education was the teaching school Mason established. Here she shared her methods with young women who wanted to teach. She also had a dayschool where the methods could be put into practice.
"In 1895, the House of Education Old Students' Association was formed to provide current and "old" students who were scattered abroad, opportunities to keep in touch and provide mutual support. In 1896 they began publishing the magazine, L'Umile Pianta, named after a plant growing near Ambleside, which Charlotte Mason admired for its ability to bend without breaking. " From the CharlotteMason Digital Collection at Archive.org
The students (current and graduated) also held conferences from time to time, and the conference talks often were reprinted in the magazine. At the 1911 conference, House of Education graduate Miss H. H. Dyke spoke on Composition, Letter Writing, and Copywork.
I think this will resonate with many frustrated parents:
"In teaching in the Parents' Union School, the chief difficulty is lack of time. ... half an hour once a week (for composition) is surely very inadequate. There is no opportunity for the definite instruction which I strongly feel is desirable, nor for the criticism of essays already written, and the essay is of course necessarily written straight into the exercise book, instead of being read through and re-copied as I should like. The girls no doubt pick up expressions from their text books, and peculiarities of style but they do not make the progress they might, and their work nearly always bears the sign of haste. As this is one of the accusations commonly brought against the Parents' Union scheme, I very much hope that this point may afterwards be discussed. "more time, then, seems to me to be not only desirable, but absolutely necessary, and then I think a great deal of help could be given."
Her idea was that composition should be twice a week rather than once. She doesn't want to lengthen the time period, she is keeping to moderately short lessons (they are shorter for lower grades, but gradually lengthen).
She further writes that upon leaving the training school:
"we set out, perhaps, to teach Composition in the happy belief that no great art or skill was needed, but that, given interesting subjects and with good literature as their model, the children would acquire a good style without our help."
" I wonder whether any of you became conscious of being mistaken. Was it your experience, as I candidly confess it was mine, that though the children's vocabulary was enlarged by the use of books, yet they did not learn by nature the elementary rules of Composition?"
This was not largely my experience. In proportion as I used Mason's methods and did not rely overmuch on audio books and did do copywork and dictation and required written narrations, those children developed a pretty good style without extra help. Those for whom I failed to use Mason's methods as thoroughly (we went through a very difficult patch of life while I was in the throes of untreated and overlooked PTSD), did not do as well. But my family is not the only sample to consider. We tend to be pretty verbal already. So it's probably encouraging to know, if you feel like your kids needed a bit more instruction, there's an expert who agrees with you!
She says she believes there is room for a great deal of help to be given students learning composition. So what are her suggestions? Perhaps she has some ideas that will work for you.
Helping children keep a sense of proportion in their compositions: For example, in her observation, the Class II students often lack a sense of proportion. That is, they emphasize unimportant things and omit vital things. Perhaps they spend a page on minutiae and irrelevant anecdotes and never remember to mention that the person they are writing about was the emperor of most of the known western world, or developed the airplane, or was a famous artist.
How can we fix that lack of proportion? Dyke suggests giving them an outline of a simple story and letting them fill it in. Here I think it also works to let them write their own basic outline of a simple folk tale or news article of interest to them, or a fable from Aesop's, and then a few days later, have them use that outline to rewrite the story. This is an old method that has helped many a writer build their skills. Matt Whitling's Imitation in Writing series scripts this for you. I wouldn't use the entire series, but if you're struggling you could try it for one term, or use it as a template or springboard for your own version.
She also suggests that they think of a general theme for the direction of their written narration (or composition) and instructing them to omit any anecdotes that have nothing to do with the overall idea.
Organizing their ideas: Miss Dyke says it's most important to have the children write down a definite scheme before they begin- 'write down in the form of headings all that occurs to them on the subject, and then arrange these headings in their logical sequence.' Have the students look over their headings with their general theme in mind and omit any that don't fit their theme. She suggests only spending five minutes doing this since only 30 minutes is allotted to composition in a week.
My personal suggestion is that you need not limit yourself so severely to something even Miss Mason's own trained teachers found onerous. You don't want to drag lessons out. You do want to quit while the students are still fresh. But you might follow her suggestion and have two composition sessions in a week instead of one.
