Marigold Cottage

faith seeking understanding

2012-01-26T14:09:00.000-08:00

fides quaerens intellectum

St Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)

I love to learn. I love to read. I love delving into the hidden (to me) caverns of history and unearthing such treasure that convicts and challenges my thinking and causes me to look at my historical and cultural inheritance in the eyes and grapple with questions, problems and ideas that have caught humankind throughout the ages. Such gems as provided by Augustine, Josephus, John Calvin, Marthin Luther, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Mozart, Susannah Wesley, Rembrandt, Daniel Defoe, John Bunyan, Lewis, Tolkien, Galileo, Isaac Newton, GK Chesterton ........ well the list alone could fill a library. I am certain you have your own favourites. Men and women, authors, thinkers, poets, artists, workers, peasants, nobility, slaves and freemen, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, lawyers, politicians, sinners and saints. All these, from the most humble to the most famous (or infamous) have played a part in the ongoing story that is the story of our world. Journeying through history with such travelling companions is quite an adventure.

Through the door of homeschooling I was introduced to ideas presented by educators throughout the ages. Key were Charlotte Mason and various authors exploring the history and meaning of a Classical Liberal Arts Education. Entering this door ignited in me a long dormant desire to learn, know and understand. The emotional, purely experiential focus on my Christian faith and relationship with God at church left me empty and longing for more - though I could not articulate it at that time. The door of homeschooling opened up a whole new world to me that I had not known existed.

But it was not simply the sake of learning for learning that I longed for. It was the realisation that my love of God spurred me on to seek a deeper knowledge of God and His workings in this world that I am a part of. Part of my love for my Lord is played out in searching for understanding of this world of His, nature and creation, the people that fill it, their stories and histories and God's plan, view and work for it all. This was all introduced to me 10 years ago, in our beginning homeschooling journey. And this idea of 'faith seeking understanding' is what keeps the fire of learning burning in me now. This is my motivation.

What mankind, men and women in particular, believe makes a difference and its outworking (good or bad) is seen over time and through generations.

Trev McCallum

I cannot teach my children what I do not know. I cannot encourage my children to love what I do not love. I cannot help my children explore books, and history and ideas and the world if I do not want to explore myself. I cannot model to my children a love of good work, when I do not love my work. My efforts at counselling, guiding and mentoring my children will fall to naught if I do not have somewhere to guide them to.

I have been pondering lately the idea expressed in TJEd of 'YOU, not Them'. The idea that my work in learning will help to inspire my children in their learning. If we want our children to be self-educating (auto-didacting), then we must set the example. And I think this underpins the idea of an educational life proposed by Charlotte Mason.

At the beginning of my homeschooling journey I felt so unprepared for the raising, training and teaching of my children. I felt I knew nothing, and so I learned alongside them. The idea of reading aloud 'living books', as Charlotte Mason calls them was key here, as it was a very natural way for me to learn from the beginning with my children, without taking away huge chunks of time from the practical work of housekeeping and child rearing. Researching curriculum was an experience and education all in itself! I grew with my children. We developed a love of history and literature together. We made discoveries together. It did not happen all over night, or in one term or one year. I have been homeschooling now for nearly 10 years, and I am still learning, still discovering, still questioning. What a ride!

In light of this I offer you my own 'school work' for this year. In years past, my learning and reading happened naturally, as opportunities presented itself, problems arose that I needed knowledge and inspiration to deal with, as the girls showed interest in a particular time period or author and I shared in that myself. Now, I am trying to be a little more deliberate, have a goal for the year.

I have always been interested in educational philosophy (I guess I can blame my uni days for that when I worked through my Bachelor of Education). And when home education was introduced to me, I have had a marvellous time reading all I can on Home Education Philosophy. And this year is no different. I have been intrigued by Thomas Jefferson Education, mostly because that is the pattern I have more or less developed for myself in the application of homeschooling my own children, before I knew of the existence of the DeMille's and TJEd. And so this year I plan to explore it more in depth. Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning is the book for me this year.

In addition I also have new and shiny on my bookshelf Trivium Mastery: The Intersection of Three Roads by Diane B Lockman and A Biblical Home Education by Ruth Beechick.

I am finally going to take the plunge into William Shakespeare this year for myself, full immersion style, and hopefully drag my children along for the ride as well at some point. Who knows, we may even enjoy it! And if time and budget permits, explore more of GK Chesterton's writings - although that may be left till next year.

On a domestic level, I want to get serious about my kitchen garden, and making the most of the supply of fruit from our fruit trees by learning more about caring for them and making a variety of good food from all that fruit. On the health front I am exploring the world of gluten-free cooking too this year, and learning to live without sugar and liking it - these sorts of things you only do when necessary ..... and it would seem they are now necessary for me.

On a working level, I will continue with developing a local homeschool support group that I began last year, and this year I am adding to that teaching music lessons and a latin homeschool class.

So, happy homeschooling to me!

Do you play in the rain?

2012-01-24T12:55:00.000-08:00

A week of rain patches amidst white clouds and sunshine. And now we are onto our third day of solid rain. Heavy, grey skies, washing that won't dry, everyone now on mildew watch. The chickens are shut up in their pen looking wet and bedraggled, complete with their own new water feature that is quickly growing into their own little chicken flood. Our menfolk now are watching the growing puddles, and digging out channels to release some of the water backing up around the buildings. Up on the roof, cleaning out gutters so that the water does not back up on the roof and begin to leak in the house. Our neighbours creek yesterday was brimming with rainwater washing down from the surrounding hills and flowing onto the road, causing a bit of fun for the passing traffic. Our friendly weather man tells us that this weather will continue until Monday next week. This is the kind of weather we like to stay home for, if we have a choice.

But after a week of minimal sunshine, we start to feel a bit grey on our insides. The rain that initially was so refreshing, and a welcome change from our hot, summer days, has now begun to feel a bit oppressive. Do you feel the clouds weighing down on you? Do those same clouds also affect your children?

How do you make those clouds lighter and brighter?

Generally we start to feel these effects on the third or fourth day of heavy rain. We make our days bright by turning on a few more lights in the living room where we are busy working and playing. We play our Wii - playing tennis or soccer, or wakeboarding on the Wii together helps us forget the clouds for a while. We play board games and I might dig out a puzzle. We'll put on some lively music and dance, or do some housework with it. We enjoy the moments to have a hot chocolate or a coffee and snuggle down for some serious rainy day reading. And then we play in the rain.

Yes, we play in the rain.

Just because it is raining and we need to keep a look out for rainy-day problems, doesn't mean we can't also enjoy the rain as its own little adventure. We put up our umbrellas and go for a walk. We swing on our tyre swing, jump on the trampoline, climb trees. And most importantly - we jump in the puddles.

Afterwards, when we are cold, and drenched, we straggle in for a hot shower, dry clothes and something yummy to eat - and perhaps another cup of hot chocolate or coffee!

How do you play in the rain?

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A Lovely Simple Summer Meal

2012-01-23T18:56:00.000-08:00

Pumpkin Soup may seem a strange choice for a summer meal at first glance. However, with our current cooler temperatures than usual due to the settling in of our Wet Season, Pumpkin Soup seemed like a natural choice after all.

This is how I made it:

3 tablespoons rice bran oil (approximately)

1 leek, diced

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

sprinkling of parsley

3 potatoes

1 whole pumpkin, chopped

2 cups of water

500g sour light cream

salt and pepper to taste

Put oil, leek, garlic, parsley and diced potato into pan and fry on high heat until leek is softened and almost caramelised and potato has crispy brown edges.

Add pumpkin and water.

Reduce heat and allow water to slowly come to a simmer, stirring the mixture at regular intervals.

After approximately one hour, vegetables should be soft enough to mash and blend.

After blending, stir through sour light cream and serve.

And this is what we did with the soup leftovers.

Pumpkin Soup Sandwiches.

The bread in this picture is gluten-free bread I make myself.

Perfect lunch for a rainy day.

Back In The Saddle

2012-01-22T14:14:00.000-08:00

2012 ........ Wow!

And here we are, back on our first day of official 'school'. Our curriculum plan is laid out below, and the first 3-4 weeks this year will be spent building up slowly to a full workload. This year I am beginning a number of new things with each child, which will require more of them, so we will ease into things a bit to get a good solid grasp on it all.

In Australian educational terms I have one daughter on Primary School (Year 6), and two daughters in High School (Year 8 and Year 12). In American educational terms I have one daughter in elementary school, one daughter in middle school and one daughter in Senior High (I think that is how it works). In Classical Education terms I have one child in Grammar level, one child in Logic level and one child in Rhetoric level study. In TJEd terms I have one daughter in Love of Learning Phase, one daughter in Project Scholar Phase, and one daughter in Scholar Phase transitioning into Depth Phase. In Modern terms I have one tween and two teens.

In reality, I have three lovely daughters - Miss K who is nearly 11, Miss A who is almost 13 and Miss M who will turn 17 throughout this year.

Plans for Miss M - Year 12 - her final year of Home Education - Scholar Phase

THE LIBERAL ARTS

1) The One Year Adventure Novel is what we will be using for our English studies this year. Miss M has a passion for writing and blogging and after much searching we felt this curriculum would give her a good taste of what it took to be a writer and also extend her writing abilities in the process.

2) We will continue our reading program using Veritas Press Omnibus III and Songlight Modern World History to guide us through our reading. Miss M will read the books, read the information and thoughts presented in the Sonlight and Omnibus texts, and write a report for her blog on what she is reading.

3) For our Math studies this year Miss M will be focussing on financial stewardship within a personal, home and family setting. We plan to use resources from Focus on the Family Australia and Crown Financial Ministries. Our plan is to prepare her to manage her own finances as she branches out into the wider world of work and study, and future with her own family.

4) Miss M has expressed a desire to have formal piano lessons and begin preparing for AMEB exams - as a possiblity of becoming a music teacher in the future - and also because she would like to improve her ability to play music and her musical knowledge. As part of this we have found a curriculum called Discovering Music, which will broaden and deepen her musical understanding and experience.

5) Rosetta Stone Dutch, Level 2 will hopefully be completed this year. She has finished with her Latin studies.

6) A unit on Australian Government will be studied this year from Light Educational Ministries.

THE HOMEMAKING ARTS

1) Continued studies in Home Economics using the Christian Light Education materials used last year, and wide range of reading on various practical topics that she finds of particular interest, and also work caring for our fruit trees, kitchen garden and pets.

2) Extra activities include Youth Group, working one day a week in the family business, participating in the church music team.

THE CREATIVE ARTS

1) Interest Directed Projects - Miss M has an interest in beading and jewellery making; creative writing and illustrating her work; photography and creating videos for family and friends; sewing and cooking; and music.

Plans for Miss A - Year 8 - Her first year of High School - Project Scholar Phase

This past year Miss A has expressed a desire for more study. We have a few units to finish off from work began late last year, and after that we will implement our new plan.

THE LIBERAL ARTS

1) For English and History this year Miss A will work through the unit study Where the Brook and River Meet based on the Anne of Green Gables series. This unit study will also cover themes in History, Health and Physical Education, the Arts and Home Economics.

2) Her Math studies will continue with Math U See Epsilon as this is the curriculum she favours.

3) For her LOTE studies she will continue with Lating for Children Level A, and continue on to Level B when ready. Dutch will be a continuation of her Rosetta Stone, finishing off Level 1 then working on Level 2.

4) For Science I have purchased a number of the Apologia elementary science texts and she will chose on per term to study. We will not follow the texts strictly as they are laid out, but use them as reference sources.

THE HOMEMAKING ARTS

1) Where the Brook and River Meet

2) Natural Learning Opportunies and Interest Directed Projects

THE CREATIVE ARTS

1) Violin Lessons

2) How Great Thou Art - Drawing Horses

3) Interest Directed Projects

4) Art units related to Where the Brook and River Meet

Plans for Miss K - Year 6 - Love of Learning Phase

THE LIBERAL ARTS

1) Miss K will continue with her Sonlight World History reading program from last year and will keep a learning journal on what she is reading. As the year progress and the time is right we will look at introducing Simply Grammar and Story Starters by Karen Andreola.

2) For Maths in the first term we will look at attempting to inspire a love of maths through some real life math activities based upon Miss K's interest in Space and building with lego and creating models of the solar system etc. and the reading of a variety of math classics. Based upon how that works, we will then introduce Math U See Gamma in addition to reading Math classics.

3) Miss K is finding Latin for Children a challenge, so I will review Minimus Latin with her this year and hold a Minimus Latin class in our home for other interested homeschoolers. We are both excited about this new project. She will continue moving steadily through her Rosetta Stone Dutch Level 1 and will hopefully move on to Level 2 towards the end of the year.

4) Miss K has developed an interest in all things Space, so as long as this interest lasts, we will focus our science studies on this topic.

THE HOMEMAKING ARTS

1) Real-Life Learning opportunies focussing on keeping her room tidy and organised; personal hygiene routines; general safety rules; help with kitchen cooking and cleaning, garden, care for chickens.

THE CREATIVE ARTS

1) Interest Directed projects.

2) Music appreciation CM and Natural Learning Style.

Ready, Set, Go!

What is a Christian?

2012-01-21T13:07:00.000-08:00

I am a Christian.

I wonder what thoughts and images that statement conjures up in your mind. I wonder what judgements you have made about me as a person, my home, my family and my work as a result of this. I wonder if this makes you not want to visit this blog anymore.

Not all who visit this blog hold the same values or beliefs that I do. That is ok. We are all responsible to make our own choices in life, and our differing beliefs act as a guide through our lives and the choices we make along the way. Can we still respect eachother, live in community together and learn from each other, and work alongside eachother even when we think the other is wrong in their beliefs?   I think so, although admittedly there will be times when this is difficult, and quite honestly the lessons learned will not always be positive.

So, what exactly is a Christian?   In it's purest form, a Christian is simply a person who believes in God and who is a loyal follower (disciple) of Jesus Christ, God's Son.

What exactly does it mean to be a follower of Jesus Christ? Essentially it means that there are a few basic beliefs that I hold to as truth. Things about God such as he is eternal, good and perfect; He created the world and everything in it. Things about the world such as sin entering the world through the deception of the devil and the temptation of the first man and woman. Things about Jesus such as He is the Son of God who came to earth to conquer sin and its effects and Satan which Jesus accomplished through His sinless life here on earth, His teaching which points us to God's truth and shows us how to live, His death and His resurrection.

But that is not where it ends. Being a follower of Jesus Christ includes my faith in Him as my Lord and Saviour, and how all of this works out practically in my life, how I live, love and work. Prayer is essential, as that is how I communicate with God, talk to Him about everything and seek guidance. Faithful study of God's Word (the Bible), in order to grow closer to God and understand Jesus teachings and how I should live and apply it to life here on earth.   Putting into practice what I have learned about Jesus way of living and lastly, meeting and fellowshipping with other Christians in order to encourage each other in our individual Christian walk and to glorify God together.

My aim here is not to 'Bible bash' anyone, or shove my 'religion' down your throat. My aim is to try and create an understanding of what Christianity really is (many people and activities are labelled Christian when they are not) and to give you an idea of where I am coming from. If you have a different perspective and would like to share your thoughts, I welcome you to share - but please be respectful and thoughtful in the process. With this in mind, from time to time I will post about matters specifically related to a life dedicated to faith and following Jesus.

The Lost Sheep
Alfred Soord 1916

Christianity is more than a creed, more than a religion, it is a way of life for all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.

Socialising My Children: Part 3

2012-01-10T16:56:00.000-08:00

The biggest factor I have noticed in the developing social skills of my own children is the atmosphere of our family home. I take effort to have some lovely, inspiring artwork about our home. Something changes when you have something gently encouraging in daily life to lay your eyes upon and think about. The type of music we listen to - often having some form of instrumental or classical music playing in the background during different times of our days helps create a relaxed, soothing atmosphere for our work and play. Plenty of time out of doors, fresh air, sunshine, exercise, nature rambles and observations adds a dimension to our days, and soothes nerves and anxieties like nothing else can. How talk to my children, in day to day instruction, discussion, and when they require some discipline. When I speak softly, gently, firmly, choosing words that are respectful to my children, they feel valued by me, they know that words and how you say them, your body language, all means something important and they pick up on those things.

