Secular Charlotte Mason

I'd like to share this link to the NIH Office of Science Education that a friend recommended for supplementing our biology and psychology studies. I have not seen the materials myself (I just ordered mine) but they look good and, best of all, are free. It looks like there are also links at the site for doing online work (we are going to be checking out the time-lapse video of brain development). Overall, a worthwhile site to check out for supplementing K-12 science. 

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I realize that Lee Binz is not secular, but at least this month, she seems to be writing about many of the issues I usually end up addressing when mentoring other homeschoolers. This article sums up nicely my take on the DISADVANTAGES of having a teaching degree. I firmly believe that the key to great homeschooling is great PARENTING, not great teaching. Whenever I have academic issues with my kids it is almost always because of some parenting issue, not homeschooling or teaching issues. Most people do not realize that homeschooling your own kids is NOTHING like teaching other people's kids in a classroom!   (I've done both and there is a huge difference.) 

javascript:mox(); Read this brief article if you worry about whether you are qualified to teach your own kids. 

Just an FYI:

If you have sent me links to add to the SecularCM website (including member websites, spycams, etc.) I will be adding all of them at once later in the summer after my family has had it's screen-free July.

I have also received requests/links from some homeschool companies but will honor those only for members. Just letting you know incase you wondered why your link or recommendation hasn't appeared yet.

A very long list of Free Curriculum  ~ Cori

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=109114&highlight=free

If you are in the throws of planning high school and trying to figure out how grades, transcripts and reading lists all fit into the picture you may want to check out The Home Scholar. The link below is for her free one hour webinar. I find her suggestions to be quite practical and she holds your hand as little or as much as you need/can afford. 

She is not secular in her beliefs but I have spoken with her in person and never had a problem as she doesn't seem to infuse her high school website/information with religion (it appears she does have some other blogs or websites that are Christian but those are easy to avoidl). She is also on Facebook if that is your preferred media. 

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PS Please let me know if the link doesn't work.

I haven't posted on here in a while because lately my blog reading and writing is exploring daily rhythms, seasonal rhythms, some Waldorf ideas and spirituality.  Now we are gearing up to start formal lessons soon and I'm thinking about schedules and pulling it all together.

In a recent post in my "Wonder in the Woods" blog, I quoted "Simplicity Parenting" by Kim John Payne.  His farming analogy also works with home educating, especially since the temptation is to make sure our children get plenty of enrichment through outside activities.

http://wonderinthewoods.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/crop-rotation-and-growing-kids/

I also wondered about how to put it all together and got some helpful replies.  The food and farming analogies are helping me.  

http://wonderinthewoods.wordpress.com/2010/06/20/cooking-up-a-curriculum/

And here is a good post by Silvia with thoughts on types of curriculum in foodie terms:

http://educandoenelhogar.blogspot.com/2010/06/gourmet-home-made-or-junk-homeschool.html

And there is a good discussion on the Secular CM Yahoo Group called "Less is More" with some encouraging reminders to keep it simple-- which is good for "curriculum junkies" like me.  I guess I'm more of "window shopping curriculum junkie" but it is time consuming anyway.

~Cori

In the name of modernizing CM I really would like to include various podcast resources on the links and content pages. The only problem is that I do not use podcasts at this time.

Therefore, in order to include this information, I need SecularCM's members to email links of their favorite podcast programs or resources to Gina at javascript:mox(); .

Your help in this area would be greatly appreciated and could earn anyone who participates a free book! (Just include your name, children's ages/interests and mailing address when you send in the link and I will send you a free book.)

I came across this site as I was researching online books (Drakon needed a copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ASAP). Wow, it has tons of links! An almost overwhelming number of them! Many are typical PBS type stuff but others are real gems. Think I will bookmark this site for my kids to explore when they are bored over summer. javascript:mox();  (don't know why the link came out funny but it should still work)

If you scroll all the way to the bottom there is a section called "By Kids For Kids" that looks interesting for those of us with writers. The section on "Creating and Reviewing Online Books" also looks pretty interesting.