Here is another idea for helping students organize their ideas. This is not from Miss Dyke, another homeschooling mother shared this with me years ago. Have your student write everything he wants to write on a topic in about 15 or 20 minutes- except the student must start each sentence on a new line, or better yet, double space the sentences, so each sentence is separated from the previous one by a blank line. At the end of the alloted time, actually cut apart the sentences. Now have the student rearrange the sentences so that like things go together- all the sentences about this topic or time period go together. I sometimes told my children to think of the different ideas or topics as different types of fruit and they were sorting all the apples together, all the bananas together, etc. Then try rewriting it by taping the sentence strips to another piece of paper, but in a better order. If you run out of time, you can put the sentence strips in an envelope and do the reorganizing and taping a day or two later.
Please do not overdo this. I suspect if you try this two or three times over half a school year, your scholar will start to think about organizing his ideas before he writes, and he will have some notion of how to do this. If you want to take it further, a few days after the cutting apart and rearranging, the student can make a freshly written copy, making improvements as they occur. It's also a useful method for teaching students the concept of first drafts and rough drafts and that most writers (all good writers) rewrite.
Other helps Miss Dyke suggests: '...some kind of introduction should be made heading up the theme itself; then the different facts are marshalled in order, a clear sequence of thought and a suitable proportion between the different parts of the essay being observed, and lastly a conclusion is drawn- e.g., the leading thought of the essay is given. The essay should if possible begin and end with an effective sentence. Use Bacon's essays for examples."
You can do this as your reading other things, too. Keep your eyes open for good, striking opening and closing sentences, and occasionally comment on them when you see them. Ask your student to watch for them, too. You could make them a theme for copywork selections for a while, or commonplace books if your student has graduated to those.
She also says, "Another valuable exercise is to read a speech from the newspaper, or to take any other suitable extract from literature- e.g. a complete and short episode from any classic, or one of Bacon's or Lamb's essays- and ask the children to extract the plan, writing down the chief points in the form of headings. They will very quickly learn to discriminate between a good and a bad speech, distinguishing one that is logical and forcible from another which, thought calculated to appeal to the uneducated will not prove to be sound logic if analysed."
With older students, this was sometimes what I requested for a narration- to write down the main points of a few of the paragraphs.
She says to tell beginning students to use short sentences and to make their beginnings as varied as possible.
Looking at a page of work from any good author and comparing the ways the sentences begin will show 'in what varied ways it is possible to start a sentence and the children will quickly notice how pleasing variety is to the ear."
Paragraphs can be taught by using the 'headings' the children have used with outlines and writing plans. Show them that everything that they say that falls under one heading belongs in one paragraph, and when they start the next heading, everything they have to say should flow from that.
Punctuation is best taught by 'careful observation when reading,' and the dictation lessons also give practice in this.
Note that this implies the necessity of the students doing their own reading from actual pages which show punctuation. Too much reliance on audiobooks can cause problems in spelling and punctuation. Sometimes it cannot be helped, but it's important to be aware that Mason's method is based on seeing thousands of printed pages of proper punctuation demonstrated, so if you need audiobooks, you will also need a more direct approach to teaching punctuation.
Words fitly spoken: Next she suggests teaching children the value of using the right words. "clearness is to be sought after before all things." One exercise to help develop clearness is, again, to take a well written essay and require your student to write a one sentence summary of a paragraph.
Teach them the value of using the best word for the occasion. Once in a while have your student or class come up with a list of synonyms, then use them in the same sentence to see that words with similar meanings cannot necessarily be used precisely the same way.
Teach them not to use long words unless they are the right words. Unless you are trying for comedy, 'The mayor was proceeding to his residence on his bicycle when he was precipitated from his machine, and sustained a fractured leg' is not better than 'while riding home, the Mayor fell from his bicycle and broke his leg.'
