The Dish: A Mother's Review 4

The Dish: 

A Mother's Review #4

Knowledge of God

"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all judgement. That ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offense until the day of Christ. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." Philippians 1:9-11 I am praying for you, as I type this, and will continue to pray for you when I am done. I am praying for those of you that I know by name, and I am praying for all of you that I do not even know exist. I can pray for you,without knowing you, because I am you. I am sure there are dozens of ways in which we differ, but there are things that bind us together, even outside of the knowledge of each other. We both desire the best for our children. We are both working extremely hard to provide them with a living education. We both seek, and hunt down, the best materials for them. We both could homeschool traditionally so much more easily than we are homeschooling in a living way, but we both also know that every effort is worth it. We are both also tired, perpetually so. We both drink too much coffee, and we both wonder almost daily if we are really cut out for this job of home educating (or even parenting for that matter!). We both have hearts that ache for our children, and that are overjoyed at being their mother. We both cry, we both laugh, we both hurt, we both love.

I am praying for you. I am praying that you, indeed, abound in knowledge. I am praying that you approve excellent things and that you are sincere and without offense. I am praying that you cling to righteousness, thereby glorifying and praising God with your aching, tired, overflowing with love home educating heart.

I will continue to pray for you, if you will pray the same for me...deal?

Knowledge of the Universe

Exploring Nature With Children 
Oh my gracious!
Do you use this wonderful curriculum? If you don't already know it, it is my honor to introduce you to it. Lynn Seddon (keep an eye out for my coming interview with her!) is simply brilliant when it comes to nature study, and cultivating a love for nature in your children (and yourself!).

If you do know of this treasure already, I am SO delighted to bring you a discount code, as a gift from Lynn, exclusively for Delightfully Feasting readers. This code is good for all of Lynn's products, so if you already own the curriculum, then take this opportunity to purchase one of her other fabulous products. (I can't wait to get my hands on her Phenology Wheel Guide!!!)

Exploring Nature with children will help even the most nature challenged mother implement nature study in your homeschool, and beyond that, it will help you LOVE nature study.

Here are the details you need to know:
1. The discount is 20% of the curriculum (in a couple of versions), and two guided journals.
2. The sale runs from Feb 26th- March 5th, so you have time to gather your funds.
3. The code is DELIGHT18.


Here is where you can buy each product:
(These are affiliate links, so your purchase from these links is a blessing to Delightfully Feasting.)  
Exploring Nature With Children Curriculum
Exploring Nature With Children Guided Journal (Print Edition) 
Exploring Nature With Children Guided Journal (Cursive Edition)  
Phenology Wheel Guide 

Also, check out:
Nature Notebook From Mason's House of Education (Free Download)  

Knowledge of Man

Narration
Did you know that narration is foundational to the Charlotte Mason method of education? It isn't simply a task to complete, but rather a key component of a living education. Is it vitally important to not only language arts instruction, but also to all of education. It is also intimidating! My biggest advice for mothers involving narration? It is a marathon, not a sprint. Take each baby step one at a time. Be faithful, be consistent, but don't expect too much of your newly narrating children. My second biggest piece of advice? Narration doesn't yield visible fruit for a good long time. You have to trust the method, and know that you will see fruit, but it won't be soon.

Did you grab Know and Tell, from last month's issue of the Dish? If narration intimidates you, or intrigues you, then be sure to grab this latest resource from Karen Glass.


In the meantime, here are a couple more free tools to help you faithfully implement narration in your homeschool, and to be more comfortable doing so:

Narration Cube (Super Easy to Make AND to Use) 
Narration Bookmarks
  

Food for the Mother's Soul 

Have you joined Delightfully Feasting's Mother's Education 2018 Challenge Group?
We are dedicated to equipping and encouraging mothers in their own education. Join us for monthly challenges, a yearly accountability system, encouragement, and the sharing of what we are learning. 