Ever spent time with a family that has uninspiring posters all over their walls, listens to loud, grating music most of the time and does not take care with their words and actions? Generally I tend to feel exhausted, uncared for and irritated in an atmosphere like that. And it has no positive effect on my social skills, as all I want to do is distance myself, or make some irritating retorts as I slip back into unfriendly, unhelpful habits. It is just plain old hard, unrewarding work to try and be positive socially in an atmosphere like that.

In teaching my children social skills over the years I have found the wide reading of good books together helpful, as during the stories various characters and personalities appear. We are able to chat about the characters we love and those we dislike, and why and occasionally we reflect back on how we might meet with similar characters in real life.

Watching myself, and how I respond in various social situations - How do I respond when I find myself the new person in a group? How do I respond when I see a new person enter my group? How do I talk to people serving me in the supermarket and shops? How do I answer the phone? How do I deal with conflict? I still remember the rude awakening I had one day, when my children were all preschool age and under. I caught them talking to eachother using phrases and a manner that was quite disrespectful and I wanted to put a stop to it. I puzzled for some days over where they could have picked up that particular behaviour. And one day, I discovered the answer. To my shock, they had picked up that behaviour from me! I caught myself using the very same phrase and body language one day to them. Oh my! Yes, I am a model to my children. I have since learned to watch my tongue, my tone of voice and my body language.

Building friendships is also an important factor. Home schooling has allowed us the opportunity to build friendships with families. And based on people we meet, the characters we meet in books and movies, and principles and ideas we read about in Proverbs have provided opportunities for us to discuss what we should look for in people we would like to call our friends. And it helps us to learn what we need to work on in order to be the kind of friends we would like to have. Our children have also developed individual friendships, but the time spent together is usually with the family. This has had the added benefit of giving opportunities for both us and our children to learn to relate to people of all ages within a community-like setting.

Ernest Walbourn
Bringing Home The Sheep

Loneliness is something important to address here as well. Many homeschooling families do experience periods of loneliness and feelings of isolation from time to time. We have experienced this twice over the years. The first time was when we first began homeschooling and was finding our way in the homeschool community, trying to make new friends and work out where we fit and getting used to not being at school every day. The second time was when we moved and finding ourselves new in a very large community and having it take a long time to find people to socialise with and then to begin the process of making friends. I think most people experience feelings of loneliness and isolation at some point in their lives. Dealing with it in a positive manner is important, otherwise we can very well find ourselves depressed and miserable.

We coped with our feelings of loneliness and isolation by using those times to really connect together as a family. The idea of creating some long lasting happy family memories is important. Having some lovely daily routines was a help - like a back yard lunch time picnic, or an afternoon tea time together with something lovely to eat and lovely cups and table setting, running out in the rain and playing in the mud on those summer rainy days. Playing games together, watching a family movie together one night a week complete with pop corn. The occasional special outing like going to the beach, or a bush walk, or spending the afternoon on our boat fishing and swimming, were days where we created many memories together.

Developing some interests and working on projects by keeing our days full with something to think about, something to do and something to love, was something which took our focus away from our lack of social activity and connection, and gave purpose to the loneliest of days. Craft projects like sewing, painting, creating our own books and photoalbums. My girls spent this time making their own mini-movies with their dolls and creating their own story lines, costumes and backgrounds. Making up their own dances and learning music.

Pets created the opportunity to have something to care for and have a live presence in our home that wasn't just family. In one home our girls discovered an injured blue tonge lizard (he had lost a leg). We named him Leslie the Lizard and kept him in a tank for a couple of months while his leg recuperated, until we set him free back into our garden. We learned what he needed to eat and how to set up the tank to care for him. In another home we had dogs for a time that the girls played with each day in the yard. These days we have some pet birds in the house and our chickens. Inviting wild birds into our yard also created interest - planting a few native bushes to attract them and also adding a bird feeder was a wonderful addition to our home.

Building good friendships and living in community is important. We were not meant to live on our own. Some people enjoy their own company more than others, that is ok. But essentially we need other people. For us, while we were busy creating happy, positive and fulfilling lives, we were also busy praying. Asking God to send us people that we could make friendships with, and asking God to help us in our period of loneliness.

Now that our lives are very busy, where we have children involved in work, homeschooling groups and church community activities and ministries, and involved more with their own peers, those years of quiet family time are looked back on with fondness. And the ties and memories we created then as a family, see us through times now of separation and busy activity. Opening our home to our childrens' friends is important for us to maintain an active interest in their broadening lives and also to get to know their friends. Family meals are now important as a connecting point during our days and weeks of hustle and bustle. Often I try to make the effort to create a lovely meal time atmosphere - quiet instrumental music, lights turned off, candles lighted, table set nicely. These things encourage connection while we eat, and make our meal times enjoyable while we discuss our days together. Lately we are also working on implementing a Family night, the idea being that we spend the evening together in a family activity being a movie, or playing a game together, or enjoying dessert outside while watching the stars in our back yard.

So that has been our social journey with our children as a family.

Social Skills and Environments: Part 2

2012-01-08T16:15:00.000-08:00

Family Picnic
Laforet

What is the best way to help our children develop socially? How do they develop the social skills they need to enable them to interact appropriately with others in different situations? How do they learn the skills which facilitate communication with others? How do they learn to choose what would be positive social activities to be involved in? How do we teach our children to respond positively to the needs of our society?

I guess the first thing that is important for us to remember is that being reserved, or shy, by nature is not a bad thing. Not enjoying being part of large crowds is not a problem. It is ok to search for social situations and activities that involve smaller groups, or even one on one. On the flip side, it is equally ok for people to enjoy large crowd social activities and enjoy participating in more of society than naturally reserved people would. As parents, we need to tune ourselves in to the social needs of our children, and whether they are naturally reserved, enjoy their own company or are outgoing, and then find avenues to best meet those needs.

The second thing of importance is for us to build a positive social family environment. This includes the immediate family at home together, and also includes what kind of social activities and environments your family will be involved with as a family. This will include things like your entertainment and leisure habits, TV/Movie/Computer/Media/Music habits, how you talk to and communicate with your children and whether you encourage whole family friendships or allow your children more independence and freedom in choosing friends, and will include how you choose your friends. This will change as your children grow into young adulthood, as young children primarily only need their own parents and extended family, whereas it is important for our teen aged children to grow into a widening circle of community and experience.

The third thing to consider is what social skills you believe are important for your children to develop and what social activities will benefit them, and your family as a whole. These skills can be taught and developed naturally as situations arise in life and community, or you can create a list for yourself and deliberately set out to teach these to your children.

I have been wandering about the world wide web searching for ideas of social skills are considered important. This is not an exhaustive list, but should be enough to get the thinking juices going in thinking about socialising our own children. Five main areas of social skills include: basic interaction skills; making conversation; building and maintaining friendships; empathy; dealing with conflict.

Basic interaction skills:

can include things like making eye contact; smiling when greeting people; showing appropriate body language; basic politeness and showing interest in others.

Making conversation:

includes taking turns when talking; listening and showing interest in what the other person is saying by things like nodding and smiling; the ability to make small talk; using humour appropriately; knowing when to disclose personal information and when not to.

Building and maintaining friendships:can include skills such as approaching people; saring decision making and the ability to negotiate; showing appropriate affection and appreciation; maintaining contact; being supportive and thoughtful; allowing times of distance and closeness.

Empathy:

includes the skills of noticing other peoples feelings; experessing concern for others in appropriate ways; being sensitive to others feelings and perspective.

Dealing with conflict:

includes the skills of being able to say what you feel without being aggressive or personal; being able to negotiate and discuss a conflict calmly and rationally to come to an agreement about a solution.

Our society is set up in a way that places peer relationships and popular culture as the main factors in the socialisation of our young people. However, research and educational philosophy have understood that the most important and fundamental factor in children developing competent social skills is in fact their parents. Even though this fact is only given a nod in educational practise.

Find a child competent socially (regardless of whether they are outgoing or reserved by nature; regardless of whether they go to a school or are educated at home) and you will find nurturing, responsive, loving, stable, involved parents. You will find parents who talk to their children about values and relationships during their daily lives, who take a problem-solving approach to day-to-day problems. Parents who endorse positive and relevant strategies and who encourage their children to think through problems. Parents who reflect a positive, resiliant attitude toward social setbacks and who will intervene on their childrens behalf when necessary. Parents who relfect positive social skills themselves.

One of the Family
Frederick George Cotman

I would love to know how you help your children's socialisation in your family. Would you care to share? If you have a lengthy response, leave a link here in the comments to share your blog post with us. I will share some of our experiences in my next post.

Socialisation: What Is It And Is It Dangerous? (Part 1)

2012-01-03T14:44:00.000-08:00

Socialisation is a term bandied around alot with regards to Home Education. It is particularly raised as a concern toward new home schooling parents. But what does socialisation really mean? Here are a few different definitions I have found:

A continuing process wherey an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behaviour and social skills appropriate to his or her social position.
After studying and observing the identities, norms, values and behaviours that are prevalent in our post-modern society, such as ambition over relationship, materialism, pop-culture, bullying, my conclusion is that I would like my children to have the opportunity and freedom to acquire different social norms.

The process of learning interpersonal and interactional skills.
Knowing how to talk, interact and relate to others in our community is very important. But I think the question is: What are the best way to learn and develop positive interpersonal and interactional skills?

The process whereby a child learns to get along with and to behave similarly to other people in the group, largely through imitation as well as group pressure.
Hhmm. No thankyou. This is not what I want for my children.

To place under governmnet or group ownership or control.
No thankyou.

To make fit for companionship with others; make sociable.
An admirable aim - as long as it is positive and moral companionship, not negative and damaging.

To convert or adapt to the needs of society.
If converting or adapting to the needs of society means going with the status quo, then this is not the socialisation I want for my family. If it means seeing what the needs of society are, and then coming up with actions and attitudes that will improve and meet those needs and encourage others to as well, then I accept the challenge. Again the question will then be: How is the best way to teach positive social problem solving to our children?

To take part in social activities.
Nothing wrong with social activities - unless they are not a positive complement to your family relationships or education; or they encourage negative social behaviour and friendships with negative people and influences. To take part in social activities that are a postivie influence and enhance your life and community is a good thing.

And one last definition:

Socialisation is developing social skills that will enable children to interact appropriately in different situations.

Socialisation is the process of learning any social skill which facilitates interaction and communication with others.

Bedtime Story
Charles Compton

What is important to you as part of your children learning social skills?

How do you socialise your children?

Maiden Voyage

2012-01-01T18:54:00.000-08:00

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

Helen Keller

New Years Resolutions. Do you have them? I was not long into my adulthood when I gave up on them. Wild, ambitious, completely unrealistic - and they usually never lasted the week. The past few years however, I began to notice that each new year of family life brought with it a theme that seemed to crop up naturally throughout that year. A few years ago was The Year of the Teeth - because we all seemed to need a lot of dental work (what a family theme!). Last year it was the very real sense of life as adventure. That played out practically with our first overseas trip to Uganda, being separated from our children for the first time, and during the first biggest natural disaster our immediate family and community have had to deal with in my life, moving onto acreage and learning to live a true out-of-door life complete with chickens and fruit trees and renovations to get our new home liveable also including the adventure of living with parents again, sharing an inter-generational property together. 2011 has been a massive year. 2012, at this stage, looks a little more sedate, although the theme of family adventure seems like it may continue. Work on our property will continue this year, and we hope to be finished by December. Our eldest daughter will complete her final year of home eduction and get ready to branch out into her own adventures - WOW!

It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters, in the end.

Ursula K. Le Guin

Miss M and Miss A
View From A Kayak

Miss K living life the only way she knows how - at full speed ahead.

Sunday found us at Currimundi Lake, for our Maiden Voyage. Trying out our new Kayak's for the first time. During our month of January we are taking a break from renovations. A bit of a working holiday I guess. We are planning a camping trip to Somerset Dam and another to Double Island Point. Water Skiing, Surfing, Kayaking, Fishing, Swimming and Beachcombing are what will be filling our days. Lovely.

What a wonderful way to begin our new year as a family. We do not know what this year holds for us. What challenges we will face, or what we will need to overcome. But we know this, it will be an adventure, and the God who holds this world in His hands, also holds us in His hands.

What will be the theme of 2012 for you and your family?

A couple of days ago I stumbled across The Family Adventure Project. The work of a family adventuring together each year. Taking their idea I have decided to develop our own Family Adventure Project as part of our Home Education this year. This is as close as I am getting to a New Year's Resolution. I'll let you know how it goes. Our aim, quite simply, will be to get outside as much as possible to enjoy adventuring together - bike riding, camping, bushwalking and rock hopping, exploring the wonderful places in our home town, kayaking, boating, beachcombing. Making an effort to bind our family together through adventure and exploration, and being a little more deliberate in our plans. Part of the reason for this is that I have three daughters who love to read, write, draw, paint and so on. Somehow, I have to get them moving and exercising and get them to like it.

Anyone care to join us?

Today: Looking Back and Looking Forward

2011-12-27T17:30:00.000-08:00

Show me Your ways, O Lord;

Teach me Your paths.

Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation;

On You I wait all the day.

Psalm 25:4, 5

Today I have been meandering through my relflections on this year that is now quickly coming to a close. 2011 has been a year of stretching for our family. A year filled with many new things. A year filled with adventure and vision.

Beside me lay my plans for the year of 2012 - plans for our work and our learning and our social activity and our family. Before me, on the screen sits the series of posts Marigold Cottage School 2011. I am thinking about where we are headed, as a family, and individually. I am thinking about where we have been and what we have done in 2011. I am pondering the work God is doing in our lives. On our coffee table lies my holiday reading. Books by Ruth Beechick, Oliver DeMille and his TJed team, and Diane B. Lockman of Classical Scholar. Books for inspiration for my new year ahead. Books that will help me think through my ever broadening and deepening philosophy. Books that will help keep me on my toes in my parenting of three growing daughters.

My heart plans my way,

but the Lord directs my steps.

(see Proverbs 16:9)

Back in November I sketched out the main ideas, the broad goals and the materials we plan to use for the Home Education of my girls in 2012. Now, over the next month, I will search out the finer details and how it will all fit in with our daily family life, and search out the inspiration for another year, and share them with you as I journey along.

In amongst all that we have a new trampoline to play with, cricket to watch, chickens and gardens to look after, a home to clean and organise, a family to feed, a couple of camping trips planned, some new kayak's to try out at the local lake and river, a new Kindle to fill up with lovely and delicious things to read and our beach to explore and swim in.

How are you spending this last week of 2011? What are your reflections on the year that has passed and the year yet to come?

Happy New Year to you all! xo

Come and Worship

2011-12-22T12:19:00.000-08:00

Angels from the realms of glory,

wing your flight o'er all the earth;

you who sang creations story,

now proclaim Messiah's birth:

Come and worship,

come and worship,

worship Christ,

the newborn King!

Shepherds in the fields abiding,

watching o'er your flocks by night,

God with us is now residing;

yonder shines the infant Light:

Come and worship ...

Sages, leave your contemplations,

brighter visions beam afar;

seek the great Desire of nations;

you have seen His natal star:

Come and worship ...

Though an infant now we view Him,

He will share His Father's throne,

gather all the nations to Him;

every knee shall then bow down:

Come and worship ...

Saints and angels join in praising

God, the Father, Spirit, Son,

evermore their voices raising

to th'Eternal Three in One:

Come and worship ...

Written by James Montgomery 1816

Christmas is a big deal, it surrounds us in many shapes and forms for a large portion of this time of year. Christmas is a great controversy as well, which I suppose is really no great surprise. Underlying the life and seasons in this world there is a war going on. A spiritual war. A war between light and darkness, truth and lies, God and Satan, the way of Jesus and the way of the world.

For those who are disciples of Christ, every facet of life in this world needs to be considered in light of God's truth. The traditions and celebrations handed down to us from past generations are no different. Every Christian is responsible for their own way before God. For myself, and our family here at Marigold Cottage, everything is evaluated with this foundation in mind:

The earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness,

The world and those who dwell therein.