These helps for composition teaching should be used sparingly- don't throw all of them at a student at one time. Focus on one of these tools for a few weeks, keeping the lessons to 30 minutes, give or take a couple minutes (but not much stretching beyond that). It's better to have three 20 minutes lessons than one hour long session. Spread them out, sometimes pointing things out naturally as they arise- copywork and dictation are opportunities to point out punctuation, dictation is helpful for paragraphs. When you are struck by a particularly rich sentence, it's okay to say so. Keep your own commonplace book and let your student see you sometimes stopping to write something down because you are so impressed by the power of the writing. A little goes a long way, especially when spread over time, with regular, focused times of attention to the topic.
Miss Dyke has other things to say. "Blank Verse" she says, 'used to be included in the Programme as an occasional exercise for Class III and IV" she says the result is most unsatisfactory to both teacher and children if they have any literary feeling at all and she hopes it's completely removed from the programme because a children with any poetic talent will versify without encouragement, and for the rest- perhaps the amount of bad poetry (if it can be dignified by that name) produced nowadays should be a sufficient deterrent from encouraging everyone to think he is a poet. At any rate, I do not think the time spent on this exercise is justified by the results, and I should reserve the writing of poetry until the power to write prose was greater." I laughed aloud, although in the subsequent discussion it seems the consensus of her audience was disagreement, they liked blank verse assignments and wanted to continue them.
Nobody, however, seems to have accused her of being divisive, of not measuring up to Miss Mason's standards, of failing at CM. They simply disagreed.
Footnotes:
H. H. Dyke, Ambleside Conference 1911, speaking on composition, narration and letterwriting L'Umile Pianta : For the Children's Sake. 1911, June. p. 1-76.
In the September, 1912 issue of L'umile Pianta, a letter from Helen Dyke is published. She writes of the Christian mission where she is working in India, in the town of Barisal, 200 miles from Calcutta.
She writes again in the May, 1914 issue, where she was then working with a new mission in Joharpar, India, which she says is reached only by boat, because rice fields surround the place.
$5.00- Education for All, vol 2- the Imagination (and more) issue!- transcript of the imagination talk from the AO Camp meeting, with additional material I had to cut to save time.
$5.00- Education for All, a new CM journal, Feed Your Mind! This issue contains several articles on handicrafts, outdoor play, nature study and science. See sidebar for purchasing options if you are in the Philippines.
$3.00 Five Little Peppers and How They Grew Copywork (grades 2/3, carefully selected with an eye toward finely crafted sentences, lovely bits of writing pleasant to picture in the mind's eye, and practice in copying some of the mechanics of grammar and punctuation typically covered in these years.
$3.00 Aesop's Fables Copywork for Year One! Carefully selected with an eye toward well written sentences, memorable scenes, and some practice copying sentences that model the basics of capitalization and punctuation. Suitable for use with children who have already mastered the strokes and letters for basic penmanship.
Picture Study! Miguel Cabrera's beautiful, diverse families, painted in 18th century Mexico this package includes 9 downloadable prints along with directions for picture study and background information on the artist and his work. $5.00
Common Kitchen: What's for lunch? Isn't that a common problem in homeschooling families? What to fix, what is quick, what is frugal, what is nourishing? How can I accomplish all those things at once? We homeschooled 7 children, and I was a homeschooling mom for 29 years on a single income. I collected these recipes and snack ideas from all over the world. These are real foods I used to feed my family, my godsons, and sometimes my grandkids. Includes some cooking tips and suggestions for sides, and for a variety of substitutions. I think every family will find something they can use here. $5.00
What did that look like?
Have you ever wished you could hear directly from a teacher trained by Charlotte Mason? Wouldn't like to hear how the method worked for her, how she implemented the philosophy and how she taught her students?
We can!
The House of Education was the teaching school Mason established. Here she shared her methods with young women who wanted to teach. She also had a dayschool where the methods could be put into practice.
"In 1895, the House of Education Old Students' Association was formed to provide current and "old" students who were scattered abroad, opportunities to keep in touch and provide mutual support. In 1896 they began publishing the magazine, L'Umile Pianta, named after a plant growing near Ambleside, which Charlotte Mason admired for its ability to bend without breaking. " From the CharlotteMason Digital Collection at Archive.org
The students (current and graduated) also held conferences from time to time, and the conference talks often were reprinted in the magazine. At the 1911 conference, House of Education graduate Miss H. H. Dyke spoke on Composition, Letter Writing, and Copywork.
