… at the CIRCE Institute.

Ages ago, before the dawn of the internet and instant homeschool gratification (what? we don’t have to wait for the once-a-year curriculum fair to see materials?) I first learned of this thing called Classical Education, specifically Classical Christian Education. In many ways my fumbling steps are only now becoming more surefooted, and due in a large part to the efforts of Andrew Kern and the CIRCE Institute. CIRCE stands for Consulting and Integrated Resources for Classical Education. Visit their website and you’ll see phrases like “cultivating wisdom and virtue” and “practical help for home and school.” Classical education doesn’t happen when we add logic or Latin to our curriculum and schools. Classical education happens when we recognize that truth, goodness, and beauty are found in a person. Through our relationships with our students, we seek to introduce them to Christ.

If you would like to learn more about this, I highly recommend joining with CIRCE by donating any amount and partaking of the available downloads. Think of them as an appetizer! For a donation of any amount, yes even $1, you can learn from:

Andrew Kern – “A Contemplation of Nature”

Andrew Pudewa – “Teaching Boys and Other Kids Who Would Rather Be Playing in Forts”

Laura Berquist – “Assessing Student Performance”

James Taylor – “Knowledge from Literature”

James Daniels – “Challenges to Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning”

Debbie Harris – “Understanding and Instilling a Love of Beauty”

Ken Myers – “Re-educating Oneself as an Adult”

Thanks for your help,

Renee

Once, back in the early days of our homeschooling, I heard another mom say “We have good days and we have bad days, but in the end – I really like my kids!” That sums it up perfectly. Some days the lessons go smoothly and the math manipulative is your friend. Some days  you step on the math manipulative and scream in pain. But in the end, you really like your kids. No wait, it’s more than that. It’s knowing that no matter what, the Lord who has promised to be faithful –is. It’s knowing that no matter our failings, the One who is gracious to His children will do more than we ask or think. He will be gracious to our children as well.

Is it worth it? When I see my daughter reading the Bible to her baby, yes. Yes it is.

When I see my firstborn son holding his firstborn son, yes. Yes it is.

Someone once told me “We don’t teach books, we teach children.” I would add to that: “We don’t just teach children, we teach our grandchildren’s parents.” And the rewards multiply!

Hugs,

Mrs. M.

Since a few have been absent for this week’s lesson, I thought I’d upload 2 pictures to show how we wrote our class practice paragraph for WriteShop 1, lesson 5: Describe a Food. You can see the mind map that we created (while we were eating popcorn of course! You have to experience the food firsthand.) as well as our practice paragraph.

Reminders: When you write your paragraph at home, you can’t write about popcorn or bacon (the sample in your book.) Each of your mindmap circles needs to contain at least 4 items in addition to the category “taste”, “appearance”, etc.

As always, let me know if you have any questions!

Describing Popcorn

Food paragraph

Blessings,

Mrs. M.

This is what 2 weeks’ worth of ungraded papers looks like. This stack weighs 9 pounds! So in case you think teachers are meanies who can’t wait to ruin your carefree existence, let me assure you that we have our share of homework as well. Do you mind if I share a little of what I’ve learned?

1. Start now. If I put this off until Sunday night, I’m doomed. If I set aside time to do a little each day, I’m a much happier person.

2. Do the fun stuff first! Seriously. Don’t save your easiest work as a reward for the end, use it as an incentive to begin. Once you’re mental gears are cranked up and humming along, tackle the harder work.

3. Pray. The God of the Universe cares about each little sparrow and the hair on your head. Your homework and my paper-grading also come under His providential care. I begin by asking for wisdom and sound judgment, but (surprise!) I also pray for you. I rejoice with you over each beautifully written sentence and each correct answer.

4. Focus. Turn off the email, facebook, twitter, and texts. You can only do one thing at a time.

5. Set a timer. When it goes off, get up and walk around. Reward yourself with 5 minutes of fun time. Now you can check facebook! Please don’t complain about all your homework though.

Is handwriting dead? Can we find a way to improve legibility? These two experts recommend rethinking the way we look at penmanship. Whether or not you are a fan of Getty-Dubay Italic, this NYT piece makes a lot of sense. I’m not promoting one method over another, but I am in favor of whatever allows you to write neatly, legibly, and quickly.

They’re not just lowly pens and pencils, they are Productivity Enhancements. As I sat at my desk to accomplish some needed tasks, I came across a new blog by a staffer at Desiring God. Here’s Matt’s series on recommended productivity tools. Enjoy!

I’m a complete geek when it comes to all things study-skill related. Some of you might be reading this because you attended my Study Skills for Super Students workshop – welcome!  One of the notetaking methods I didn’t have time to explain in class is known as the Cornell Method. In a nutshell: Write all the details down on the right side of your page. Messy is fine, just get it on paper. On the lefthand side, take a minute to use some bullet points to indicate the main ideas. On the bottom, summarize the main idea of the entire page of notes. That’s all there is to it! Oh yes – it might be nice if you didn’t have to draw all those ruled lines. And wouldn’t it be even nicer if you could print out a free personalized sheet of notepaper? Here you go: Cornell-notes.com

Hoping this works! Here is the orientation presentation for both campuses. Please let me know if you have any questions. Click the link to download the powerpoint slides.

Orientation 2009-10

(If you don’t have powerpoint installed, you can download a viewer here:

http://tinyurl.com/3ywowm )

What? Don’t you know school is about to begin? There are supplies to buy, lessons to plan, and schedules to create.  Shh…  Contemplate this:

“Seeing that a Pilot steers the ship in which we sail, who will never allow us to perish, even in the midst of shipwrecks, there is no reason why our minds should be overwhelmed with fear and overcome with weariness”- John Calvin

Last year at this time, my first visit to Charlotte, I was a scared first year apprentice with the Circe Institute. This year I’m not as worried, plus I actually read the assignment beforehand! (Hmm…remind me to talk about this in my upcoming study skills workshop!)

Yesterday’s lesson was all about the 3 problems of writing. To begin, I asked my class of fellow teachers, administrators, homeschool moms, and Andrew our Fearless Leader, to fill in this blank using their favorite metaphor: Writing is ______.  Here are some of the responses:

-fingernails on a chalkboard

-a babbling brook

-a dinner prepared for friends

-a playground

-tooling (cutting, tracing, stamping, and carving leather until something  beautiful emerges)

-motion, graceful and gentle

-a tapestry, beautiful on one side but sometimes knotty underneath

-a beam of light

-a painful birthing experience

-the point where light meets dark, masterfully navigating truth on both sides

-a locomotive that can transport ideas, humor, feeling…or jump the track and turn into a train wreck

How would you answer this question?