If you are stuck at a family gathering or in a motel room during summer vacations this site could keep the kids occupied for hours. ;)

Three book reviews, sort of. These books helped me feel good about homeschooling a couple of years ago.  I'm feeling burned out lately so it was good for me to go back and read what I wrote then.  I re-posted it in my current blog.  ~ Cori

http://wonderinthewoods.wordpress.com/2010/05/28/the-trouble-with-boys/

On my wish list is a bigger outdoor table and maybe a pop-up dining canopy for those drizzly days.  When we go outside to do projects, we drag out the card table and all our supplies.  This post by "Milk and Honey Mommy" has inspired me to do more than nature study and some random handcrafts in the great outdoors.  ~Cori

http://milkandhoneymommy.com/homeschoolroster/2010/04/taking-it-outside/

Here are the favorite books and poetry recommendations from the last Charlotte Mason Meeting in Portland. On my blog, I’ve linked the ones that are available on Amazon. A big thank you to everyone who brought books and ideas! Gina, thank you also for the Native American selections as this is a special interest of ours.

POETRY BOOKS:

Poetry for Young People by Lewis Carroll

Paul Revere’s Ride by Longfellow Ill. Ted Rand

Where the Sidewalk Ends, Shel Silverstein

A Hat So Simple by Jerry Smath (pretty)

Wish You Were Here (and I Wasn’t) by Colin McNaughton (boy silly)

Two-Legged Four-Legged No-Legged Rhymes by J. Patrick Lewis

Talking Like the Rain by X.J. Kennedy and Dorothy M. Kennedy

Read Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young by Jack Prelutzky ill. Mark Brown

The Dragon’s are Singing Tonight by Jack Prelutsky ill. Peter Sis

Catching Life by the Throat: How to Read Poetry and Why (with CD) by Josephine Hart

A Child’s Introduction to Poetry (with CD) by Michael Driscoll

Stories from Shakespeare by David Timson read by Juliet Stevenson and Michael Sheen (series)

Math Talk by Theoni Pappas

Joyful Noise Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman ill. Eric Beddows

Chinese Poems by Arthur Waley

American Indian Poetry by George W. Cronyn

Don’t You Turn Back Poems by Langston Hughes

Spirit Walker by Nancy Wood

All the Colors of Race by Arnold Adoff (about children of mixed races, I liked this book a lot)

In the Eyes of the Cat: Japanese Poetry for All Seasons by Demi

Civil War Poetry and Prose by Walt Whitman

Good Books Good Times by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Beowolf by Seamus Heaney

The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology by Snorri Snurluson

Hailstone and Halibut Bones by Mary O’Neill

Around the Seasons by Eleanor Farjeon

Animal Poems by John Hollander ill. Simona Mulazzani

A Journey in Poetry by Oregon Homeschoolers 2003

Joyful Noise I am Phoenix performed by John Bedford Lloyd and Annie Twomey unabridged

Poetry Speaks to Children (with CD) read by the Poets, compiled by Elise Paschen

A Family of Poems by Caroline Kennedy

Edgar Allan Poe Poetry for Young People (series)

CURRICULUM:

Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization by Andrew Pudewa

This is for 8 years and older, recite a repertoire of poems so you never forget what you learn. The poems that are short, fun and silly are good for 8 year olds. Longer poems might be harder for younger children. The only critcism is of the CD, the reader’s voice was a bit condescending.

QUICK NOTES:

Do one poem per week or per month. Kristal suggested a way to foster a love of poetry is let children listen to poetry recited well. She recommended many of the books that come with CD’s above. She said listening to the poet recite their own poems is a good thing sometimes but not always. The reader is important. Rote memorization or poetry memorization helps with overall memory later and should be introduced when child is ready. Clapping rhymes from the playground also help with memorization. Poetry is helpful for reading prose like Beowolf Legends. Recitation is early public speaking. Songs are poetry set to music.

~Cori

http://wonderinthewoods.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/poetry-recommendations/

I went a little bit crazy and found a bunch of ideas for nature study, handcrafts and games for camping this summer.  Hopefully there is something in the post for everyone.  ~Cori

http://wonderinthewoods.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/camping-and-nature-study/

This article is about what is going on in England right now and how it is related to the United States and Charlotte Mason.  Not very long but enough to get an idea.  If you enjoyed the Finnish Education links, you might like this.  And this quote from the article is for all of us:

"So if anybody ever suggests to you that Charlotte Mason’s ideas are old-fashioned or out-dated, get them to listen carefully to the debates that still go on in education. I suspect that Charlotte would be concerned, though probably not too surprised, to learn that we are still debating today the same basic principles that she was debating, and that our politicians are still more interested in controlling the system of education than in developing the whole child."

~Cori

http://childlightusa.wordpress.com/2010/05/15/education-in-england-today-where-are-you-charlotte-mason-by-dr-john-thorley/

Here is my personal bias on Shakespeare. This is my write-up from the Shakespeare portion of the recent PDX Charlotte Mason Support Group meeting. I will, eventually, update the website's Shakespeare page to include these resources along with some others but thought you all would appreciate getting the nutshell version now. 