I think this will resonate with many frustrated parents:
"In teaching in the Parents' Union School, the chief difficulty is lack of time. ... half an hour once a week (for composition) is surely very inadequate. There is no opportunity for the definite instruction which I strongly feel is desirable, nor for the criticism of essays already written, and the essay is of course necessarily written straight into the exercise book, instead of being read through and re-copied as I should like. The girls no doubt pick up expressions from their text books, and peculiarities of style but they do not make the progress they might, and their work nearly always bears the sign of haste. As this is one of the accusations commonly brought against the Parents' Union scheme, I very much hope that this point may afterwards be discussed. "more time, then, seems to me to be not only desirable, but absolutely necessary, and then I think a great deal of help could be given."
Her idea was that composition should be twice a week rather than once. She doesn't want to lengthen the time period, she is keeping to moderately short lessons (they are shorter for lower grades, but gradually lengthen).
She further writes that upon leaving the training school:
"we set out, perhaps, to teach Composition in the happy belief that no great art or skill was needed, but that, given interesting subjects and with good literature as their model, the children would acquire a good style without our help."
" I wonder whether any of you became conscious of being mistaken. Was it your experience, as I candidly confess it was mine, that though the children's vocabulary was enlarged by the use of books, yet they did not learn by nature the elementary rules of Composition?"
This was not largely my experience. In proportion as I used Mason's methods and did not rely overmuch on audio books and did do copywork and dictation and required written narrations, those children developed a pretty good style without extra help. Those for whom I failed to use Mason's methods as thoroughly (we went through a very difficult patch of life while I was in the throes of untreated and overlooked PTSD), did not do as well. But my family is not the only sample to consider. We tend to be pretty verbal already. So it's probably encouraging to know, if you feel like your kids needed a bit more instruction, there's an expert who agrees with you!
She says she believes there is room for a great deal of help to be given students learning composition. So what are her suggestions? Perhaps she has some ideas that will work for you.
Helping children keep a sense of proportion in their compositions: For example, in her observation, the Class II students often lack a sense of proportion. That is, they emphasize unimportant things and omit vital things. Perhaps they spend a page on minutiae and irrelevant anecdotes and never remember to mention that the person they are writing about was the emperor of most of the known western world, or developed the airplane, or was a famous artist.
How can we fix that lack of proportion? Dyke suggests giving them an outline of a simple story and letting them fill it in. Here I think it also works to let them write their own basic outline of a simple folk tale or news article of interest to them, or a fable from Aesop's, and then a few days later, have them use that outline to rewrite the story. This is an old method that has helped many a writer build their skills. Matt Whitling's Imitation in Writing series scripts this for you. I wouldn't use the entire series, but if you're struggling you could try it for one term, or use it as a template or springboard for your own version.
She also suggests that they think of a general theme for the direction of their written narration (or composition) and instructing them to omit any anecdotes that have nothing to do with the overall idea.
Organizing their ideas: Miss Dyke says it's most important to have the children write down a definite scheme before they begin- 'write down in the form of headings all that occurs to them on the subject, and then arrange these headings in their logical sequence.' Have the students look over their headings with their general theme in mind and omit any that don't fit their theme. She suggests only spending five minutes doing this since only 30 minutes is allotted to composition in a week.
My personal suggestion is that you need not limit yourself so severely to something even Miss Mason's own trained teachers found onerous. You don't want to drag lessons out. You do want to quit while the students are still fresh. But you might follow her suggestion and have two composition sessions in a week instead of one.
Here is another idea for helping students organize their ideas. This is not from Miss Dyke, another homeschooling mother shared this with me years ago. Have your student write everything he wants to write on a topic in about 15 or 20 minutes- except the student must start each sentence on a new line, or better yet, double space the sentences, so each sentence is separated from the previous one by a blank line. At the end of the alloted time, actually cut apart the sentences. Now have the student rearrange the sentences so that like things go together- all the sentences about this topic or time period go together. I sometimes told my children to think of the different ideas or topics as different types of fruit and they were sorting all the apples together, all the bananas together, etc. Then try rewriting it by taping the sentence strips to another piece of paper, but in a better order. If you run out of time, you can put the sentence strips in an envelope and do the reorganizing and taping a day or two later.