For He has founded it upon the seas,

And established it upon the waters.

Psalm 24:1,2

Everything in this world is God's. Nature itself plays its part in sharing the gospel of Christ across the earth. Can traditions and objects have a meaning besides what those living in darkness can give it? Yes - because they do not belong to those people. They belong to God, the Lord and King of the Universe. God Himself has given meaning and purpose to all He has created.

The birth of Christ is worth celebrating. Our God and King is worth worshipping.

Worship...is an attitude. It is a spirit, something on the inside. It is an attitude of the heart that is so filled with wonder and gratitude at what God has done that there is not a thought of personal needs or personal blessings, only total abandonment to God in praise and adoration. That's worship. It is the most selfless thing we do. It is, as the hymn writer puts it, to be lost in wonder, love and praise. It is to be so grateful and so filled with wonder at what the Lord has done that we lose ourselves in adoring worship, adoring praise.
John MacArthur , The True Christmas Spirit.

Some ideas to explore and think about regarding this Christmas season, if you are interested.

An Apologetic Christmas

The Nativity: God's Masterpiece

Christmas Thoughts In Genesis

Should Christians Celebrate Christmas

On My Mind ............ Reasons for Learning

2011-12-15T13:33:00.000-08:00

“There are two reasons to learn something: either because you need it or because you love it.” *

Working, learning and play have gone hand in hand for us this year. These photo's were taken earlier in the year - back in February/March at the beginning of our renovation work. We have worked hard, played hard, and learned many things. 2011 has been a rich year for us in this respect.

*This quote is from a book titled 'Unschooling Rules' by Clark Aldrich. I have not read this book yet, but I find what I know about it so far, intriguing. Perhaps I will add onto my ever growing 'to be read' list for the upcoming year some time. Oliver DeMille has some thoughts on it here, and another review from Bob Collier here, or even Clark's own blog #unschooling rules, if you are interested.

Brisbane River

2011-12-11T12:19:00.000-08:00

RIVERS

I have travelled up the Yang-tze

And I've drifted down the Nile,

I have gazed across the Daintree,

On the Murray spent a while -

I have walked along the Avon

Where Shakespeare's memory clings,

And I've crossed the Thames in London -

I remember all these things.

I've heard of the zambesi

And the Volga and the Don,

And the winding Mississippi,

And the mighty Amazon.

The Rio de la Plata

And the Seine all come to mind

For the rythm of flowing water

Leaves great peace and calm behind.

I know a little river -

Not well known as some of these,

But to us it is the giver

Of a host of memories.

For the Brisbane River story

And the way its features look -

Not entirely without glory -

Has inspired this small book.

Charles Ludlow (1987)

A library discovery on one of my recent trips. It peaked my interest, partly I suppose because of the flooding in Brisbane earlier this year - our little Brisbane River has featured quite prominantly in the media - and partly because this is the river of my childhood home town. Appreciating scenes from the eyes of an artist and filled in with many of my own happy memories is art at its best. This is a lovely book filled with watercolours and poetry (both by Charles Ludlow) exploring the history and countryside of this waterway from it source as a trickle in the Brisbane Valley to the busy international port at its mouth.

I cannot find much on Charles Ludlow himself. I do know he was born in 1923 in Stanthorpe. Alongside his art he was a Telecom engineer until 1986 and was a part of the 'Half Dozen Group of Artists'.

Mouth of the Brisbane River near Mt Stanley

Wivenhoe Dam

Moggill Ferry

Something Worth Celebrating

2011-12-05T13:49:00.000-08:00

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord..........And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
"Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, toward men of goodwill."

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He has annointed Me

To preach the gospel to the poor;

He has sent Me, to heal the broken hearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

Luke 4:18-19

Once upon a time, many years ago, a child was born in Bethlehem. The date and time of His birth is unknown to us. There is no mandate to set aside His birth as a Holy Day. And yet, the birth of Jesus Christ, our Messiah, is a cause of great rejoicing. Are you poor? Broken hearted? Captive? Blind? Oppressed? Sin, death and trouble have entered this world. And yet there is hope. There is faith. There is love. There is peace and joy. There is good news, and Jesus Christ brings it all.

Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Matthew 11:28-29

Now that is something worth celebrating!!

What have you been up to lately?

2011-12-04T13:32:00.000-08:00

Today is the first day of our official homeschooling holidays. In our early homeschooling years, the school terms and holidays did not mean much to us. Our learning, working and resting rhythms were our own, and we enjoyed the freedom of being able to travel and holiday in the non-peak times of the year. Times are always changing of course, and as the children have grown older, the rhythms of our family life have changed as well to fit in with our changing needs.

When my children were all under the age of 12 our family life was very free. We had limited outside commitments, and our time was spent simply as a family, working at home and visiting with friends and family. Visits to the beach. park, library, art gallery etc, sometimes on our own, sometimes with friends. Lovely and simple.

Now we have entered the older childhood and young adulthood stages, life is different. The developing interests and skills of the girls has led to being involved in outside commitments - so many good things to choose from now, but we cannot do it all. Our growing circle of friends, who go to school, naturally means we need to free up our school holiday times to enable them to have craft days and beach days with their friends and family. The time of preparation for adulthood means a more intense focus on study, driving lessons and an introduction to paid work in the workforce.

Family life is never dull - some years it is more like a roller-coster ride.

The Home Quartett 1882
Mrs Vernon Lushington and Her Daughters
Arthur Hughes

So lately, we have been winding down our learning year. As the girls have finished a unit, or a book, we have laid that subject aside for the remainder of the year. This has allowed increasing time to get organised and cleaned up ready for the Summer holiday season, and all that entails. I have been busy finalising my portfolio report to send in to the Home Ed Unit, and also completing my plans for 2012. And now we are here - days filled with the thoughts and ideas of Christmas. Beach days. Craft days. Gardening days. Fun days. Family days. Baking days. Resting days out in the sunshine. Days to reflect on the year that has been, and the year that is coming.

Lovely long lazy summer days to look forward to.

What have you been up to lately?

On My Mind ....

2011-12-01T13:03:00.000-08:00

House of Hope @ Favor of God

This photo was taken recently by Favor of God at Gulu, Uganda. The houses in the background are the very homes that we were involved in helping build earlier this year. One of the homes is now completed and the boys have moved in. I believe the girls will move in once the indoor plumbing and electricity has been completed. In the meantime, the boys have begun tilling the soil, ready to plant a variety of crops to support themselves. Some of these older boys were also able to help with the building of the homes as well. It is wonderful to see this progress being made, and the growing opportunities now for these boys to work and produce. Visit Favor to read their article House of Hope - Sustainability.

Care to share what's on your mind?

Visit Down to Earth and join in!

On My Mind ........

2011-11-24T12:43:00.000-08:00

Pancakes!

All the housekeeping I have done of late has made me a very hungry girl. So what better way to celebrate my return to blogging land than to show you something yummy I have been enjoying.

We have been enjoying these for breakfast a couple of times a week.

The ratio for the recipe is 1 cup of gluten free SR flour; 1 egg; 1 cup buttermilk. Topped with half a pear and real maple syrup = 1 very lovely, very healthy breakfast.

Care to share what's on your mind?

Visit Down To Earth and join in .......

NaNoWriMo Anyone?

2011-10-26T23:22:00.000-07:00

Now, right at this point I imagine you are staring blankly at the screen scratching your head.

What?

If you dare, follow this link to NaNo Land and all will be revealed. Looks like it could be fun, doesn't it? Well, my three daughters will be participating this year - thus November will be a very interesting month here at Marigold Cottage. Please remember me.

And no, *I* will not be participating this time .... although secretly the thought has crossed my mind (ssshh - don't tell my daughters or they may try and kidnap me and force me to do it!). If you care to know why I have decided to forego the pleasure of NaNo Land myself, read this article to be enlightened - The Decline of a Writer's Social Life and Sanity due to NaNoWrimo .

Housekeeping

2011-09-16T05:14:00.000-07:00

Housekeeping takes many shapes and forms depending upon your household technology, family, type of home you have and culture you live in. Our trip earlier this year to Uganda was, in some ways, a brief glimpse into history. Cooking meals over fires, no electricity (or unreliable electricity), handwashing clothes, basic chores taking hours to complete, sometimes the whole day, but always women working with their own hands, together in community, for their homes and their families. And an altogether slower pace of life.

For our family here in our home, we have reliable electricity, a washing maching, a dryer, and many kitchen mod cons - now a dishwasher too (which I will confess to loving dearly already!). The technology and electricity available to us means that most of the chores can be completed individually - not requiring multiple hands to get the job done. But it does not change the fact that housekeeping is a valuable work, a necessary work to the happiness and healthiness of our families. Not to mention the smooth running of our lives.

Do you ever get distracted from your housekeeping duties? I do ...... lets see. A good book that I simply cannot put down. A hot topic I am researching for my own edification. Piano playing and practise. Nature Rambles. Excursions to our local seaside rockpools. Trips to the library and art gallery. Socialisation opportunities with our homeschooling friends. Blogging. Internet. Photographing. Emailing. Telephone calls. Church activities. A good book that I simply cannot put down (oh, did I mention that already?). Have I missed anything? I am sure you could add some of your own.

What do you do to undistract yourself once the housework begins to noticably pile up?

Poppies of Toscano II
Art Fronckowiak

Over the next few weeks I will be revisiting my collection of inspiring home making articles and books and blog posts that are just the thing to encourage housekeeping inspiration to return. Then I'll trim things back a bit. Trim off those extra outings and activities. Trim back my computer and internet time. And then I'll begin my day with housekeeping. We'll put on some livelyn happy music, and all us girls will roll up our sleeves and work and sing together till we have some order. Then we shall reward ourselves with reading time, or beach time, or visiting time, or perhaps an extra yummy lunch.

My little blog home will not be ignored either. I'll be doing some housekeeping here as well. So, if Marigold Cottage disappears from the net for a short while, please do not forget me. Do not change your links. I will be back, maybe one month, perhaps two. As soon as my house is in order.

Love to you, all my friends. Happy Homemaking. Happy Homeschooling. xo

An Evening At Home
Edward John Poynter

Simple Days in September

2011-09-13T21:34:00.000-07:00

Simple Woman's Daybook
September Edition

Outside my window.....

Spring sunshine, spring breeze. And leaves, lots of leaves. As Piglet says in 'Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day' - "I don't mind the leaves that are leaving. It's the leaves that are coming."

I am thankful...
For the change of seasons, and the newness each season brings with it.   I am especially thankful for the warmer sunshine on chilly mornings.

From the learning rooms...
Some time in the garden, exploring the small world of insects and things that are always busy working. Lots of reading on picnic blankets in the garden. Miss M is finishing off her Lingua Biblica this week - she is excited to have finished with her Latin studies.   Miss A has finished her Word Roots A2, which has also excited her. What a feeling of accomplishment when workbooks are finished earlier in the year - leaving a nice, friendly looking gap in their schedule.

In the kitchen...
Miss M and Miss A have taken over the cooking of dinner one night per week this month. So far it is just plain old fun for them. Their job is look through our cookbooks, choose a recipe (with my editorial approval), check we have the ingredients and then get to it!
On the weekend I had a desire for dessert - so after digging through our pantry I came up with cheesecake and chocolate custard pudding.   Both with strawberries.    Oh and I have baked a couple of batches of strawberry and coconut muffins. Busy, busy.    You may have noticed that strawberries have been well featured in our kitchen this week ........ that's because a few of our family members went strawberry picking last week!

I am creating...
*blush* - I confess, I am still working on my knitting project that I mentioned to you last time.

I am reading...
Gulliver's Travels is still on my reading table.   I am also reading - The Fruit of Her Hands by Nancy Wilson, The Doctor's Guide to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome by David Bell, The Classic Collection on Prayer by EM Bounds.

I am looking forward to...
Some special family celebrations coming up: wedding anniversary, a 60th birthday, a baptism.

Around the house...
Planting our new spring kitchen garden - rockmelon, watermelon, butternut pumpkin, herbs, lettuce, tomatoes, squash to name a few, oh, and strawberries too!! In the renovation wars we are up to beginning the painting of the outside of our house, trimming some over-hanging trees, and the man of our home has just started tiling the main toilet. On my to-do list is making the remaining curtains for my bedroom and ensuite - I have all the materials - I just need the time and inclination now!

A picture...

Decisions Decisions

Gardening and Nature Study

2011-09-11T19:50:00.000-07:00

A child who makes a garden, and thus becomes intimate with the plants he cultivates, and comes to understand the interrelation of the various forms of life which he finds in his garden, has progressed far in the fundamental knowledge of nature's ways as well as in a practical knowledge of agriculture. Handbook of Nature Study page 20-21

A wander around our garden this morning revealed the beginnings of a very busy and productive spring season for us. We have now been in our new home, our Wonderful One Acre Farm you might say, for 10 months. How busy we have been, and how much we have seen and learned in this little patch of earth in this short time. Our focus, naturally, has been on getting our new home habitable - dealing with flooding issues, leaking roofs and guttering problems which last Summers wet season very helpfully pointed out to us - and then moving onto standard renovation work. Pulling out a mould infested kitchen, mould, dust mite and cigarette smoke infested 20 year old carpet to name a couple of things. Being able to put on the fresh coat of paint inside, that makes everything feel new and fresh and bright was a very rewarding moment.

In amongst all this hard work however, our new chickens kept on roaming the yard and laying their eggs. Our fruit trees kept on growing and living and making fruit. Many moments have been spent outside, enjoying a brief respite from work (with coffee and other yummies) whilst watching our local bird life go about their business in our trees. All nature seemed oblivious to our hard work going on inside the house.

Quietly though, in a few stolen moments, we have managed to sneak in the beginnings of a small kitchen garden. So far we have enjoyed a small harvest of corn, beans, spinach, carrots and parsely. Not a bad start. We have watched worms, and lawn bugs and spiders. We had a little patch of grass growing, which this past week a custard head parrot visited and very swiftly freed the grass of its seed. We have caught caterpillars on our brussel sprout plants and found snakes hiding under our garden retaining walls. And all of this observed and discussed in small moments snatched here and there between our greater daily work and study.

Nature-study is science brought home. It is a knowledge of botany, zoology, and geology as illustrated in the dooryard, the cornfield or the woods back of the house. Some people have an idea that to know these sciences one must go to college; they do not understand that nature has furnished the material and laboratories on every farm [home garden] in the land.

Handbook of Nature Study page 21

The work in progress of Miss K (10 years old) since January. She has begun her own booklets for information she discovers on insects and things as she rambles about our garden.

Gardening, of course, is not necessarily nature-study. However, it is a wonderful springboard for nature study as we make an effort to observe and learn about the different species, the role of insects and worms, the importance of the soil and how they all work together.

Meme Fun

2011-09-06T17:33:00.000-07:00

Our friends in the Northern Hemisphere are all gearing up for the new academic year, while those of us in the South have our eyes fixed firmly on the finish line.

Jeanne 'A Peaceful Day'

How does the end of your academic year fare?   Are you all worn out? Is your brain fried? Has your creativity been so very taxed, that it is now non-existent?   Maybe you are enjoying a fresh burst of energy, headed toward this years finish line?   Or perhaps homeschooling is so much a part of your day-to-day life there is no beginning, and no end, just the enjoyable rythms of learning, living and working in today.

As we are now registered for homeschooling through the Home Education Unit here in Queensland (and have been for the past two years), this time of year I spend reflecting on the first half of our year, looking back through the work my girls have completed, choosing work samples for their portfolio of work I need to send to HEU by November. Comparing what we have done, with what I had planned to do back at the end of the previous year and just reflecting on how our year has panned out so far, and considering if there is anything I need to tweak, or focus on, for the remainder of the year. This tends to give me a new burst of direction and purpose for the remainder of the year, and because of this I have come to enjoy this process.