We discussed the best way to enhance our children's enjoyment of Shakespeare. I think we all agreed that:

1. Shakespeare is meant to be experienced/seen and not read. Read the actual

unabridged plays only if your child wants to.

2. It was a 50/50 toss up as to whether we need to read a brief version of the

play prior to seeing it. My kids really seem to need to "prepare" before seeing

the plays but not all kids seem to have this need. Some kids have gone to see

the plays cold and enjoyed them immensely.

3. Most definitely take your children to see a live production! This is what

makes Shakespeare fun! Shakespeare in the Park and the Shoebox Theater in

Portland were both mentioned.

4. Someone recommended taking children to see other productions while they are

young (the children's puppet theater was mentioned) so that they will be use to

live performances prior to experiencing Shakespeare.

5. Start with the comedies in the young years slowly working your way up to the

tragedies in high school. The families who have Shakespeare fans seem to have

all started with A Midsummer Nights Dream as their children's first experience

with Shakespeare.

Here are my favorite resources, you will notice that the two books most

recommended on CM lists are not on my list (the version by Charles & Mary Lamb

and the one by E. Nesbit). This is because I think those versions are too skimpy

and don't fully convey the feel of each play. I use them only when my other

resources fail me (which has happened for a couple of plays).

Elementary Years:

Shakespeare Stories by Leon Garfield. My kids love this set of two books, even

my child who is not a Shakespeare fan will listen to this version.

King of Shadows by Susan Cooper is historical fiction related to A Midsummer

Night's Dream. Another fictional Shakespeare book is Shakespeare Stealer or

something like that. We have not read that one yet. My kids recommend Terry

Deary's Shakespeare Stories which is similar in format to his Horrible Histories

series.

All ages:

The National Endowment for the Arts has a free resource for teachers called

Shakespeare in American Communities. I love the timeline that is included. The DVDs will be too dry for some kids. This is worth getting, esp. as it is free. I no longer have the link so you'll have to google it.

Biographies:

There seem to be a plethora of Shakespeare biographies. I happen to use

Shakespeare: The World as a Stage by Bill Bryson and Young Shakespeare by

Russell Fraser; mostly because I found them at a decent price. Both seem to be

for young adults.

High School:

My son recommends the Folgers Shakespeare Library editions of all the plays. It

is the version his class uses. We've looked at others but he prefers these

because they include explanations of every stanza. He says he'd be lost without

those explanations!

Standard Deviants Shakespeare Tragedies. My son likes the SD goofiness. We use

them for multiple subjects.

Isaac Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare. I use this only as a reference when we want

to clarify something from one of the plays. Of course, it helps that my son

loves Asimov.

Shakespeare in the Movies by Douglas Brode. My son and I watch a fair amount of

Shakespeare and wanted to expand his horizons beyond the versions that have most

recently been made. This includes references to some obscure versions that my

old movie loving friend assures me are great.

I no longer do learning centers as my kids are getting older but this blog has some nice pictures of learning centers for your  inspiration:  http://dontneednoeducation.blogspot.com/2010/03/learning-centers.html . If you have any pictures of learning centers that you would like to share send them in and I will post them for you. 

We used learning centers even before we started homeschooling. When my kids were in that explorative preschooler stage we had centers all around the house. Our centers included "creation station" an art/craft oriented center, science, math, geography (much like the one in the picture only we also had blank map posters), "post office" for writing exploration, a listening center for audio books (English & Spanish) we even had a games center that featured our educational games. I rarely had all these centers going at the same time. Instead I would rotate them depending on what we were studying and/or what the kids were interested in. The post office and creation station often centered around seasonal stuff. Postcards in the summer, Christmas cards in Dec., Valentine's cards in Feb., etc. Esp. in summer the science and creation station centers included nature based items. 

Why learning centers you may ask? Well, for us there were three main reasons. 1. It was easy for me to do since I had a lot of experience making them via student teaching, 2. my kids had worthwhile activities to do even if I had a multi-day migraine (much better than just watching tv all day every day) and 3. one of my kids required a huge amount of daily stimulation at that age. Learning centers were such a success at our house that when my youngest was preschool age my elder daughter created her own learning centers to "do preschool" with the youngest. I think it was one of the best years of their sisterhood and my youngest learned just as much as she would have at a formal preschool only this one was free and I didn't have to teach it! And, yes, I have used learning centers in our homeschooling life; esp. for math and science exploration. 