Please do not overdo this. I suspect if you try this two or three times over half a school year, your scholar will start to think about organizing his ideas before he writes, and he will have some notion of how to do this. If you want to take it further, a few days after the cutting apart and rearranging, the student can make a freshly written copy, making improvements as they occur. It's also a useful method for teaching students the concept of first drafts and rough drafts and that most writers (all good writers) rewrite.
Other helps Miss Dyke suggests: '...some kind of introduction should be made heading up the theme itself; then the different facts are marshalled in order, a clear sequence of thought and a suitable proportion between the different parts of the essay being observed, and lastly a conclusion is drawn- e.g., the leading thought of the essay is given. The essay should if possible begin and end with an effective sentence. Use Bacon's essays for examples."
You can do this as your reading other things, too. Keep your eyes open for good, striking opening and closing sentences, and occasionally comment on them when you see them. Ask your student to watch for them, too. You could make them a theme for copywork selections for a while, or commonplace books if your student has graduated to those.
She also says, "Another valuable exercise is to read a speech from the newspaper, or to take any other suitable extract from literature- e.g. a complete and short episode from any classic, or one of Bacon's or Lamb's essays- and ask the children to extract the plan, writing down the chief points in the form of headings. They will very quickly learn to discriminate between a good and a bad speech, distinguishing one that is logical and forcible from another which, thought calculated to appeal to the uneducated will not prove to be sound logic if analysed."
With older students, this was sometimes what I requested for a narration- to write down the main points of a few of the paragraphs.
She says to tell beginning students to use short sentences and to make their beginnings as varied as possible.
Looking at a page of work from any good author and comparing the ways the sentences begin will show 'in what varied ways it is possible to start a sentence and the children will quickly notice how pleasing variety is to the ear."
Paragraphs can be taught by using the 'headings' the children have used with outlines and writing plans. Show them that everything that they say that falls under one heading belongs in one paragraph, and when they start the next heading, everything they have to say should flow from that.
Punctuation is best taught by 'careful observation when reading,' and the dictation lessons also give practice in this.
Note that this implies the necessity of the students doing their own reading from actual pages which show punctuation. Too much reliance on audiobooks can cause problems in spelling and punctuation. Sometimes it cannot be helped, but it's important to be aware that Mason's method is based on seeing thousands of printed pages of proper punctuation demonstrated, so if you need audiobooks, you will also need a more direct approach to teaching punctuation.
Words fitly spoken: Next she suggests teaching children the value of using the right words. "clearness is to be sought after before all things." One exercise to help develop clearness is, again, to take a well written essay and require your student to write a one sentence summary of a paragraph.
Teach them the value of using the best word for the occasion. Once in a while have your student or class come up with a list of synonyms, then use them in the same sentence to see that words with similar meanings cannot necessarily be used precisely the same way.
Teach them not to use long words unless they are the right words. Unless you are trying for comedy, 'The mayor was proceeding to his residence on his bicycle when he was precipitated from his machine, and sustained a fractured leg' is not better than 'while riding home, the Mayor fell from his bicycle and broke his leg.'
These helps for composition teaching should be used sparingly- don't throw all of them at a student at one time. Focus on one of these tools for a few weeks, keeping the lessons to 30 minutes, give or take a couple minutes (but not much stretching beyond that). It's better to have three 20 minutes lessons than one hour long session. Spread them out, sometimes pointing things out naturally as they arise- copywork and dictation are opportunities to point out punctuation, dictation is helpful for paragraphs. When you are struck by a particularly rich sentence, it's okay to say so. Keep your own commonplace book and let your student see you sometimes stopping to write something down because you are so impressed by the power of the writing. A little goes a long way, especially when spread over time, with regular, focused times of attention to the topic.