You may have noticed I am a little sporadic with my blogging and internet visiting these days - life with teens is busy and full and my quiet home time and blogging time needs to get squeezed in amongst all the activity - as a result I am little late to this Homeschooling Meme Party ....... but as the saying goes, better late than early. Thanks Jeanne, for the invitation. So, off we go .........

1. One homeschooling book you have enjoyed
At last count I have 22 homeschooling books delighting my bookshelves with their presence. I regularly return to each of these books on a regular basis ...... to pick only one is a serious dilemma.   After serious consideration, however, I think I can narrow my offering down to 2 favourites.   A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola is one of the first ever books I purchased. Karen's perspective on homeschooling, and her own application of Charlotte Mason principles within her own family, inspired me. She painted for me a picture of my own ideal educational experience - what I wished I had as a child, and what I hoped to give my own children. My next offering is Teaching the Trivium: Christian Homeschooling in a Classical Style by Harvie and Laurie Bluedorn. My journeys with Charlotte Mason eventually lead me to be introduced to Classical Education (Liberal Arts Education), and Teaching the Trivium has been a great reference resource as I have chartered the waters of the classical world.

2. One resource you wouldn't be without
Hmmm, another tough one. Books. Picture books, literature, informational, dictionaries, encylcopedias, biographies, text books.   Books, books, glorious books.

3. One resource you wish you had never bought
This is a bit tricky. When I have a resource that I don't like, for any reason, I either sell it on, give it away to someone who wants it or else I let it sit on my bookshelf, collecting dust, until one day I discover one of my children reading it, flicking through it or using it for some type of project of their own. Because of this, there are really no resources that I wished I had never bought - because in the end they are useful in some way, and I always learn something from the experience.

4. One resource you enjoyed last year
Minimus Latin we found very enjoyable. We took a break for a year from our usual Latin studies, and I used Minimus Latin - reading the short cartoons, and discussing the exercises orally.   We particularly enjoyed the British viewpoint and the history of Rome's interaction with England. Another resource we enjoyed, although it has fallen by the wayside a bit, was the Handbook of Nature Study and the accompanying Outdoor Hour activities. We were in a shared living arrangement, with our in-laws at the time, in a beautiful suburb only 1km from the beach and wetlands, and filled with leafy walkways. We often rode our bikes around, exploring, enjoying picnic lunches by the beach and completing some of the nature study activities. At the time it was the perfect activity to slot into our days.

5. One resource you will be using next year
I am looking forward (as is my daughter) to using the One Year Adventure Novel resource next year.

6. One resource you would like to buy
This

7. One resource you wish existed
Is there a resource that will do my housework for me? Actually, I am enjoying seeing the development of a wider variety of Australian homeschool curriculum from a variety of sources and people.

8. One homeschool catalogue you enjoy reading
Veritas Press, Sonlight, Ambleside Online, Adnil Press, Homeschooling Favourites and ACE are my favourites that I switch back and forth amongst. To pick only one is impossible.

9. One homeschooling website you use regularly
One?????? Actually, all of the websites that I visit, are all the catalogues I also enjoy reading. :) I can add more to that, but I won't. If you are curious, browse my side bar.

10 Tag six other homeschoolers
Tricky, tricky, who can I rope into this party that hasn't already participated?
Do you want to play Beyond Bluestockings? Susan? Heather?

Happy Homeschooling Everyone!

Truth, Beauty, Adventure

2011-08-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

Monsieur Jaques shook his head. 'Remember? I said I came to Capri in search of adventure. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to find an adventure as wonderful as this.'
Lord Derby shook his head. 'Remember? I said I came to Capri in search of beauty. Beauty!' He looked around him. 'No one in the world has ever seen anything more beautiful than this.'
Herre Nordstrom smiled. 'I will tell you,' he said, 'what all philosophers know. To search for truth is always an adventure - and there is always beauty in the truth itself. To have knowledge and understanding, to know the truth about things, that can be as exciting and beautiful as this blue cavern.'
Red Sails to Capri

Blue Grotto, Capri

Part 2: From Childhood You Have Known

2011-08-18T15:29:00.000-07:00

'We're all theologians. The question is whether what we know about God is true.'

Joshua Harris

So, now we arrive at the really sticky point. My eldest child entering highschool and her teen years. Could we continue learning the Bible as we have? Using biographies of Christians throughout the ages as our inspiration for how we live out our Christianity in this post-modern age? Is this enough?

At some point, doctrine does become important. Actually, doctrine is always important, for it is the instrument by which we assimilate what we know of God and His interaction with us, which in turn affects our decision making and our actions. Essentially doctrine and theology are very practical considerations.

Biographies of Christians living their lives in different times and places exposed us to the differing doctrines held by many of them. This has allowed a glimpse of understanding into how doctrine affects our lives in very practical ways. We have also memorised and familiarised ourselves with many creeds and their history. I have introduced my children to some of the old hymns with Colour The Classics: Hymn Writers.

A series titled History Lives, in four volumes, provided us with a sketch of christian history from ancient times to the present age, in the form of a series of short stories of key people and events in the different eras.

These sources and stories provided us with an historical point of view of doctrine, and introduced some of the various doctrines held within the wider framework of protestant christianity. And now we arrive at the time when it is time to guide our children into formulating their own doctrine.

For my highschooler, I have used the ACE New Testament Survey and Old Testament Survey curriculum. This provided her with an overview of scripture from a conservative evangelical perspective. From our church we receive plenty of liberal, post-modern teaching, so I wanted something that would balance that teaching a bit and give her things to think about.

For a time, in our morning family devotions we used Training Hearts, Teaching Minds, a family devotional based upon the Westminster Shorter Catechism. I myself, grew up with the Heidleberg Catechism, and I wanted my children to at least be familiar with them, even if we no longer held to every belief expressed in these catchisms. Training Hearts, Teaching Minds provided us with plenty of discussion material and challenging thoughts and another glimpse into the historical and doctrinal journey of the church.

In the years of my own personal study I have discovered the writings of John Macarthur, and books such as Fundamentals of the Faith and The Gospel According to Jesus authored by him have been read by my highschooler as part of her Christian Studies.

Entering the world of Youth Group, I felt the need to provide her with a good study bible, as I thought she would be tested in many areas and a good study bible was a must for her personal study. After much consideration, I settled on the Macarthur Study Bible (NKJV). A book written by Joshua Harris titled Dug Down Deep: Unearthing What I Believe and Why It Matters, which has provided my daughter with an enthusiastic and light introduction to why doctrine is important and an exploration of the main points of doctrine.

And this is where we are at now. You may think this is quite a hodge podge menu of doctrinal considerations, and how could we possibly come to any solid doctrinal footing with this selection of mind food? Well, my aim has been to guide my children in the course of making their own theological choices. I have stuck to material that is fairly close to a conservative, evangelical point of view, partially to provide a balance to the liberal theology that abounds today. And somehow, as a family unit we have become more united theologically as a result of this journey.

This is of course, what we have learned at home. Our journey with church has been another aspect of our family's faith travels. And something I may explore in my next post.

From Childhood You Have Known: Part 1

2011-08-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

....from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 3:15

Having married a man of a different denominational persuasion than myself, the early years of our marriage were fraught with disagreement and difficulty as my husband and I struggled to unite ourselves in our faith as we began the work of building our family. While those times were certainly not enjoyable, they were beneficial to us, because we had to work through our differing points of view and come to a conclusion of agreeing to disagree in harmony or one of us changing our point of view, and occasionally both of us altering our understanding to meet somewhere in the middle. What came out of that was a greater understanding of how different denominations approach Scripture, how different points of view affect how one interprets scripture, and how much we simply assume is right only because that was how we were raised. The end result, thankfully, is that each of us have a very real faith in God, and Jesus Christ - our faith is alive, our doctrine built out of a struggle to understand Scripture and each other. Naturally we still have our differences of opinion, but they are no longer the mountains these differences once were.

Initially I found all this quite tricky when it came to teaching my children. I did not want to teach strictly from my doctrinal point of view, and I could not teach my husband's doctrinal point of view. How could I create unity from a source of disunity? How could I help to build my family's faith while respecting different understandings, and living together in peace?

What I came to realise is that Scripture itself was of vital importance. An historical record of the earth's ancient history, stories and biographical sketches of how and why God has interacted with His people and creation throughout history, songs and poems recorded of how people responded to God. Story.

So I approached the Bible from an historical persective initially. It was important, I thought, for the children to be familiar with the stories, the historical settings, the lives of those in the Bible. We began by simply reading The Golden Children's Bible, from start to finish.

I also found the book Life in the Great Ice Age to be of great benefit in sketching in historical details from a young earth point of view, how and where dinosaurs fit in and what life was like for people in those very early ages. In choosing these extension books, I stuck with ideas that both my husband and I agreed upon so to provide some basic unity in our studies, before we tackled other areas later on. I also found a book that had short descriptions and overviews of the key people in the Bible for children, which I read through as a bit of an overview review for the children. Our history studies using resources such as Story of the World, helped to fill in the wider cultural picture of what was happening in the world at different points in the Bible.

After this, I used a combination of reading aloud from the King James Version (partly to familiarise my children with language structure and vocabulary of the King James Bible) and a dramatised audio version of the Bible. The dramatised audio Bible I found really helped the stories and the people come alive to my children by the simple act of having a narrator and different voices for the different characters. For this, I chose one particular book to read/listen through, choosing an Old Testament book and then a New Testament book. I followed the reading progression provided by the Bible Worksheets provided by Calvary Chapel, we would read/listen to the passage for the day, and then complete a worksheet - each day rotating a different worksheet choosing from true and false answers, a narration sheet, a picture to colour and a word puzzle. At the end, having a book of completed activity sheets to show for our efforts.

At the moment we are reading through a Chronological Study Bible: Explore God's Word in Historical Order. This Bible has set the story out chronologically, with study notes that provide a wider view on the connections between biblical history and world events and to dig deeper into the cultures and people of biblical times.

This approach, I have found, has produced a solid foundation of our faith to our children, which prepares them to study particular Christian doctrines and theology in the highschool years, when they are beginning to try and work things out for themselves (which will provide the content for my next post, hopefully).

Beauty and Usefulness

2011-08-05T02:13:00.000-07:00

What crosses your mind at the mention of handiwork, or handicraft? I have come to realise that handicraft is not simply arts and crafts. It is learning a life skill - a life skill that involves making something of usefulness and beauty that requires art, ability, dexterity and skill. Take a peek at Simply Charlotte Mason and Ambleside Online to explore the idea of handicrafts.

HAND'ICR`AFT,

Manual occupation; work performed by the hand.

Four succinct points should be kept in mind when selecting handicrafts and life skills.

The end-product should be useful. The children should not “be employed in making futilities such as pea and stick work, paper mats, and the like.”
Teach the children “slowly and carefully what they are to do.”
Emphasize the habit of best effort. “Slipshod work should not be allowed.”
Carefully select handicrafts and life skills to challenge but not frustrate. “The children’s work should be kept well within their compass.” Simply CM : Home Education p315

Our approach to handicrafts has not strictly followed these ideas quoted from Charlotte Mason, but has fallen more naturally within the scope of the delight directed free time in our days. This is partially because I am not especially gifted in the area of handwork. So, I have provided the resources, the how to books and the time, the children have provided the interest and the effort and the ideas. Sometimes they were inspired to try something from a story we've read. Other times they were inspired by the projects of various friends and family. Some days they were just bored and explored what we had on hand to keep boredom at bay. At different times friends and family have provided instruction and guidance.

This year has provided my girls with the opportunity of working to plan, decorate and design their own bedrooms. For the first time in their lives, they have their own rooms. On a practical level they have helped clean, pull up tiles and carpets, scrub, sand, screw off cupboard doors, dismantle shelves and paint. On a creative level we have explored colour schemes and themes and considered the furniture to best fit their needs and their rooms. They have designed the themes of their rooms in a way that reflects their personal taste and activity.

In particular our 16 year old has enjoyed this aspect of her work this year. Hemming curtains, sewing her own bed cushions and creating some lovely decorative and useful knick knacks are some projects that have enhanced her new space in our family home.

What handicraft projects are you and your children currently working on?

Of Busyness and Simple Beauty

2011-07-24T14:05:00.000-07:00

July - Simple Woman's Daybook

Outside my window

The sun is just making its appearance known, announcing a new day. Our native birds are greeting it and our rooster has announced its arrival - just in case we missed the light.

I am thinking...
Not so much thinking, more reflecting on the past year. A season of busyness, deadlines, a lot of work and sweat and decisions. Being unsettled. A new business. A trip to Africa. Saying goodbye to friends who moved to Cambodia. Moving, renovating, busyness, ministry, church life involvement, growing children. This past year has been a big one for us. This past week our eldest daughter celebrated her 16th birthday. We marked the occasion with a Garden Party, Pride and Prejudice style.

I am thankful...
For God.

His faithfullness in all things.

From the learning rooms...
Our academic year so far has been disjointed and a bit hit and miss with all our travelling and upheavals. A season filled with life lessons, activity and physical work and pockets of book learning. Something I love about homeschooling is that all learning is counted as important, no matter how it happens. And this past year of our family's life will be looked back on fondly, with many lessons learned and many days when we just knew God was here with us in amongst it all.

In this coming week, we plan to reintroduce ourselves to some of the texts we have layed aside. Latin, Dutch, getting serious with Maths again.

For myself, I need to start thinking about the portfolios of work samples I need to put together for the Home Education Unit over the next couple of months.

In the kitchen...
Some porridge to start the day (I add brown sugar and cinnamon for some extra loveliness)

A lamb roast for dinner.

And maybe we might bake some breakfast muffins for our hardworking Daddy's breakfast for tomorrow.

I am creating...

A knitted blanket which I have been working on for the past couple of months. At this rate, if I hurry I may have it ready for next winter. One of these days, I may even take a photo of my handiwork for you to take a peek at.

I am reading...

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathon Swift

Anyone read this? What do you think of it?

I am looking forward to...
A week of relaxing and rediscovering daily rythms of home life again, after our season of busyness. A week of coffee, good books, exploring our beach and rockpools. Maybe even a blog post or two.

Around the house...
Chickens and birds to care for.

Vegie's to water and weed.

Clothes to wash.

A husband and children to love.

Books to read.

Coffee to enjoy.

Trees to sit under and rest.

Here is a picture I am sharing...

If you are looking for me, this is where you'll find me this week.

With a book in hand, and maybe some little girls laying on a picnic blanket beside me, with their own books, enjoying the winter sunshine. And perhaps a cup of tea.

Australian Natural History

2011-06-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

Did you know that Natural History is alive and well in Australia today? Did you know Nature Study is not just for homeschoolers following old fashioned ideas of education, being inspired by the likes of Beatrix Potter and Charlotte Mason and Edwardian ladies that need to fill up their days? Did you know Nature Study is not just for children? Did you know that a Bachelor of Natural History Illustration is offered by an Australian University? Did you know that Australian Geographic shows an interest in natural history illustration with their readers?

The past few weeks I have been slowly rambling about the internet looking for some modern day natural history artists. My idea is to give my children the opportunity to appreciate some modern day, Australian artists in the nature study arena.

"The beauty of nature is astounding, from the glowing iridescence on a shell, a beetle or a feather, to the incredible details of flowers, animals, birds and insects with their very distinct textures, colours, shapes, sizes and species.

Nature offers many wonders in every form around us. From rainforests, beaches, mountains, deserts or even your own garden, each environment contains its own treasures." Leonie Norton

Leonie Norton

Bronwyn King

Keith Davey

Chris Rockley

Story

2011-06-27T15:24:00.000-07:00

Posterity's view of ..every..slice of history is always shaped by storytellers. [They] ..set the stage of the past and shape our perception of the period. N.D. Wilson (1)

Bedtime Story
Charles Compton

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Wilson D, Tyler Fisher G. (ed)(2006) Omnibus III: Reformation To The Present. Veritas Press: USA.

Let Us Sing About The Kindly Deeds Of The King Of Heaven

2011-06-22T16:24:00.000-07:00

In my blog wanderings this morning, I came across this post from Suzannah at In Which I Read Vintage Novels. I enjoyed the poem so much, I wanted to post it here for future reference for myself. Thanks Suzannah :).

