We Know So Little About Being Human So there’s nothing new under the sun, after all. Here, a mother’s sense of lostness in the upbringing of her children. From Formation of Character, published 1925: ‘I daresay experienced people get to know all about it,’ said Mrs. Clough; ‘but the mother of even two or three […]
Homeschooling Newsletter Ready To Go
This has been a tremendous learning curve for me. But – The Ambler, Volume One is finally done and ready to hit your inbox. The theme is Cycles, Rhythms and Burn Out – what to do when you’ve lost your joy. This image hints at a bit of the overarching theme. (But it adds no […]
Relation of Education to Redemption
I’ve mentioned before that one of my favorite authors about the subject of education is Ellen White; her words in the small book aptly entitled Education (published in 1903) merge with Charlotte Mason’s words in my mind, broadening my understanding of the heart of God, the responsibility of parents and teachers, and the capacity of […]
Jealous For The Children
I am up early with the sunrise. The baby has been pushing her night-time wakeup further and further into the A.M. hours until this morning her cries are heard at the first blush before dawn. It is good. Sometimes the rest I hunger for on this last and sabbath day of the week is not sleep, but […]
100 Year Old Chalkboard Lessons and Modern Waldorf Math Circles
I was totally entranced by this discovery of 98 year old chalkboards buried beneath newer chalkboards in an Oklahoma school. That the carpenters in 1917 hung new boards over the old ones without erasing the lessons is somewhat enchanting to me. Click over to the Washington Post article to see more images. In particular, […]
Infinite Loveliness, Irresistible Tenderness: God, the settler of our minds
Are [the children] to go into the world ignorant of the questions that are searching many hearts, to be staggered by the first shock of evidence and opinion running counter to the old thoughts? No; but how I wish I could do [the children] the like inestimable served that a great teacher has done for me and […]
Children Are Persons (so are we)
The screen taunted me, not doing what I demanded of it. “How in the world did you guys get it to do that thing last week?” I exclaimed. Shrugging, the ten year old wrinkled his brow into a question mark, matching mine. Ellenor shouted off all sorts of inapplicable advice. Havilah wriggled deeper onto my lap, and […]
Sand: thoughts on change and how we grow
To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour. – William Blake My heart has been broken a dozen times this evening; broken, restored, broken again. The heavy things of life laid anchor, pulling my self-ship to […]
How We Do: First Grade
First Grade is a very gentle year around here. While it might not seem gentle by the intimidating schedule I posted earlier in the week, it is gentle in the sense that it is slow, lovely, rich, and short-winded. I will explain more on this in a later post. For today, I’d like to […]
Homeschool Finds
As we are taking off from school the rest of June to enjoy David’s post-deployment block leave, I am binging on homeschool books, blogs, articles, forums and websites. Here are a few treasures I’ve stumbled upon: Quotes: “School should be a place where boys or girls lived together in accordance with the best human tradition […]