Miss Dyke has other things to say. "Blank Verse" she says, 'used to be included in the Programme as an occasional exercise for Class III and IV" she says the result is most unsatisfactory to both teacher and children if they have any literary feeling at all and she hopes it's completely removed from the programme because a children with any poetic talent will versify without encouragement, and for the rest- perhaps the amount of bad poetry (if it can be dignified by that name) produced nowadays should be a sufficient deterrent from encouraging everyone to think he is a poet. At any rate, I do not think the time spent on this exercise is justified by the results, and I should reserve the writing of poetry until the power to write prose was greater." I laughed aloud, although in the subsequent discussion it seems the consensus of her audience was disagreement, they liked blank verse assignments and wanted to continue them.
Nobody, however, seems to have accused her of being divisive, of not measuring up to Miss Mason's standards, of failing at CM. They simply disagreed.
Footnotes:
H. H. Dyke, Ambleside Conference 1911, speaking on composition, narration and letterwriting L'Umile Pianta : For the Children's Sake. 1911, June. p. 1-76.
In the September, 1912 issue of L'umile Pianta, a letter from Helen Dyke is published. She writes of the Christian mission where she is working in India, in the town of Barisal, 200 miles from Calcutta.
She writes again in the May, 1914 issue, where she was then working with a new mission in Joharpar, India, which she says is reached only by boat, because rice fields surround the place.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
$5.00- Education for All, vol 2- the Imagination (and more) issue!- transcript of the imagination talk from the AO Camp meeting, with additional material I had to cut to save time.
$5.00- Education for All, a new CM journal, Feed Your Mind! This issue contains several articles on handicrafts, outdoor play, nature study and science. See sidebar for purchasing options if you are in the Philippines.
$3.00 Five Little Peppers and How They Grew Copywork (grades 2/3, carefully selected with an eye toward finely crafted sentences, lovely bits of writing pleasant to picture in the mind's eye, and practice in copying some of the mechanics of grammar and punctuation typically covered in these years.
$3.00 Aesop's Fables Copywork for Year One! Carefully selected with an eye toward well written sentences, memorable scenes, and some practice copying sentences that model the basics of capitalization and punctuation. Suitable for use with children who have already mastered the strokes and letters for basic penmanship.
Picture Study! Miguel Cabrera's beautiful, diverse families, painted in 18th century Mexico this package includes 9 downloadable prints along with directions for picture study and background information on the artist and his work. $5.00
Common Kitchen: What's for lunch? Isn't that a common problem in homeschooling families? What to fix, what is quick, what is frugal, what is nourishing? How can I accomplish all those things at once? We homeschooled 7 children, and I was a homeschooling mom for 29 years on a single income. I collected these recipes and snack ideas from all over the world. These are real foods I used to feed my family, my godsons, and sometimes my grandkids. Includes some cooking tips and suggestions for sides, and for a variety of substitutions. I think every family will find something they can use here. $5.00
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Choosing Your Own Artists for Picture Study
I liked to choose an artist, if at all possible, by first looking at the artists who worked during the time period you were studying for history. You may prefer another basis-artists from a particular country or culture, artists who used a particular style, artists whose work will be on display at a museum you will be visiting later in the year. Of course, their work should be good, something worth seeing on its own merits.
Once you have a list of artists to choose from, apply these principles to the artworks and narrow your selection to about six works by a single artist. You could do 7 or 9, or you could do 3-5, but six is a good number. You do not want six works by six different artists just because all six artists are from the country you like. This is because the purpose of picture study, among other things, is to expose the children to several works by the same artist so they become familiar with the style of a single artist. They will later start to notice similarities and differences with other artists- this is the beginning of later art appreciation. Six works by six different Ukrainian or Filipino artists can be a beautiful basis for choosing the prints to hang on your living room wall, but it's not a suitable collection for picture study.
In selecting our pictures, we should keep these things in mind (these are either direct quotes or paraphrases of Charlotte Mason's works):
1. The pictures should have a refining, elevating influence.
2. They should express great ideas, and this is more important than the technique.
3. The great ideas our art prints express might include "the great human relationships, relationships of love and service, of authority and obedience, of reverence and pity and neighbourly kindness; relationships to kin and friend and neighbour, to 'cause' and country and kind, to the past and the present."