Homer once sang of his Hellens and Trojans

and Vergil composed verse about the descendants of Romulus;

Let us sing about the kindly deeds of the king of Heaven

whom the world never ceases joyously to praise.

Homer and Vergil took pleasure in speaking about the flames that brought

sudden destruction to Troy and about the struggles of their heroes,

but our delight is to sing of Christ

drenched in blood after vanquishing the prince of this world.

They were both learned in how to compose falsehoods

with an appearance of truth and how to deceive an Arcadian verse;

we prefer to sing hymns of fine praise

to the power of the Father and His true wisdom.

Let us therefore hold the supreme victories of Christ as brilliant stars in our minds.

Behold the four corners of the world are clasped by the wooden cross.

--John Scotus (A.D. 810 - 877)

John Scotus was an Irish theologian and NeoPlatonist philosopher. He has some interesting thoughts sometimes labelled as "Irish porridge."

Wild Days

2011-06-20T15:31:00.000-07:00

How does the weather affect you? When we have a series of grey, miserable, wet and cold days I develop an almost overwhelming desire to hibernate. No energy, no interest, and a building desire to go and hide under some blankets and stay there until the sun comes out again is the feeling that creeps up on me.

When the weather is wild outside and the day is grey and your day is stretching ahead of you with a bunch of energetic and unruly children, the hibernating simply has to wait, and the need to fight off the hibernating grumps is important. Turning on all the lights in our living room to give the appearance of lovely sunny brightness and filling our days with regular cake and tea breaks with a bubbling and aromatic pot of stew bubbling away in the afternoon ready for a deliciously warming dinner is something that I find helpful in fighting off the grey day grumps.

These sorts of days are good for read alouds, board games and craft activities and clearing the floor for some dancing to the most energetic music we have. And when a nature ramble is not possible due to heavy weather, a browse through some art books/web sites is also a lovely activity. Especially some lovely outdoor scenes in lovely sunny days - almost makes you feel warmer inside to look at these pieces of artwork.

Boat at Boreen Point

The Dam

Double Island Point

Glasshouse Mountains

Nyng Hopper is a local sunshine coast artist.

Nyng paints predominantly in oils and is a master of the technique. Her work encompasses a range of styles from abstracts to impressionistic landscapes and seascapes, to realistic portraits and still lifes. Her paintings are vibrant and unmuddied, full of air and life. http://www.sunshinecoastart.com/artists.php

It is a thrill to study paintings of scenes that surround our home town, and enjoy an artists view of places we know and love through camping, fishing, boating, swimming and picnicking. Perfect for a wet, grey, wintery day indoors.

Winter Sunshine

2011-06-13T15:52:00.000-07:00

How is your household coping with the introduction to the winter season, and the winter colds and flus that also make an appearance? Our family has been battling the winter colds for the past three weeks now - it does not seem to want to leave. And let me tell you, it is not fun at all to be renovating and being sick and trying to work and keep the house clean - not a good mix at all. Add to the mix a cold snap, and well, we were not very happy campers here at Marigold Cottage at all.

And then Monday arrived. The cold snap had left, and what followed was one of those lovely sunny, gentle winter days that simply call you out of doors. And so we left behind the mountains of laundry, and the dirty floors and the pile of tissues. We rugged up and headed to the beach. It has been such a long time - with continual bad weather and renovations taking our time - too long, since we have visited 'our' beach.

And so we enjoyed a peaceful ramble, reintroducing ourselves to the wonders of our shoreline.

There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
And peace along the lonely shore.

Sooty Oystercatcher
Haematopus fuliginosus

White-bellied Sea-Eagle
Haliaeetus leucogaster

Sentinel Crab
Macrophthalmus latifrons

Eastern Reef Egret Egretta sacra

Glasshouse Mountains

Have you enjoyed a nature ramble lately? Where did you go? What did you see?

Jane Sutherland

2011-06-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

Jane Sutherland
by George Sutherland

The Field Naturalists

Mushroom Gatherers

On The Last Tramp

Anyone familiar with Jane Sutherland (1853-1928) an Australian impressionist artist?

What about the Heidelberg School?

Did you know you can follow the trail of the artists of the Heidelberg School and walk through the landscapes that inspired the artists of the late nineteenth century? Pity I live in Queensland, I'll have to wait until our next travelling holiday into the Melbourne area.

Morning Chores

2011-06-06T14:37:00.000-07:00

Today was the day we were to begin the process of introducing our three chicks to the chickens in their pen. The chickens are not free ranging these days because of building work going on and builders driving in and out, so it is the perfect opportunity to introduce the chicks into the pen during the day. Our first step was to fence off a portion of grass right next to the pen - so the chickens could all see eachother, but not get near each other. Stage 1 - successful!

As we stood back and watched the chicks settle into their new day time home, we noticed a spider web by the macadamia nut tree. We hunted around and found a spider curled up inside a messy web bound with leaves of the tree. We thought it might have been the spider that created the large web hanging from the outside of the tree which first drew our attention. Later on, Google showed us that it was in fact Badumna longinqua (Brown House Spider), snuggled up in its own style of happy web home. We also found three other smaller webs, filled with spiderlings - perhaps the babies of Badumna longinqua. The larger web, we believe was created by Nephila edulis (Golden Orb Weaver). We found some smaller reddish looking spiders on the outskirts of this web, and discovered later that they must be the male Golden Orb - the female we shall keep hunting for.

Miss K (who is 10), happily collected two of the smaller spiders into a container, and is watching them while she pastes in some pictures we took of the spider and webs and the information we found about them into her own special book, skipping out every now and then to tell me what her new little companions are up to. Unfortunately it seems the bigger spider has now eaten the smaller one. Oops.

Health and Physical Education

2011-06-05T15:54:00.000-07:00

The QSA (Queensland Studies Authority) makes these points in regards to the key learning area of Health and Physical Education which incorporates the three areas of health, physical actvity and personal development:

Health is multidimensional and dynamic, and influenced by actions and environments. Health has physical, social, emotional, cognitive and spiritual dimensions, which are dynamic, interrelated and interdependent

The interaction between personal, social, cultural and environmental factors influences health behaviours, including nutrition and physical activity choices.

Individual, group and community action, that enables people to adopt health promotion strategies, can address inequities and promote health and wellbeing, including safety.

Food groups are rich in particular nutrients, and food intake can be adapted to meet changing needs during [different stages of life].

Regular active and purposeful participation in physical activity promotes health and wellbeing, and supports the achievement of goals.

Diverse social, cultural and environmental factors, values, beliefs and behaviours influence relationships and self-management, and shape personal development.

According to the QSA, this is what they would like students at the Year 9 level of study to have grasped an underdstanding of.

With regards to health in our home, due to chronic illness and allergies we have been exploring natural and herbal medicine, massage and the importance of good old fashioned health habits - simply being active, being outside each day, enjoying our work and the good in our work, keeping the house clean, getting plenty of water, rest (God made the daytime to work and the night time for rest) and good food -, we regularly participate in first aid training and so we are familar with basic first aid practises.

I have often wondered if phyiscal activity and motor skills can only be achieved through participating in sport as we know it today? Early on we made the decision not to particpate in sporting groups - partly because of financial constraints and partly because we wanted to keep our weekends free. The Father of our home works long days during the week, which makes our weekends our family time and we did not want to spend that time on sports. Instead we spend time in physical activity which we can enjoy together as a family, and which has enriched our family in many ways. Camping, bushwalking, rock climbing, swimming at the beach, boogie boarding and surfing, boating, fishing, water skiing - these are actually considered to be 'adventure sports'. At home the children enjoy bike riding, tennis and badminton, family cricket and football games, tree climbing, gardening, dancing and listening to lively music while they help me sweep the floors and walking to the local park.

The main idea I want to teach my children is to make physical activity part of their everyday life, and part of this is to enjoy being outside and to enjoy active household tasks like gardening. As life moves on, and people get jobs/careers, or manage a home and have children it can get tricky to maintain physical activity and fitness, but if they have grown up with it being a part of their family culture and lifestyle, that will go a long way in helping them maintain a healthy level of physical activity through their lifetimes.

Personal development - now there's an area that can be filled with many varied and interesting ideas. For our family the Bible provides us with the direction of personal development including ethics and morality and princples for life. Living and working and studying and playing in a family living in close quarters with each other day in and day out provides ample opportunities for personal development. Communication skills, conflict resolution skills, care of others, working together to create harmony in our home all form a part of our daily learning very naturally. Self-esteem is always a hot topic, but I have found that because my children are a very real part of our family and home life that they have very naturally developed confidence in their abilities and are assured that they are an important part of life in general. For example, you may have noticed we have been seriously renovating this year. It has been so serious, that we have seriously needed our children's help. They have knocked down walls and carried out bits of timber, they have pulled up carpets and used hammers and other tools. They have sanded and painted and planned out their own bedrooms. They have helped cut down trees and plant gardens. They have contributed in a very real and practical way. They are rightfully proud of their contribution and they are assured that we could not have come this far without them. These are not contrived, feel good about yourself activities that lack foundation and real value.

What does Health and Physical Education look like in your home?

A Season of Natural Learning

2011-06-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

Two things (of many) I love about homeschooling is the flexibility and freedom that is inherent when educating our children at home and also the fact that our children are part of our life in a very meaningful way. These two aspects have evolved in our homeschooling lifestyle this year in very practical and tangible ways.

Those of you who follow this little blog of mine will be aware that our homeschooling venture is inspired mainly by the ideas of Classical Christian Education and the writings of Charlotte Mason and Karen Andreola. Natural Learning has also held a place in our home, humming along quietly in the background and helping us form our plans of when and how to learn things and holding together the thread of our days learning together. You may wonder how all these different philosphies may work together to form a cohesive learning and family environment - yet in our home, they simply do.

Is it possible to natural learn classically (or in other words, classically unschool)? Excellent question. I am not sure of the ins and outs of it all, but that is the best way I can find to best describe what our homeschooling has looked like this year so far. And it doesn't look like this pattern of family living and learning is going to change any time soon.

What we have learned this year has unfolded very naturally from our family life and working on our property. We have been learning about fruit trees and caring for chickens, and solar power. We have been learning how to use hammers and paintbrushes and shovels. We have been getting to know our new property and how it fairs in wet weather. We have planned and planted a new garden. We have been learning how to live with new family dynamics, having grandparents part of our daily family life. We have been learning how to cook meals on a barbeque. In our free time we have been reading, painting, drawing, writing stories, knitting and sewing and watching movies. On the odd day we even dig out our text books and complete some excercises in them. We have been reading aloud together Minimus Latin, The Jungle Books and Beautiful Girlhood. We have been going to church and youth group and music practise. We have been the recipients of meals and practical help from our church family when we have had serious moving and renovating happening.

Schooling as such has fallen by the wayside a little, however learning and growing and sharing continues.

Ain't homeschooling grand?

Edouard Vuillard
Woman and Child in a Garden

Natural learning builds upon a belief that learning unfolds naturally from within the individual and grows to include social settings, such as family, close friends, community and society in general. Natural learning follows closely the patterns of activity already existing in daily life, building a rich and comprehensive educational experience. Children become intimately involved in all aspects of family life, often including family working life. They are not closeted away from the world of adults, but are welcomed, in 'apprenticeship' roles, and valued greatly for their contributions. Where skills and knowledge are needed, within these rich social contexts, resources are always found.
Beverley Paine

The Human Seasons

2011-05-31T12:05:00.000-07:00

Four Seasons fill the measure of the year;

There are four seasons in the mind of man:

He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear

Takes in all beauty with an easy span:

He has his Summer, when luxuriously

Spring's honied cud of youthful thought he loves

To ruminate, and by such dreaming high

Is nearest unto heaven: quiet coves

His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings

He furleth close; contented so to look

On mists in idleness--to let fair things

Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook.

He has his Winter too of pale misfeature,

Or else he would forego his mortal nature.

John Keats

Little Girl Playing With Her Dolls 1888

Have you ever had a day ......

2011-05-30T15:30:00.000-07:00

........ when at the end of it, you looked back with satisfaction, thinking this is why we homeschool?

Claude Monet
Le Dejeuner

So many days have their difficulties and humps. Someone is sick, or life is filled with appointments, or you're just involved in so many things you cannot catch your breath, or the housework has built up to unhygenic proportions, or the children are grumpy and refuse to do as they are told, or you are grumpy and don't want to be around your children, or no one seems to be learning a thing, ...... well, the list of things that can go wrong in a household are virtually endless, from the silly and humorous to the downright frustrating and terrifying.

But every now and then a day comes along that fulfills every dream you ever had about homeschooling your lovely, perfectly dressed and tidy, well-behaved caring children in your beautifully cared for home that is ordered and comfortable.

Have you ever had one of those days?

I did, yesterday.

We were awake in the morning, the girls keen to bound out of their beds in their new, very own bedrooms, excited to begin the days work. They squeezed in some unpacking of their belongings into their room. We enjoyed a lovely warm breakfast all together, and then we set up around the table with our books and got some bookwork completed. In the meantime I whizzed around the house in happy homemaker perfection, sweeping, mopping, washing clothes, making beds, and so on, while my girls worked and occasionally asked me questions. A lovely lunch of semi-homemade pizza followed and the afternoon was filled with happy children, singing, while they ordered their new bedrooms. Until we closed up the house to the coming cold night air, and filled it with the smells of apple pie, sausage casserole, mashed pumpkin and beans. The dinner table set with candles, and the stage was set for a lovely, cosy evening to spend together.

On this day we cured no diseases, discovered nothing new in rocket science or created any magnificent art work, or made any natural history discovery. But we did learn and work and enjoy being at home together. These kinds of days do not come along too often, but they certianly are delightful to be enjoyed when they do happen. And no two lovely days like this are alike.

What about you? What kind of days with your family at home have you enjoyed and made you thankful and hopeful with the homeschooling life?

May - Beauty In My Everyday

2011-05-08T15:56:00.000-07:00

......Celebrating the simple beauty in my everyday......

In what I see and hear from my window
This morning I awoke to rain. The gently steady, set in for the day kind of rain. After relishing a number of days in a row with beautiful blue, sunny Autumn skies, the rain is welcome again.

In my reading
Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture by GE Veith
A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille
Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley

In my thinking
This week I have been thinking much about our trip to Uganda. I guess this has been triggered by our friends recent move to Cambodia. Especially thinking about God's Work. It is all God's Work (even our very own simple home lives) and prayer and the word is what underpins it all. God uses us for a time, in His grand plan, in this time and place. I do well to remember this, especially when life gets a bit stressful, or is filled with disagreements etc.

In my home
Our renovations are coming together nicely. There is still much work to be done, but in the next week or two we will actually be able to begin moving in, and will thus be able to finish the rest of our renovations from the comfort of new rooms and living space. And indoor kitchen.
It has been an adventure, living and working as we have, and we have created many memories. But with the rainy weather, and winter just around the corner, we will be grateful for indoor living and cooking again. Lovely.

In my plans
Last week we paid a visit to our local Spotlight store. I could not resist some beautiful coloured yarn and also bought the largest pair of kitting needles I could find. I plan to begin knitting together a throw rug, ready to use in our new lounge room in the coming winter months.
May is about finishing of Stage 1 of our renovations - the plans include finishing painting, and cleaning and moving into our new bedrooms and kitchen. Big Plans.

In my kitchen
Cleaning out cupboards.
Finding our kitchen boxes out of the shed.
Filling up our new kitchen with all our pots and pans and gizmos that we haven't seen or used since July last year.
Maybe spoiling ourselves and buying a new dinner set.
Testing out our new oven and dishwasher!!!
Too much excitement!
Plans for the first things to bake in our oven:
Lasagne
Breakfast Muffins
Bread and Butter Pudding

In my learning rooms
We have trimmed down our formal learning activities to Reading, Writing, Arithmetic with a smattering of Art, Music, Science and Latin thrown in here and there as we are able. I am enjoying this simpler routine, and it is allowing us to really focus and spend time on these basics. It also blends very nicely with busy days of gardening and renovating.

