Right up our alley!

Our nature walk that is....we stepped out our back door into Nature to enjoy His creation! Really that is as far as you have to go sometimes, very exciting and dangerous! Posted on almost every chain length face we read this: Beware of Dogs, and the sounds of thunderous barking followed us like a wave, I tried to shut my mind off my fears and imagine that their bark is probably worse than their bite.

It wasn't a long journey just around the block but we did find a lot of interesting things to ponder at. Superman was on a search to find a stick bug while T-Rex was looking for roley poleys, beautiful Butterfly was just along for the ride and I was just delighted to enjoy His creation together. I had to re-focus little eyes and minds off of little "treasures" and onto leafs, sticks and trees in search of intrigueing creatures and mysterious wonders of plant life.

Superman carried the bug habitat just incase we found an interesting creature to bring home, like a stick bug. T-Rex was packed with a clear back pack to collect objects of interest and to make him feel very important! Under each picture are the curious questions and statements that the object of interest brought about from little or bigger minds.

Want to see what we saw...

I wonder what type of weed this is? It is very interesting.

Wow... a HUGE ant hill.

Does a squirrel live in that hole?

What kind of flower is that? It is my favorite color.

Look at this! Feel it, it is soft, I have never felt a piece of wood soft like this before!

Hey, look what is that! A snake, I wonder what kind he is? and where is his head?

My little T-Rex holding a stick he found and a flag!

Okay so the water meters in front of everyone's house was the most interesting place to find hiding bugs! Go figure.

Here is our complete collection after we go home. The big piece of wood was a home for a lot of roley poleys.

Superman decided he wanted to learn more about the snake we found and the piece of wood that mysteriously feels like a sponge. He can not understand how it is so soft unlike any pieces of wook he has every felt before. :0) Thanks Barb for the encouragement in the Green Hour!

3 Great Minds

I have been consumed in 3 great minds over the last couple of weeks, Macauley, Beechick and Mason. For the Children's Sake, Heart and Mind and the CM series volume 6 are prooving to be extremely benificial in the direction and current passion of my heart and mind :0). I am also amazed at how they are all coming together meeting eachother and conversing unknowingly; the saying is true: Great minds think alike. They have crossed eachother many times as I have gone from one book, to the other, to the other wading in 3 intellectual and very spiritual minds who's passions alike are all intwined around the Maker of the 3 subjects discussed of mind, heart and education.

I began reading the CM series in Charlotte Mason's orginal wording before I realized that there was a paraphrased version in Modern English, it has been a lot easier for my mind to decode all of her thoughts. I was reading her series with a dictionary by my side and a continual pause and reflect patteren, slowly obtaining information but not sure how much I was actually retaining able to reproduce it in my own words as I repeat it to my husband, know what I mean? So the paraphrased version has been a wonderful blessing to my mind and my time, though I like to look back at the original for the exact wording.

If anyone has any helpful information on Charlotte Mason's philosphy of education I would be delighted to gain your resources. What are you reading that has been benificial to you?

Now Airing...

Don't miss the 11th edition of Charlotte Mason blog carnival:

"Mother Culture"

A Reading Bug

Superman has been bitten by a Reading bug. He loves to read, enjoys it and there is no pushing coming from me. He picks it up at almost any chance and even "almost" chooses it over playing with his friends. He isn't there yet though :-). He is enjoying The Magic Tree House Space guide and Midnight on the Moon. Today after he read 2 chapters in Midnight on the Moon he very enthusiastically came in and told me all the details of Annie and Jack and their accidently trip to the moon.

I am one happy Momma!

The Beginning of my CM Evolution

I have become engrossed in the philosophy of Charlotte Mason and I have only barely begun to reach in and unwind. I can hardly put down For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay it keeps drawing me in with the intent for more, more, more. I have a feeling that my ideas or direction of my teaching in some subjects and the way of each day are going to change slightly as I continue to be drawn in more and more into her passion and life. I have very naively adapted some of our education to follow her ideas but not with out a full understanding, now I will not stop until I understand her ideas more clearly for myself and that of my children.

I think it would very benificial for every school teacher to read her thoughts on education, on teaching, on life and on the personhood of each child. I think that one of the huge downfalls in the school system is the fact that most authorities in the walls of education lack the vital importance of understanding all of these factors, those of CM, and implementing them in their methods of teaching. They only see a class of children, desks filled, rather than a class of individual "persons" and I realize the enormous incapability to achieve this at its full capacity but even if the idea, the passion the understanding were there... then the heart of education would be, or possible could be.. found.

True Education

"True education is, in a sense, a spiritual process, the nurture of a soul... Every line of true knowledge must find its completeness in its convergency to God, even as every beam of daylight leads the eye to the sun. If religion be excluded from our study, every process of thought will be arrested before it reaches its proper goal... A non-Christian training is literally an anti-Christian training." ~ R.L. Dabney

Our New Home

I have switched from my original homeschooling blog to this new one. I just can not keep up with two completely seperate blogs, seperate as in blog home seperates, blogger and homeschoolblogger. It will be much easier for me to update both of my blogs, Embracing the Journey and this one, if they are easily clickable. So here is the new home of Growing Minds of Wisdom... grab a cup of coffee or tea and make yourself at home!