4. Our art prints ought to put "our children in touch with the great thoughts by which the world has been educated in the past, and to keep . . . them in the right attitude towards the great ideas of the present" -- And bring us into the "world of beauty created for us by those whose Beauty Sense enables them not only to see and take joy in all the Beauty there is, but whose souls become so filled with the Beauty they gather through eye and ear that they produce for us new forms of Beauty."
Do our choices expose the children to those works of art which seek to "interpret to us some of the meanings of life?"
" . . . Fra Angelico will tell us of the beauty of holiness, that Giotto will confide his interpretation of the meaning of life, that Millet will tell us of the simplicity and dignity that belong to labour on the soil, that Rembrandt will show us the sweetness of humanity in many a commonplace countenance.
I can suggest a couple Japanese artists you might start with- just look for them at your library, and perhaps the library will have something else in the same area:
Hirochoge
Hiroshi
Amazon has a History of Far Eastern Art by Sherman Lee that looks interesting. So does another History of Asian Art book by Dorinda Neave and Lara C.W. Blanchard
The artist -- " Reaching, that heaven might so replenish him, Above and through his art ," -- has indispensable lessons to give us . . . the outward and visible sign is of less moment than the inward and spiritual grace." Technique, no matter how brilliant, is not a substitute for expression of beauty, or one of those 'meanings of life' interpretations.
Let us choose pictures using this as a guideline: "Nothing can be a work of art which is not useful, that is to say, which does not minister to the body when well under the command of the mind, or which does not amuse, soothe, or elevate the mind in a healthy state." -- CM quoting William Morris
The works of art we choose should represent 'master ideas,' which the painter "works out, not in a single piece, but here a little and there a little, in a series of studies." The artist is "a teacher, who is to have a refining, elevating effect upon our coarser nature."
Our prints can also be chosen to help the children develop a love for the commonplace beauty of every day things -- "For it is true as Browning told us, -- For, don't you mark, we're made so that we love First when we see them painted, things we have passed Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see . . . . we learn to see things when we see them painted."
Our art prints should help our children develop an affinity for, an attraction to, the beautiful, the lovely, the pure, the refining -- because "education is concerned to teach him what pictures to delight in."
Use these principles to choose your other artists, always keeping in mind you want to have your children use picture study time to look at several works by the same artist over a period of several weeks.
Additional information, references, and suggestions:
Most of the time people interested in pursuing their own artists for picture study are looking for diversity, multiculturalism, or representation since their family is multicultural.
I'm sure you will not be surprised to know that I have some suggestions. However, while I have lived in two different Asian countries for a total of seven years, I have worked with a number of Asians from a third country for two years, and have a deep and crazy love for Asian culture and people, it's really not that easy for westerners with more academic interest than an actual real, long time, deep connection with a culture to choose the best it has to offer. Look for people steeped in the culture you are interested in for guidance. My suggestions are just a starting place.
Do you have an art museum nearby? Spend a day visiting their African and Eastern exhibits,taking notes, absorbing styles and colours, and then look in the museum gift shop to see what they have by way of post cards and reference books you could use. If possible, you might ask if you can meet with the curator and ask for recommendations.
Artists to consider: Hokusai (note: he did magnificent nature paintings, and also erotic art, so you might not want to look him up, or any artist, with the kids over your shoulder)Hiroshige
Hiroshi
Remember what I said about needing a cultural connection with the culture for best results? I learned about Hokusai when I was in my twenties and we lived in Japan. I could have and should have learned about him here in the U.S., because he is not obscure and unknown in the west , but if I was ever exposed to his works before we lived in Japan, and it's almost impossible that I wouldn't have, I simply did not notice. Incidentally, if you are using AO and reading George Washington's World, he is mentioned there.
History of Asian Art looks interesting.
Van Loon's The Arts has some eastern artists and information on architecture in eastern countries (no modern examples, of course, since it's an older book)
The Smithsonian says their Sackler gallery is the largest collection of Asian art in the U.S. https://www.freersackler.si.edu/
China: A History in Art by Bradley Smith and Wan-go Weng.