As promised, here is a tutorial of how I organize my Commonplace Books:

1. Index in the Back of Book
In the back of each of my commonplace notebooks, I write an index of topics. These topics are added as I copy quotes into my commonplace, so each book has a different list of topics. (For instance, if I am copying a quote about the topic of love, and I don't already have quotes on the topic of love within the commonplace I am using, I will add Love to the list of topics in my index.) This index is then numbered by line. The topic on the first line is #1. The topic on the second line is #2, and so on. This number is written on the edge of the page.


Here are some examples of the indexes in my commonplace books:
 

 

 

 

2. Topic Categories With Color Coding I have assigned each of several broad categories a different color (or combo of colors). These are topics that can have endless subtopics. All of their subtopics are listed in my index, but the topics themselves are color coded. (For instance, Education is a topic. Narration and Picture Study would be subtopics. Narration and Picture Study would be listed in my index, and would each be colored the color that is assigned for the topic of Education.) Each line number is highlighted in it's corresponding color.

Here is my index of Topics, and their colors.



3. Pages "Tabbed" With Number and Color Each page of my commonplace, as I copy quotes into it, is "tabbed" with it's corresponding subtopic number, and colored with it's corresponding topic color. (For instance, if I copy a quote about Peace in the commonplace pictured above, it would be tabbed with the number 10, and colored in pink, as Peace is line # 9 and Theology/Spiritual subtopics are colored in pink.) The pages are "tabbed" by writing their line number and highlighting over it on the edge of the page, on the correct line.

Here are examples of several pages of my commonplace, with their "tabs":

 

As you can see below, each quote may correspond to more than one subtopic, and each page may contain quotes from more than one topic. By tabbing them appropriately, I can simply flip through pages, looking at the tabs, to find quotes on various topics and subtopics.


4. Transfer Into EvernoteMy final step is to transfer my commonplace pages each week into Evernote.
This digitizing of my commonplace is a completely optional step, but I love Evernote because I can search for words, and I can find all quotes that have specific words within them. I also love being able to go and find quotes I have written, and share them, on the go. It is super easy to transfer, by just snapping photos of my commonplace pages. 

You may or may not desire this step, but if you do, it should NEVER take the place of physically commonplacing into a physical commonplace book. Putting pen to paper is part of the process of commonplacing, and simply snapping photos of book pages will not benefit you. Commonplacing is a physical process, and something happens within us when we write something down that can not be mimicked through anything digital.

Around the Table  

What is Happening in the Charlotte Mason World?

Brandy, over at Afterthoughts, made a special announcement this week, introducing her Guide to Charlotte Mason's Home Education. This guide can be used with a group, or alone, to help you gain the most possible from your reading of Mason's first volume.

You can purchase the lovely Living Books Press edition of Home Education on amazon.

Something to Chew On

"We spread an abundant feast in the programs and each small guest assimilates what he can. The child of genius and imagination gets greatly more than his duller comrade, but all sit down to the same feast and each one gets according to his needs and powers."
~ Charlotte Mason Volume 6
A living education, because of its very nature, doesn't need to be (and shouldn't be) adapted, for the most part, for gifted children, or for children with special needs. We can adapt some of the practices to suit individual needs, and the curriculum should, indeed always be molded to the child. However, we can apply the same principles to all children, because they meet children right where they are. We may choose different books for one child than for another, but we still choose the best possible quality that will suit both. We may choose a different schedule for a child's individual needs, but we always, always provide truth, goodness, and beauty to all children. Because what we give them is living, they will get exactly what they need from it. Our mission is just to lay the feast before them. Do not take upon yourself the burden of deciding what they should get, and when they should get it. The burden of spreading a wide feast is large enough, no additional burden is needed. Our efforts are best spent in relentless hunting down the best quality of art, music, and books to lay before those with whom we are charged with the task of educating.

May All Your Days Be Spent.....Delightfully Feasting
Crystin <3