In my art and pictures

A glimpse of our new indoor living space.
The picture tells the story of many decisions, hard work, community with friends, and appreciation for indoor comfort.
Getting closer!! :)

A Notion Of Excellence

2011-05-03T15:47:00.000-07:00

EX'CELLENT,

a. Being of great virtue or worth; eminent or distinguished for what is amiable, valuable or laudable; as an excellent man or citizen; an excellent judge or magistrate.

1. Being of great value or use, applied to things; remarkable for good properties; as excellent timber; an excellent farm; an excellent horse; excellent fruit.

2. Distinguished for superior attainments; as an excellent artist.

Clare of Assisi Tending to Plants
Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale

Renovating has placed us in the path of many tradesmen. Tradesmen of course come in all shapes and sizes, my personal favourite being one I think of as the 'gentleman bushie' - rough around the edges, who will express frustration when things are not going well with 'words' or sounds, but with a gentleman's heart underneath the bushy beard.

My least favourite are the ones who make all kinds of promises, who may make the effort to appear professional, yet as the actual work begins their promises prove empty. Claims of excellence are lost in amongst dodgy work and just plain old rude and cranky men, who simply don't care about the work they are doing, or about the fact that they are working in someone else's home, helping them create a lovely and well-built living space. True colours, generally, do not take long to show through in this kind of work.

Excellent work costs more. It costs money, time, effort, thought, good communication between tradie and owner. It requires perseverence and patience. It requires sacrifice.

In our post-modern times and culture the idea of excellence has fallen by the way-side and is no longer a popular ideal. Our 'she'll be right mate' attitude has fallen into plain old sloppy work and no effort or care in the work we do. I think this partly is the result of simply trying to cram too much into our lives and our work. Catering only to the bottom line in our education and training systems, which dumbs us down and creates the atmosphere of just doing enough to scrape through, also contributes to this non-excellent work ethic.

Elaine the Lily Maid
Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale

The notion of excellence appears to me to be reserved for those we consider 'perfectionists', for the elite, for the artisan or academic, for the snobs even. However, I am beginning to believe that excellence is important for the ordinary and the everyday. For the tradie as well as the elite sportsperson. For the homeschooling mother as well as the world-renowned professor. For the housewife and the doctor. For the preacher and the storekeeper.

Life deserves our effort. Our families deserve our time and sacrifice. Our homes require effort, time and thought. Our work and our clients/customers deserve our best. Who knew one could learn so much through renovating? I bet even the tradie's themselves do not realise how much they teach us. :)

Anzac Romance

2011-04-24T18:24:00.000-07:00

It is a legend not of sweeping military victories so much as triumphs against the odds, of courage and ingenuity in adversity. It is a legend of free and independent spirits whose discipline derived less from military formalities and customs than from the bonds of mateship and the demands of necessity. It is a democratic tradition, the traditions in which Australians have gone to war ever since.
PJ Keating MP
Prime Minister of Australia
11 November 1993

With a picnic blanket covering the floor and armed with colour pencils, scissors and glue, three little girls colour pictures of Aussie soldiers, nurses, poppies and animals while God Bless Australia plays in the background. Mama then reads to them a poem - In Flanders Fields, and shows the girls a small map of Gallipoli as they talk about what they know of what happened there. They are most familiar with the story of Simpson and His Donkey. Mama's highschool girl then reads through some commemorative Anzac Day speeches, and copies some quotes from the speeches onto her work. To finish the lesson, Mama introduces the girls to Major Leslie Fraser Standish Hore, a soldier and artist, and together they read a little about his life and look at the drawings and watercolours he created while at Gallipoli.

Early Morning Gallipoli
October 1915

Sacrifice, War, Peace

2011-04-24T15:22:00.000-07:00

To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven:

A time to be born,

And a time to die,

A time to plant,

And a time to pluck what is planted;

A time to kill,

And a time to heal;

A time to break down

And a time to build up;

A time to weep,

And a time to laugh;

A time to mourn,

And a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones,

And a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace

And a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to gain,

And a time to lose;

A time to keep,

And a time to throw away;

A time to tear,

And a time to sew;

A time to keep silence,

And a time to speak;

A time to love,

And a time to hate;

A time of war,

And a time of peace.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

I am meditating on these words this morning. Anzac Day, hot on the heels of our rememberence and celebration of Christ's Death and Resurrection. I am reminded of the need for war at times. The seemingly everlasting battle of good vs evil. The times of sacrifice - and those who are called to sacrifice. The ultimate, once and for all sacrifice of our Lord and Saviour.

The Old Rugged Cross

George Bennard, 1913

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,

The emblem of suffering and shame;

And I love that old cross where the dearest and best

For a world of lost sinners was slain.

Refrain

So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,

Till my trophies at last I lay down;

I will cling to the old rugged cross,

And exchange it some day for a crown.

O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,

Has a wondrous attraction for me;

For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above

To bear it to dark Calvary.

In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,

A wondrous beauty I see,

For ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,

To pardon and sanctify me.

To the old rugged cross I will ever be true;

Its shame and reproach gladly bear;

Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away,

Where His glory forever I’ll share.

God Bless Australia

(Sung to the tune of Waltzing Matilda)

Here in this God-given land of ours Australia,

This proud possession, our own piece of earth,

That was built by our fathers who pioneered our heritage,

Here In Australia, the land of our birth.

God bless Australia, our land Australia,

Home of the ANZACs, the strong and the free,

It’s our homeland, our own land, to cherish for eternity,

God bless Australia, the land of the free.

Here In Australia we treasure love and liberty,

Our way of life, all for one, one for all,

We’re a peace-loving race, but should danger ever threaten us,

Let the world know we will answer the call.

God bless Australia, our land Australia,

Home of the ANZACs, the strong and the free,

It’s our homeland, our own land, to cherish for eternity,

God bless Australia, the land of the free.

O Valiant Hearts

O valiant hearts who to your glory came

Through dust of conflict and through battle flame;

Tranquil you lie, your knightly virtue proved,

Your memory hallowed in the land you loved.

Proudly you gathered, rank on rank, to war

As who had heard God’s message from afar;

All you had hoped for, all you had, you gave,

To save mankind - yourselves you scorned to save.

Long years ago, as earth lay dark and still,

Rose a loud cry upon a lonely hill,

While in the frailty of our human clay

Christ our redeemer went the self-same way.

I have been rendered.......

2011-04-17T18:43:00.000-07:00

........speechless! Or perhaps, wordless. So what have I been up to then? Well, a lot of this:

Our renovations are looming large, and taking up all available headspace, wordspace and muscle. And as this little blog is about homeschooling, there is just not much to tell. Our homeschooling is ticking along in the background, in amidst dust, and plasterers and tilers and builders. We are learning the art of living in a small space while we work and our girls are practising their newly learned skills of renovating and painting and chicken care and fruit tree care and planning out our new kitchen garden. We are developing the art of cooking many things on a barbeque and enjoying an out door lifestyle, even as the weather cools. We are reading many books and sharing our favourite parts with eachother at mealtimes, and singing while we work. Sometimes we have a good cry after a hard day, or get a little short with eachother because we long for our own space again. And every now and then we throw our hands in the air and go camping, or out to dinner, or visit with friends.

Adventures are many, but the words are few. So, my dear friends, blogging here will be sporadic at best, although this season may see hibernation visit Marigold Cottage. Just so you know.

April Daybook

2011-04-05T16:48:00.000-07:00

...Outside my window...

sunshine

birds

fruit trees

...I am thinking...

about gratitude and thankfullness and their place in our daily lives

about this thought from Paul in 2 Corinthinians 1:12

'conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.'

...I am thankful for...

a camping trip to look forward to

friends in our church community who care and love and pray and help
happy activity of children

...From the learning rooms...

discussions about avenues of continued learning for the future of our eldest girl who is nearing the end of her homeschooling journey

...From the kitchen...

not much in the way of actual food - however, we have finally chosen and planned and ordered our new kitchen which will hopefully be installed in the next month or so.

...I am creating...

home

...I am reading...

2 Corinthians

Saint Francis of Assisi by GK Chesterton

A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille

...I am hearing...

Celtic instrumental music

the hammers and nail gun of the plasterers

children playing
...Around the house...

dust

building waste

dreams and plans for the future

hard work

weariness

....A few plans for the rest of the week...

'just keep swimming''

meeting with friends

orthodontist

housekeeping

trying to put into practice living with simplicity and godly sincerity

....A Picture For Thought....

Sunshine And Dancing Shadows

2011-03-30T23:16:00.000-07:00

Butterflies, baby chickens, cars driving by on their way home from work and school I imagine, and sunlight dancing with the shade from the trees in the breeze. This is what filled my vision as I sat on the verandah, bare feet resting on the chair in front of me, book on my lap and a cup of tea in my hand. A rare, restful moment snatched from my busy week.

The jewel blue sky stretching into infinity, and the warmth reaching into my bones and my soul from the sunshine were welcome visitors on this afternoon, as I took a moment to reflect on my week. The week has been wild and rainy and cold. Our outdoor kitchen wet. Mould growing everywhere, thriving in the continually damp conditions. Cane toads. Clogged drains, leaking toilets. Washing piling up ever higher, as the wet and muddy work conditions began taking its toll on our wardrobe and my laundering skills. Hammering and sawing. Plaster dust and sawdust. Hayfever and allergies. Men clomping about on the roof cleaning and fixing it. Bits of brick in our beds, as the workmen occasionally drilled a hole too far into the brick work, and came through into our current living space. Shopping for tiles, and visits with cabinet makers.

As for schoolwork, well, this week we have laid aside much of our bookwork to concentrate on catching up on some cleaning, organising and basic renovating jobs that we had been putting off. So our first order of each day was housekeeping, followed by some renovating work that the children could help with. A time of play and lunch followed by a selection of academic work and our days are full.

But right now, I am sitting with my feet up, as the children happily play with their dolls amongst the trees. Enjoying this gift of sunshine and dancing shadows. Drinking in this moment of peace and refreshment. Filling my mind and soul with pleasant thoughts and little dreams of what will be when all is finished.

Claude Monet
Lady In A Garden

Conditions For Learning

2011-03-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

“The only people who ever achieve much are those who seek knowledge while conditions are still unfavorable. Favourable conditions will never come.”

CS Lewis

Cook and Banks Botany Bay by Alec Ball

On The Subject Of Education

2011-03-20T17:45:00.000-07:00

Books In Winter
Jessie Wilcox Smith

The most important fact about the subject of education is that there is no such thing. Education is not a subject, and it does not deal in subjects. It is instead the transfer of a way of life." G.K. Chesterton

People should be free to find or make for themselves the kinds of educational experience they want their children to have. John Holt

Jessie Wilcox Smith

Simple Things In March

2011-03-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since I have lingered on the simple things in my day - in fact it has been awhile since my days have been simple. Things are beginning to slowly settle here into some kind of daily rythm, so here is my Simple Woman's Daybook for March.

Outside my window...

Cloud dappled sunshine. Cars driving past. Always the cheerful chattering of the birds. Horses being ridden by our front yard.

I am thinking...

How wonderful it is to be living in a place where horses are part of our daily landscape.

I am thankful for...

The cool change in the air that has signalled the arrival of Autumn.

From the learning rooms...

Our learning time is full and scheduled this year. A change of pace for us, but it so far is working well. The girls seem to be enjoying the new structure and the challenge. They were ready for it. Our schoolwork now is timed for 8am to 12:00 noon. The girls have their daily schedule, and when they have finished their breakfast and morning chores, they simply begin.

Two new things we are trialling this year are Sonlight and Living Math.

From the kitchen...

We have created a makeshift kitchen outside and converted the carport into alfresco dining. We cook on our gas barbeque (whom we have affectionately named Lady Barbeque) and wash our dishes in a plastic camping sink. I have kept out our slow cooker, however, so I can add some variety to our Barbeque Meals. Some of the new things we have cooked on the bbq include garlic bread, bbq scrambled eggs, cheese toast, fried chicken. Pancakes is something we will be trying soon.

I am creating...

A series of photo/video slide shows of our home renovation to share with family who live away from us and cannot visit. This has become a great way to share our life and doings and home with distant relatives who still want to be involved as much as they can in our life.

I am going...

To buy some chicken wire today and try to create a small dome for our Baby Chickens to roam around under while they learn the art of free ranging with our Big Chickens.

I am reading...

Fruit That Will Last: How to develop a youth ministry with lasting impact by Tim Hawkins

The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace

1 Corinthians

I am hearing...

The washing machine, the clink of cutlery and plates as breakfast is prepared by the children, the Big Chickens as they are let out for the day and are hurrying to find their favourite spots in the yard, the Baby Chickens as they chirp and play and do what Babies do - get into mischief.

Around the house...

Walls have been taken down, interesting things discovered hiding in the walls, bathrooms pulled out, bedroom wardrobes adjusted. Lots of dust, lots of planning and measuring.

A few plans for the rest of the week...

Church music group, youth group, cleaning, beginning some trial vege and herb gardens this week to see how and where they will work best. Plant a lemonade tree, a mandarin tree and a coffee tree we bought at the markets earlier in the week.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

Queen Buttercup.

New additions to our family - 3 little chickens and some vegies in our newly created vegie patch.

"For a dead language .......

2011-03-11T16:09:00.000-08:00

........., Latin gets a lot of use these days, especially by ..............

[homeschoolers

language lovers

classical educators

writers

historians

archeologists

scientists

doctors

.....and.....]

gardeners!

Friends who used to grow "loosestrife" and "bee balm" now talk about their Lythrum and their Monarda, oblivious to the scorn of people like my neighbour Ellen. "My flowers grow fine without knowing what genus they belong to, and what's good enough for them is good enough for me," Ellen insists. But for every Ellen there is someone who can't sleep until she knows whether her catmint is Nepata faassenii or Nepeta mussinii."

And so opens the introduction to 'Gardeners Latin' by Bill Neal.

Whilst browsing the gardening section of our local library again last week, this little book managed to find its way into my hands and simply begged me to bring it home. Just imagine my poor husbands disgust and horror, when for my bedtime reading I pull out this little book! What can I say? I am simply a homeschooler!

I have had some fun exploring the origins, lore and meanings of botannical names. This little book is a handy reference addition for our nature study efforts.

calendula'ceus: like the European pot marigold, Calendula

DON'T BE FOOLED Calendulaceus. "Perdita's 'Marigold, that goes to bed with the sun, and with him rises, weeping," (Shakespeare) is not (as Burpee would have you think) the modern marigold (tagetes), but Calendula officinalis, which has a long season, and so is usually in bloom for all the festivals of the Virgin." Elizabeth Lawrence, Through the Garden Gate, 1990

(page 22 of Gardener's Latin)

Calendula officinalis

"Empty clam-shells and dry seaweed!"

2011-03-10T14:47:00.000-08:00

Literature keeps life interesting. Surrounding ourselves with Living Books has given us a wealth of sayings, ideas and one liners that we can use in many situations in day to day life. The past couple of weeks, whilst reading Red Sails To Capri, I have been learning about the true art of cooking - how to cook with love while fending off daily starvation of my loved ones. This week we are reading aloud our last chapters in The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. As an exclamation of surprise we cannot go past our new favourite - "Empty clam-shells and dry seaweed!" - found in the story of The White Seal.

We have been reading a chapter over two reading sessions. In the first readings the girls first created a bookmark, and then coloured in the map that I copied from the front pages of the book. In our successive readings the girls drew a small picture to glue around the map. Simple, but enough to aid their listening and get their minds into gear using their own imaginations to picture the story for themselves.

A friend once commented that the Classics are the books everyone knows but no one has read. This seems especially the case with classic stories that become part of popular culture through cinematic adaptation. “Disneyfication” can describe many things, but applied to literature, it is a metamorphosis from pedagogy to sentimental entertainment. Examples crowd the marquee of any local movie theater.

In an era of both instant information and increasing illiteracy, few take the trouble to return to the sources. We are content with the processed crumbs that fall to us and seldom taste the banquet of unique creativity that is any great book. Real information should form us (an thus can never be instant), and many ‘literate’ people choose useless or even destructive reading (if they choose to read at all). Perhaps a new word is needed: dysliteracy: abnormal or impaired literacy.