The Image of the Black in African and Asian Art (it's expensive, but maybe your library would carry it)
YOu can also put any artist you choose (including artists from AO's picture study line-up) into the search bar here: medievalpoc.tumblr.com to see if they have any works depicting non-Caucasians.
Many youngsters might like Ezra Tucker's work, especially the historical paintings of buffalo soldiers: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ezra_Tucker
http://ezratucker.com/
I am fond of Young Man with a Bow by Hyacinthe Rigaud: http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/image/173996616b058I also like the modern works of Kadir Nelson.
You can see his work here: http://www.kadirnelson.com/gallery
We can't use them in AO's picture study because they are not public domain, but you could use them using the posted screen pictures.
I also like the work of the Dillons (he's from Trinidad)- mostly book illustrators but I really love their illustrations.
They have a very charming interview here: http://www.locusmag.com/2000/Issues/04/Dillons.html
Some examples of their work here: http://linesandcolors.com/2009/05/13/leo-and-diane-dillon/
Fernando Amorsolo is a Filipino artist whose work I admire (what I like and know is not THE standard, but I can't share what I don't know that's why I encourage people to ask around and visit museums and talk to curators and see what your libraries have)
Miguel Pou Becerra is a Puerto Rican artist a Puerto Rican AO mom shared on our fb group.
Henry Ossawa Tanner is an AFrican American artist worth considering.
Kahinde Wiley painted former President Obama's picture and Amy Sharrald painted the first Lady's. Both are contemporary black artists, so we can't use them for official picture study as the works are not public domain. Kahinde is known for painting sperm into his works, so be forewarned.
You might consider textile arts, such as the Story Cloths of the Hmong refugees. Dia's Story Cloth is a picture book introduction.
I have chosen and shared several South American painters from the 17th century here.
For more on Charlotte Mason's philosophy when it comes to picture study and art, you should go to the source. In other words, please see Charlotte Mason's own books, in particular these sections:
Vol 1 pg 308-311
Vol 2, page 262
Vol 3 pg 77, page 209, page 239, page 353ff
Vol. 4, pages 2-3, page 42, page 44, 48-49
Vol 5 pg 231-236
Vol. 5 p 312-315
Vol. 6, pages 213-217
Vol. 6, page 275
Vol. 6 328-329
Picture Talk, Parents Review, Vol 17, 1906
Picture Talk, Parents Review, Vol. 12, 1901
Impressions of Conference Work with Class II (scroll down for two paragraphs about a specific picture talk given) A similar explanation and example is offered here.
Art and Literature in the Parents' Union School (the art/picture study section is midway down the page
For more helps, see: https://www.amblesideonline.org/ArtSch.shtml
Remember, too, that you don't have to squeeze in everything that is worthwhile in the 12 years of formal schooling most of us have. By introducing your children to these topics graciously, slowly, joyfully, giving them time to savour and contemplate, you are also opening the door to the world of art to them. They will go on later and find other artists you never heard of that they enjoy. One of the richest blessings I have received as a retired homeschool mom is when my teens and adult children introduce me to an artist or composer they have discovered. Don't panic about not being able to fit in every artist worth learning about. Education is for life.
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$5.00- Education for All, vol 2- the Imagination (and more) issue!- transcript of the imagination talk from the AO Camp meeting, with additional material I had to cut to save time.
$5.00- Education for All, a new CM journal, Feed Your Mind! This issue contains several articles on handicrafts, outdoor play, nature study and science. See sidebar for purchasing options if you are in the Philippines.
$3.00 Five Little Peppers and How They Grew Copywork (grades 2/3, carefully selected with an eye toward finely crafted sentences, lovely bits of writing pleasant to picture in the mind's eye, and practice in copying some of the mechanics of grammar and punctuation typically covered in these years.
$3.00 Aesop's Fables Copywork for Year One! Carefully selected with an eye toward well written sentences, memorable scenes, and some practice copying sentences that model the basics of capitalization and punctuation. Suitable for use with children who have already mastered the strokes and letters for basic penmanship.
Picture Study! Miguel Cabrera's beautiful, diverse families, painted in 18th century Mexico this package includes 9 downloadable prints along with directions for picture study and background information on the artist and his work. $5.00
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