I could recommend books for creating your own learning centers but you really don't need them. Here is the thought process I used when creating ours.

1. Decide on your subject, theme or topic. Is is just a general science exploration center or will it be focused on a specific topic such as oceanography?

2. Decide where the center will be and what "furniture" you will need for it. Will you need a row of bins, a file size box, a wall for visual aides, or just a table? 

3. Decide how many children you want ant the learning center at one time as that will affect how much space you will need for the center (yes, even with just your own family this is important to determine ahead of time). Audio centers tend to be for individuals where-as a game center would require at least two children. Most of our centers were for 1-2 children at a time since we were cramped for space. 

4. Decide what materials you will need and begin gathering those. How much you need will be determined by your goals and the space you have set aside for the center. I always start with what I already own or can borrow and then add in materials that I had to buy. Your theme will determine what you need. Most science centers will need to include items such as magnifying glasses of various sorts (we really like jeweler's loops, which I may have spelled wrong), rulers in both standard and metric for measuring, a scale if you have one, and so on. I would often include one of our pets as part of our science center. I remember having our Betta fish in the center during our oceanography unit and our frog during the life cycles unit. I would also keep related videos and books there and the kids could take those out of the center to watch or read them. 

5. Explain very clearly to your children exactly how you want them to use and clean up the centers. I use to keep a little sign at each center stating how many kids were allowed at one time, how long they should spend at the center (either a maximum or minimum amount, whichever is appropriate). Also, explain that the items in the centers stay in the centers and don't belong all over the house (at first this can be hard for little ones but they'll catch on quickly). 

6. If you think you will use the center again store it in one of those office file boxes, clearly marked, as they are easy to stack in a closet when not in use (I have to admit this is an idea I got from my kids' preschool). 

Since I often do our poetry as poet studies or within our mini-unit studies I do not use general poetry anthologies but I understand why so many find them to be a valuable resource. Since I do not have any recommendations of my own I am wondering if our site and Facebook members could post their favorite (general topic) poetry anthologies. Just to be clear an anthology is a collection of poems by a variety of poets. 

Thanks,

Gina

This idea is courtesy of my son.  

At some point in the last year I handed him a couple of lists of Great Books that I had been given. I told him for his free reading he really should chose some books from these lists along with his usual reading faire. He was amendable but when he saw the lists he drew a complete blank. At first I couldn't understand his blankness. Then, just as I began to realize what the problem was he started to explain that the lists alone were meaningless to him. While he had heard of some of those books/ authors there were just too many that he knew nothing about. How was he suppose to tell which ones were most likely to be interesting? Yes, a list with just the book titles and author's names is rather meaningless since the students do not have an adult's experience with such lists. Luckily, the Dover literature and humanities catalog came that very day. My sonwas looking through the catalog when he had a brilliant idea. Since the catalog include pictures and/or brief descriptions of many of the same books he would just choose his free reading from the catalog rather than the lists. Brilliant! You could do this with many other catalogs or bookstore fliers as long as the books they feature are of the quality you want your child reading. 

Yep, seeing those lists today and then getting the Dover Spring Sale email reminder reminded me of this idea from earlier in the year.

Some initial thoughts about habit training after the Portland Charlotte Mason meeting.  If you have other ideas, please share in the comments or we can discuss it in the Secular CM forum.  This is a big topic with so much to learn...  ~ Cori

http://wonderinthewoods.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/habit-training-part-1/

Charlotte Mason's ideas can be implemented a few at a time.  Read about a school teacher using her ideas...  Great article!  ~Cori

http://childlightusa.wordpress.com/2010/05/02/musings-of-a-masonite-by-dr-donna-johnson/

I just received a reminder from Catherine Levison that she is a featured speaker at the Washington Homeschool Organization Convention June 18 & 19th. If you are in the Pacific Northwest I highly recommend attending this. It is the best, and most inclusive, homeschool conference I have ever been to. As a featured speaker Ms. Levison will have a booth and give four workshops. 

In her letter she says her workshops will be light on theory and heavy on practical tips and application of the Charlotte Mason philosophy. Topics will include making a Book of the Centuries, collecting and using books, and how to stop dawdling. All within the subjects of Art Appreciation, Nature Sketching, Narration and Literature & Poetry. 

http://washhomeschool.org/convention/convention.html

http://charlottemasoneducation.com/

PS If you know of a CM friendly conference or convention near you email the information to Secular Charlotte Mason at SecularCM dot com and I will be glad to add it to the blog.