I finished Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Books with these thoughts in mind. I knew the cartoon version from childhood and was expecting the same simplicity and lighthearted mood. My dysliteracy was corrected in delightful fashion.

Writes Joshua Sturgill in his book review of The Jungle Books. To read the rest of this article head over to Circe Institute to Book Review: The Jungle Books

Oh hear the Call! Good hunting all
That keep the Jungle Law!

Our Mystery Tree

2011-03-06T17:47:00.000-08:00

I have searched high and low for the identity of this tree. Friends on forums and unsuspecting visitors to our home have been introduced to our Mystery Tree, in the hopes of finding someone who can confidently tell us the identity of our tree. We have had many suggestions - loquat, logun, guava, canistel have been some. Meanwhile our tree continues to quietly do its thing. Grow, give shade to our chickens in their house, providing a spot for ants and insects and birds to be busy about its leaves and branches each day. The fruit continues to grow - even though we do not know what kind of fruit it is. Each week we go and watch, hoping to see a change in colour, hoping that it may just now be ripening - hoping for that magic day when we will know. I think our tree is enjoying its game of hide and seek - she is not giving up her name to us easily.

Patience. Time.

In the meantime I have picked some fruit and the leaves for further 'scientific' investigation.

I cut open one of the fruits. Its aroma was, well, surprisingly fruity - but otherwise non-specific!

No seeds, or beginnings of seeds could I find, although the centre of the fruit was firmer than the outside. The skin of the fruit is smooth.

After being cut open, the fruit began seeping a sticky, yellow, milky sap-like substance - well, after all it is not ripe.

The leaves large, smooth and glossy - similar to a mango trees leaves.

After further research, I am thinking maybe a white sapote?

Any thoughts?

The Secret to Good Cooking

2011-02-28T18:19:00.000-08:00

I have just discovered today that I may have been approaching the art of cooking from a wrong perspective.

"There, there!" The words came from the kitchen along with a wonderful odor. "There, there! Cook slowly now. Do not hurry yourselves. The men have not arrived."

Signor Pagano looked at Michele and smiled. "Your mother," he said, "is a very remarkable person. Does she cook by recipe? No. Does she cook by taste? No. Does she cook by smell? No. Your mother, Michele, takes a few fish, and she talks to them, and argues with them, and scolds them, and flatters them, until finally she talks them into cooking the way she wants them. She takes a bit of dough and pats it, and teases it, and wraps it up in a cloth like a baby, and sings to it. Will she leave the kitchen when the bread is rising? No. And why not? Because the dough will not rise well by itself. It gets lonely. Bread lonely! Now I ask you? But what can I do? What can I say? Is she not the best cook in Capri?" ....

...."There, there!" Pots clattered. Lids were lifted and replaced. There was the sound of beating and scraping and stirring. "There, there! You would like some more lemon, yes? Good. But slowly now. Don't get too brown. The men have not come. There is much time."...

...Signora Pagano cooed to the fish, spoke harshly to the soup when it boiled over, and begged the figs to keep themselves juicy.

Red Sails to Capri by Ann Weil
page 21-22

Introducing .........

2011-02-27T20:09:00.000-08:00

Actually, I was hoping someone might be able to introduce this tree to me.

We may be sharing the same home, but I do not even know

this trees name.

Can anyone help me out?

Can anyone introduce us?

Introducing ...........

2011-02-23T14:25:00.000-08:00

............... our Black Sapote

also known as

Chocolate Pudding Fruit

And this is what we do with it:

An Out-Of-Door Life

2011-02-22T14:57:00.000-08:00

In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mother's first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it spent for the most part out in the fresh air. Charlotte Mason

One of the things I loved most when I first began reading about homeschooling, and delving into the writings of Charlotte Mason in particular, was the idea of freedom to simply enjoy being out-of-doors. And learning the benefits to children, and families of an outdoor life. Since those early days, I have read medical literature that claims many health benefits for unwell people, when they commit to spending some time each day outside in the fresh air and sunshine.

And so I wholeheartedly made this effort to help my children learn to enjoy our great outdoors, to watch and listen and love God's creation - to just be in it and a part of it. On the outside, no academic benefits were immediately apparent, and I was occasionally questioned about the 'time wasted' outside, when we should be inside studying. However, now that my children are older, and they are beginning to delve into more serious Science study, their early years of rambling around outside have shown to be a wise investment, as it has provided them with natural observations that come to mind now, when they are learning the underlying Science of it all.

During the early years of my children's life, we lived in small suburban blocks. But we managed to make a small, but inviting outdoor space. I allowed my little girls to create secret spaces behind small shrubs and under trees to play with their dolls and animals and other toys. We often set up a picnic blanket outside and had an afternoon garden tea party, or a mini picnic lunch. We went for regular walks around our neighbourhood, and watched our neighbours gardens change throughout the seasons. We visited regularly our local botannic gardens and a number of local parks - picking a favourite to come back to often. That was the extent of our outdoor time.

Never be within doors when you can rightly be without........Besides the gain of an hour or two in the open air, there is this to be considered: meals taken al fresco are usually joyous, and there is nothing like gladness for converting meat and drink into healthy blodd and tissue. All the time, too, the children are storing up memories of a happy childhood. Fifty years hence they will see the shadows of the boughs making patterns on the white tablecloth; and sunshine, children's laughter, hum of bees, and scent of flowers are being bottled up for after refreshment. Charlotte Mason

These days we have found ourselves living an out-of-door life. We have an outdoor kitchen, and have converted our carport into an outdoor dining room - a bbq, a camp sink, some outdoor camping tables set up as our kitchen bench. All meals are taken outside, our bookwork is completed outside, in all weather. Housework is completed outside. My vacuum cleaner has been replaced by a straw broom and a leaf blower. My mop is now a high-pressure hose. Our chickens try to lay eggs on my kitchen bench, and 'fertilise' my kitchen floor.

Why? I hear you say. Well, simply because we have a large renovation job on our hands - everything needs to be pulled out, including the bathrooms and kitchen. So we have needed to set up some living arrangements to settle into in the meantime. And dare I say, this has been fun.

Living outside feels relaxing. Even though we are working hard and are busy. We find ourselves watching the stars more often, noticing the activity of birds in our trees. When a snake is discovered, we are already outside and handy to run over to watch it. It has become natural to us, to wander over to the fruit trees, to see if there is any fruit ripe for the picking. We have a baby fig bird in a tree, just outside our carport - we listen to it, have watched it be fed by its parents, have seen it take its first exploration out of the nest and are now watching it during its first flying lessons. All during our day-day.

All this we would miss, if we were inside.

Gardening

2011-02-15T14:33:00.000-08:00

A recent trip to the library, and this little book, Beyond Organics by Helen Cushing, had managed to find its way home with me. I have since discovered that Helen also has a blog, Gardening With Helen.

A flick through the contents, a few pages of the book and I was drawn in. This book is not a how to of gardening - I certainly have enough of those, and here I might add that I do not find how-to books helpful at all. They seem to be filled with information that I do not need, and I can never find the information I want.

I am a novice gardener. Big on dreams, small on skill and know how. To put it bluntly, although I love gardens, and the idea of gardening, I simply do not have a clue. Hence all my how-to books.

Well, we now live on an acre. Filled with trees and shrubs, and fruit trees and chickens. I am standing on the brink of serious, organic, permacultral, ecological gardening. And I don't have a clue. I have a vision, but no knowledge or skill to back that up. So what to do?

Well, this time I am laying aside my how-to books. This time I am simply spending time getting to know this new outdoor space that is 'ours', the birds that visit, the reptiles that call this patch home, and the birds who 'shop' here for their daily bread. I am watching and listening and learning, for the moment. Learning to know and enjoy what is here. I guess that's why I am drawn to this book ... Helen begins in her introduction.

"I am not a scientist: I am a gardener and a lover of nature. I am a part of nature, but I can also observe it"

Our notion of gardening, tends to compartmentalise. We spray for a particular pest, we fertilise for a particular nutrient deficiency - forgetting that our gardens are filled with ecologies and ecosystems that work together on a broader scale that ignore our little boxed up ideas that at first glance appear unrelated. Sounds a little similar to the ideas of education in our formal education systems, in comparison with homeschooling, and even more so embedded in the ideas of Natural Learning and Classical Learning, that seeks to break down those imaginary barriers between education and life, between subjects and considers the whole child and family.

What we do in our garden, travels out of our garden and into river systems and.....

other gardens and farms that have fences and boundaries. Or think they do. The boundaries exist only in the minds of the property owners, where they allow that owner to limit his or her sense of responsibility to the space within those fences. It is easy to think that we don't have much impact, because our land or garden is not so big. But the biosphere is fenceless, and time is long, longer than the river. The effect on the environment beyond our fence is the combined effect of many individuals, over many years, many generations. In the same way, our concept of ecosystems is generally flawed, because it packages them into neat concepts that satisfy our desire to contain and present our understanding, as though ecosystems also have fences. But they don't. from page 41

Nothing can be packaged into neat concepts. Not ecosystems. Not children. Not families. Not education. Not even gardens. Interesting.

House of Hope: Some Pictures

2011-02-10T20:05:00.000-08:00

The block of land that the children will be moving to when building has been completed.

One of the local builders hard at work. This house now has the roof trusses up on it.

Some of the neighbouring children collecting water for their families.

Building in progress and tools of the trade.

The building of the trusses. Our menfolk getting a lesson while the ladies watched on before heading off.

The children from House of Hope.

Playing Duck Duck Goose.

Some impromptu singing from the House of Hope children.

Of Chooks, Dogs, Snakes and Books

2011-02-07T18:09:00.000-08:00

This morning was a late start to our day. Dad had run over a snake in our back yard while mowing yesterday afternoon and we had collected the bits of snake together to save for Nanny to have a look at when she arrived home later, in the hopes that we could identify it. I had my suspicions on what it was, and later in the evening, Nan confirmed them - it was a juvenile red-belly black. A little lesson for the girls, to keep their eyes sharp while climbing the fruit trees and chasing after their chooks. It was a little difficult to settle them for sleep after that, so it was a late night for us.

Actually, yesterday was an exciting day for the girls. A stray dog wandered into our yard around mid-morning, found himself a nice shady grassy space and plonked down. Quite happy to make himself at home. He was a beautiful golden labrador. The girls named him Sergent, as he could do a lovely army crawl for us. He happily stayed to visit us all day, until early in the afternoon a pair of joggers ran passed our front fence, and off our new friend bounded after them. I guess he fancied a jog himself, and then I imagine he either found another lovely space to make himself comfy for awhile, or headed back to his own home. I assume he did have a home of his own, because although he had no collar, he looked very clean-cut and well-fed. A dog for a day. Very exciting!

And now here we are, the day after all that excitement. A later morning start, and then it was time to hit the books. I am trying out a Radio Drama series of Australian History called Australian Nation Builders for my 10 and 12 year old. We began by making ourselves comfy on my bed, with their listening aid sheets and a pencil, we listened to the Drama of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. After that I brought out Minimus, and read the story 'Work, Work, Work' and then completing the accompanying exercises orally (still snuggled up on my bed!). After this I sent the girls outside to our outdoor kitchen and dining room, to complete some Math excercises in their workbooks - with a reward of two Anzac biscuits after. At this time I made myself a nice cup of tea to drink, while I sat with them to be on hand if they needed assistance.

Two of the gang doing
what chooks love to do.

Mrs Chook came to visit us at this time. And I did not have the heart to shoo her away, although I generally dislike chickens in my 'kitchen'. Poor Mrs Chook is having a tough time. She is not well, and the others are beginning to peck at her, so that now we often find her away from the others - finding her own tasty morsels in our grass, or simply having some time of rest and reprieve. Poor Mrs Chook.

While all this activity was happening, my 15 year old daughter has been diligently working away at her own learning schedule - music practise, Home Economics, beginning her Omnibus III Readings and then working on her first lesson in The Elegant Essay has been her routine this morning.

Lunch is just now around the corner, and then a spot of tidying up in readiness to share the afternoon with some friends who are on holidays from country Queensland.

Certianly I have some washing, ironing and bills to attend to today ......... when to fit them in is the problem.

A Handful Of Cherries

2011-02-06T14:58:00.000-08:00

It was a Saturday afternoon. The day had been sultry and tiring. Sultry from the hot, humid, still air that threatened a storm at some point. Tiring from all the work we had done that day. For me, the morning had been filled with washing and cleaning. The children were outside with their Dad and Pop, clearing out dead branches, tidying up the gardens and then taking a load of garden waste to the dump, er sorry, the local recycle centre!

A rest for lunch, and then all hands on deck to pull out the old kitchen. Taking it out piece by piece. Discovering nearly 30 years of dust and lost nick nacks under the cupboards. Some heavy lifting, a few heated words and the job was done, leaving an empty space where the kitchen once stood and a satisfied, but very tired family in its place. Now we can begin to dream and plan what kind of kitchen will take its place.

The early afternoon found us all sipping cold drinks and resting in the shade. Our sultry day just seemed to be getting hotter. The girls decided washing the cars might be a very good idea, so we lined up the three cars on the property, the girls set up their hose and buckets, and had a marvelously wet time, even managing to clean the cars in the process.

Mid-afternoon the garden was shaded by the magnificent trees that line our backyard from the bush reserve, so Dad did some mowing. It has been a couple of weeks since I took a walk around our acre, so while the others were gardening I went for a wander around and reaquainted myself with our fruit trees. I was happy to note the many passionfruit running wild through the trees, the handfuls of macadamia nuts filling the branches, getting ready to be eaten, and a handful of Brazilian Cherries that were ripe to be picked and tasted. By this time I was joined by Pop and Miss K, who happily wandered around with me, testing to see if the passionfruit was ripe, helping pick the difficult to reach cherries. Miss K and I picked off 2 citrus fruit to take into the kitchen to cut open and see if we can identify what kind of citrus it is. Our guess is leaning towards an orange. We must be patient for them to ripen, however, before we shall really know.

Towards the end of our backyard amble, I suggested to Miss K that sometime during the next week, we might visit our local library, and see if we can find some books on tropical fruit trees and see if we can begin to learn the names and personalities of our new fruit tree friends.

'Oooh, yes. Let's do that,' she smiled.

Some of our new friendly fruit trees.

A Thousand Graces

2011-02-03T13:30:00.000-08:00

What are the everyday gifts from His heart to yours?

Can you count the way He loves you?

What are the gifts you have to be thankful for today?

See what I am thankful for today...

#15 hope and discovery in a child's hand

Our Learning Rooms

2011-02-02T15:26:00.000-08:00

Topsyturvey.

That's me at the moment.

Somebody told me the other day that I homeschool. Really, I thought? I had almost completely forgotten.

My heart and mind is full. Of Uganda. Of droughts and flooding rains..........and cyclones. Of God and His Greatness. Of music. Of grand visions of the future of our new old home. Of things that break and need fixing NOW! I am filled with ideas and visions and hope for the future. Of photo's and memories.

In the meantime my children have been helping with odd jobs around the house, reading, writing their own stories and letters to friends, chasing the chickens, climbing trees and dancing in the rain.

Bookwork is trying to creep in. The rythms of our life including youth group and church music and Bible study are attempting to come in again after our very long break.

And yet, here we are, all topsyturvey.

House of Hope

2011-01-31T11:56:00.000-08:00

The House of Hope

Favour of God

Gulu, Northern Uganda

The main focus of our stay in Uganda was naturally, The House of Hope in Gulu. This is the place we have been preparing for. This is the place where our friend, The Builder, has been working hard since November last year, and remains now to finish the project, and will hopefully come home in March. This is the place for which we have worked to raise money to build The Children's Village.

Our friend, The Builder, has been overseeing construction of the new children's homes since the beginning. On the ground in Gulu, he has been building alongside and training about 20 locals to build, lay bricks, make concrete etc. And to work hard!

What a thrill it has been to see the progress that has been made. How wonderful it is, to see our fundraising turned into real bricks and mortar, and real work and training for some of the locals. What hope it creates to see the children who will move into these homes and have a working farm that will provide them with training, food and work - something that is not static, but will continue to sustain itself and grow as the children move through their schooling and then out into the big wide world.

We spent only 1 week in Gulu. We met the children in their current accomodation - how they are looking forward to moving! We helped them make stepping stones that they decorated with rocks and hand prints, to place on their new path when they move in later this year. We met the men and women that are their House Mama's and House Papa's and see how they care for the children. And we loved them. We saw the school where the children are taught. How is 50 children per classroom for class sizes? And we were told that was a smaller class size for Uganda! I saw the teachers resource room - almost embarressed to know that I use three times the amount of books to teach my three children than they use to teach 300 children. We played soccer with the children and duck duck goose, we sang and we prayed with them. What a week! It was not nearly long enough.

And while us girls were spending most of our time with the children, and the people, our menfolk were working hard out on the building site, doing their part. Their job for the week, was to build the roof trusses. The locals have finished laying the bricks for the walls, and since we have been home the roof trusses are up on 2 of the houses already. It is amazing to see 4 houses be built so quickly, with untrained labourers and on African Time (generally meaning everything usually takes about 10 times longer to do!).

Of course, this post is pretty boring without the photo's to go along with it. However, at this point in time, I can only promise you that the photo's will come. They are just not ready yet - perhaps a little bit of African Time has come home with me.

Music And Sunshine

2011-01-30T14:14:00.000-08:00

A lesson on stringing and tuning

My photos and memories are all scattered about - so as I sort through them this next week or so, I shall share them with you, in no particular order.

Our second last day in Gulu we spent touring around the town using the Boda Boda (a motorbike) as our vehicle. We enjoyed the markets and craft stalls, and enjoyed coffee at The Coffee Hut (operated especially for visitors to the country who can't live without a little bit of western style food and coffee during their stay - Gulu has come a long way in the past few years!)

My first lesson on the Adunga
Hand position and strings to use.

The traditional musical instruments were what caught our eye. We managed to bring home with us an Adunga (pronouced adong), Drum, Jigga Jigga, and Pan Flutes. Our really lovely surprise, was when our guard noticed what we had bought, when we arrived back to our accomodation, and insisted on showing us how to play them and give us a demonstration. Amazing the sounds that can be coaxed out of string, fishing wire and wood!

Dennis, our guard, playing the
Jigga Jigga for us.
Sounds like a fiddle.

Grace, our guide and leader for our stay in Gule,
and Dennis performing a song for us.
I wish photos had sound, you would be amazed!

Fast forward a few days, and we are back in Kampala, for our final day of visiting before we head back home. The photo's below are of our visit to Jordan House in Kampala. Jordan House was begun, we learned, by a Brisbane family. It was the most well set up children's home we have seen so far in Uganda. Needs are so great in Uganda, orphans and abandoned children far outweigh children in stable families.

After visiting a few of these homes, and also the surrounding slum areas, you can see the great good these works are contributing to the lives of these children. I was greatly heartened to see so many people, from within Uganda and those from the Western World working together - uniting their resources, their love and skills to help these children move forward - to grow and live and have a chance at health and something else beside extreme poverty.

Playing volleyball with the children
at Jordan House.
Kite flying in the background.

A lesson on cooking - Ugandan Style!
This is exercise!

The boy in the white shirt and blue shorts is named Elvis.
Our friend here, is teaching Elvis and his friend
'Blue Suede Shoes'.

A musical performance by the children at Jordan House to
say goodbye. Boys on the drums, and the choir performing.

Ad Adventurum

2011-01-25T16:36:00.000-08:00

It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Charlotte Bronte in Jane Eyre

What type of books did you enjoy as a child? For myself, adventures and romance were my favourites - life without either of those two ingredients to me seemed dull. For Marigold Cottage, adventure is afoot. Adventure was our finale to 2010. Adventure has been our introduction to 2011.

Adventure

an enterprise of hazard; a bold undertaking, in which hazards are to be encountered, and the issue is staked upon unforeseen events.

To risk, or hazard; to put in the power of unforeseen events, as to adventure one's life.

Romance

A tale of extraordinary adventures, fictitious and often extravagant, usually a tale of love or war, subjects interesting the sensibilities of the heart, or the passions of wonder and curiosity. It vaults or soars beyond the limits of fact and real life, and often of probability.

How does it work when adventure meets real life? Adventure shows itself in many forms - sometimes it is exciting and thrilling, othertimes dangerous and terrifying. Moving into and renovating a new house can be an adventure. A trip overseas can be an adventure. Can a natural disaster be an adventure?

Our Backyard

Before Christmas we moved into a new home - a new part of our life as a family was opening up before us. This house has a sad story of family breakup and neglect. As we began peeling back the layers of dirt, dust and neglect, I realised we were clearing out all the unloveliness this house has ever seen, and restoring. Filling it walls and gardens with children's voices and play, with stories and laughter - and tears when we fall out of trees, or discover some deeper problems with the house. But we will work hard. We will sing and pray and praise God for His provision. And hopefully this little house will see happy days in its future, and it will look better for it.

Another part of this adventure, is that we are now living with my husband's parents. Something our culture does not do, generally. Multi-generational living on one property. Our children have the benefit of grandparents at close range. I have the benefit of an older woman who knows a lot about fruit trees and chickens and all sorts of things to learn from and live with. My husband has the benefit of having his Dad around to work alongside (certainly helps when the mowing takes 1-2 hours!!!!). Another step into the unkown.

And then we packed and planned for leaving our children, and heading to Uganda. We thought that would be an adventure - and it was. But in all our plans, we had not prepared for the fact that one night we would be sitting in a restaurant in Gulu, Northern Uganda - watching a natural disaster unfold before our very eyes, in our own homeland. Having the church in a third world country praying alongside us for our families and homes back in Australia. And I was reminded again that we do not know what tomorrow brings. This knowledge does not need to bring fear - because we have a God we can trust with all our tomorrows, no matter what they hold.

A Music Lesson with Grace & Dennis

And then there was Uganda itself. My mind is overwhelmed and my heart is full. Wealth and poverty side by side. Health and sickness side by side. Atrocity and compassion side by side. Good and evil side by side. Silence and music side by side. I have seen many things, felt many things and met many people. I have loved and hurt in these short 2 weeks.

Life is tough. But in the ashes, beauty can emerge again. Even in the midst of terrible war, poverty and darkness a light can shine. People can be kind. And God is always at work, calling a people to Himself and caring for them, providing for them - in Uganda, in Australia. Something I had not expected to bring home from Uganda was a sense of hope. But I did.

And now we are home again. And our adventure for 2011, here at home, begins in ernest. My friends it is good to be home.

"Adventurer" -- he that goes out to meet whatever may come. Well, that is what we all do in the world one way or another . . . H.Rider Haggard

Countdown ......

2011-01-04T17:12:00.000-08:00

Hello there my long lost friends. I am not back from my bloggy break yet, but the suspense is killing me. Only 2 more sleeps to go till we fly out to Uganda. I simply had to tell someone!

Let the adventure begin!!!!!!

Update on The Children's Village

2010-11-28T13:17:00.000-08:00

The Children's Village

I know I am taking a bloggy holiday, but I could not resist sharing this with you.

If you follow the link above to The Children's Village Website, and then click on Our Progress you will find some photo's of what is happening over in Uganda at the moment. Our friend, Phil the Builder, has been over there for about a month now, and is making great progress with his local helpers on the houses. They have managed to get the footings and foundations well underway, and are hoping the slabs will be completed by Christmas.

For our part, we are finalising our own personal preparations, and are continuing to work on fundraising the final $30, 000 we need to complete the four houses before he head over in January to help finish them off. Thank you to everyone who has contributed in some way so far. You have been a great encouragement to us, and it means a lot to us to know you are sharing the journey with us in this way. If any are reading this, and you would like to contribute any amount, you will find the donation information on the website, or you could shoot me an email for more info.

For myself, I am really looking forward to meeting the children, their house mothers and teachers in The Children's Village at Favor of God. The countdown is on - only 38 sleeps to go!

And we have yet to move house..........

A Heap o' Livin

2010-11-18T16:42:00.000-08:00

It takes a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home.

Ye've got to sing an' dance fer years, ye've got to romp an' play,

An' learn to love the things ye have by usin' 'em each day;

Even the rose 'round the porch must blossom year by year

Afore they 'come apart o' ye, suggestin' someone dear

Who used t' love 'em long ago, and trained 'em just t' run

The way they do, so's they would get the early mornin' sun;

Ye've got to love each brick an' stone from cellar up to dome:

It takes a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home.

Willem Haenraets

Another year is coming to a close at Marigold Cottage. Our year has certainly ended differently to where it began. I did wonder what 2010 would hold for us. Now I know. 2010 has been a year for new things. How will 2011 follow on? What will life be like on the other side of Uganda? We will be in our house and renovating our little hearts out while we live in the shed - what will that mean for our homeschooling? And underneath all of that, are questions and wonderings swirling deep within my heart that cannot be put into words, but God knows.

So, for now my friends, I will bid you goodbye. I will still be lurking about, visiting you, but Marigold Cottage will be closed up for my blogging holiday. Think of me please, and spare a prayer every now and then for us - as I will for you. And I shall return, with adventures from Uganda to share, and a new year to explore with you all.

And in the meantime, we shall be doing A Heap o' Livin!
xo

The Bush In Bloom

2010-11-17T13:51:00.000-08:00

Field of Wildflowers Chris Mellor
The flowers of the old world have their histories, often going back thousands of years and involving the cultures of many peoples. In our new world it would be somewhat pretentious to claim histories for our flowers when their stories cannot go back furthur than 300 years, back only to William Dampier collecting on the coast of Western Australia and to the Dutch botanist Rumphius at Amboina, an island which shares many species of flora with northern Australia.

We have a problem in the fact that much of our flora is unfamiliar for the reason that it lacks associations in our consciousness. People writing about wildflowers of Great Britain have no trouble finding quotations for any of them as is explemplified in Edith Holden's popular The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady. There is a rich Australian wildflower poetry - but like the flowers themselves it lacks familiarity. Australians are more familiar with the wildflowers of Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Browning than of Stewart, Robinson and Wright...

Before one's country can become an accepted background against which the poet's and the novelist's imagination can move unhindered, it must first be observed, understood, described, and as it were absorbed. The writer must be at peace with his landscape before he can turn confidently to its human figures.

Writes Judith Wright in the preface to 'The Bush In Bloom: A Wildflower Artist's Year In Paintings and Words' by Kathleen McArthur (Sunshine Coast Citizen of the Century). This book is filled with Kathleens paintings and sketches of the wildflowers she loves, her notes of observation and discovery. But she also pays particular attention to the history of each flower including its use by Aborigines and European discovery, and scattered throughout are quotes from Australian botanists, writers and poets - including Amy Mack.

Rob Blakers

For the past month or so, we have been enjoying reading through this book as part of our read-alouds. It is providing me with a lovely overview of Australian History through the eyes of our wildflower. And I am delighted that I am slowly becoming a little more family with our Australian Natural History and the people that have wondered along the paths of nature.

Alas, this little gem is a library book - so we will not have time to finish it together. But I hope that it has given my children a good taste of our Wildflowers and a peek into Australian History from this perspective. And I will be keeping my eyes peeled in my book travels to make a copy my very own.

A Little Bit of Fun

2010-11-16T12:53:00.000-08:00

Should Christians Teach Logic

2010-11-11T14:16:00.000-08:00

Beach Cottage
Barbara Mock

This article by Robin Sampson was of great help to me when I was coming to a decision of whether or not to include a study of logic in our homeschooling adventures.

She begins: 'Logic and rhetoric are extremely popular and enthusiastically sought after by those in the homeschool community. But how important are logic and rhetoric? How much weight should they have in our homeschool day?'

Excellent questions, I thought (since the reason for my reading this article in the first place was that I was asking the very same questions). She then goes on to explore and compare Man's logic with God's logic; the meaning of Knowledge, Understanding and Wisdom; Human Reasoning and the Bible and how our Worldview plays a part in our thinking.

Further down in the article Robin states:

Now, we have validated that reasoning is an important skill, but we must also recognize that there is an innate weakness in human logic. Logic means correct reasoning, but following logic does not always produce a valid conclusion. If there is not enough information or wrong information is in the chain of reasoning, the conclusion will be wrong.

Paul says, We know in part ( 1Cor 13:9), and we see through a glass darkly ( 1 Cor 13:11 KJV). Problems arise when we trust logic more than God or His Word. It’s really a matter of motivation, priorities, and balance.

An important point, I think. Logic is useful - but it is a tool that can be used wrongly or rightly. It is not an end in itself.

Logic, Reasoning, Rhetoric are all natural gifts provided to us from God in varying measure. We were all born with this. What do we do with it? and How do we learn to use these gifts so as to bring glory to God?

Reading, thinking, listening, measuring everything against God's truth would be the first part - well, it has been for us anyway. We have continued on by learning more about Logic as a tool, and how to use it to the best of our abilities.

Dabbling in Logic

2010-11-09T13:34:00.000-08:00

Logic in our little homeschool has so far involved more fun and games than any serious study. My aim, I guess, has been to get the children (and myself) into the habit of thinking, and enjoying it. When my eldest daughter entered her highschool years we attempted a beginning in the study of formal logic with the text by Martin Cothran. Alas, formal logic has not inspired us to excercise our minds any further. My daughter did finish the text - with the encouragement of a very good friend who studied along with her, as they would 'meet' weekly via Skype to discuss the excercises together and practise their skills on each other. When we completed that text however, we laid aside for the time being any further study on formal logic. And now, I am here to confess that we will not go back to formal logic.

Let me back up a little here now, and say that before we began formal logic, we had read through Fallacy Detective by Nathanial and Hans Bluedorn, as an introductory text for our logic-starved minds. I began by reading through the first few chapters with my daughter and we worked through the exercises together. Then my daughter continued through the remainder of the book on her own. Evidence of what she learned began to seep out at the dinner table. The Father of Marigold Cottage likes to challenge thought by the way of disagreement with others - and his children are not safe from this 'hobby' of his. He fancies himself quite the logical thinker. Well, Miss Fallacy Detective Student began practising her newfound logic knowledge on her father. Interesting, very interesting. But, for a long time it appeared that arguing with Father was to be the only 'benefit' of our logic studies.

With some more serious reading material through our Omnibus studies and participation at our church's youth group our big girl has been introduced to a wider range of thoughts and ideas - some good, some bad, some insane, some black, some white and some every colour in between. So armed with her study Bible and her elementary logic skills she is beginning to battle her way through this jungle of ideas. And as I have watched this over the past year or so, I see again the value in developing skill with logic. Logic is a tool after all - and if used correctly, a very useful tool.

So, next year, we shall take up some logic study again - moving on now to The Thinking Toolbox by the Bluedorns. Stay tuned for that particular adventure.

The inspiration for this particular post on Logic, however, is from my own current reading of the book Miracles by CS Lewis. In this book Lewis sets out to reason through the ideas of miracles, to ultimately 'prove' (with his use of logic) the truth of the existance of miracles. Personally, I am finding it interesting, thought provoking and profitable reading. Partly because of his use of logic. Next year, I will give this book to my daughter to read - partly as an example of how someone is using logic to reason through an idea and argument.

As with our Latin Studies, Logic is following the same route. We have learned from texts, completed our lessons. And now it is time to begin just reading a variety of books in Latin, a variety of books that use logic to reach their conclusions and to simply use it for ourselves in our lives. It does not matter so much how far you have gone in your studies before using what you have learned - it is more about reaching a moment when it is simply time to use what you have learned. This is the stage we have reached now with our 15 year old.

Happy Outdoor Hours

2010-11-07T18:45:00.000-08:00

What does a park need, to keep you coming back?

Friends - Mr Proud, Mr Percival, Mr Ponder and friends.

Trees

Space to explore

Things to discover and observe

Scope for the imagination

And a spot for Mum and some Mother Culture

This park also had a playground. But the surrounds are what held our interest for our happy out-of-door hours this day. What does a park need to keep you coming back for happy visits? Do you have a favourite?