Treasured

Brown-Eyed Boy is getting ready for bed. With some assistance he changes from his day clothes into his p.j.s and then Dear Man suggests that he scoot downstairs to say goodnight to Mommy.

Rarely does this bedtime routine include a hug. Almost never does it involve a kiss.

But this night Brown-Eyed Boy surprises me, gently placing a kiss on my forehead, then turning away with a giggle.

Treasured. That's how I feel. Like I've been given a precious gem to enjoy.

::

Dear Man has come downstairs as well, to keep the bedtime procedure moving, and now he picks up Brown-Eyed Boy in an awkward carry, to head up the stairs.

On the way they pass the windowsill where there rests a box of cotton-tipped swabs, waiting for someone to return them to their proper home. And as they pass, Brown-Eyed boy leans out from Dear Man's arms and tries to kiss the long rectangular box.

Suddenly I don't feel like such a treasure.

But I'm smiling all over. And that is a treasure in itself.

Finished

On Saturday I finished.

It's been a long process, and in working through it I'm sure that I made 60 blocks instead of the 30 that are in the final product. Lots of pulling out. Lots or remaking. Lots of trying again.

But now I am finished.

Cardinals in the Nature Journals - Backyard Bird Focus #1b

Little Man's cardinal, coloured and cut out from the Cornell University bird colouring book. Much care and time went into colour selection and labelling.

My Girl's cardinal. She is trying to include realistic details of shading in her illustrations.

We once again used the Cornell University Ornithology colouring pages as the basis for our nature journal entries. As I see My Girl getting more comfortable with bird features and shapes I'll ask her to begin drawing her own birds rather than using the outlines in the colouring pages. For now, however, this is working very well, allowing her and Little Man to concentrate on colour details, distinctive features in the feathers and so on, while still having the bird's overall shape clearly before them.

As we walked to the dentist this morning, Little Man and Brown-Eyed Boy kept pointing out the birds they recognized: house sparrows, robins, and now grackles, too, although they aren't part of our backyard bird "collection" so far.

Little Man has been counting the robins he has seen this spring, and he's up to seven, I believe. I haven't been keeping count, but have been trying to find ways to identify individual birds among those who come to our yard and feeder. That is pretty hard to do. I'm not sure exactly what to focus on to see individual differences in the sparrows or robins. But I'm trying.

Today while they were playing outside, The Ones I Love called me out twice to see birds they were quietly watching. One was a chickadee hiding in a neighbour's shrub, the other was a fat little robin, hopping merrily along the ground which, thanks to the recent snow and thaw, is once again moist and yielding many yummy treats.

The fact that The Ones I Love are pausing to watch the birds while they are playing, riding bikes, digging, etc., brings me much joy. THIS is why we are doing Nature Study: so that it will become a natural part of their lives and so that their familiarity with the species around us will give them a greater love for creation and the Creator.

Outdoor Hour Challenge - Backyard Bird Focus #1b

Following Barb's Backyard Bird Focus, we pressed on with our Outdoor Hour Challenge this week, despite two inches of new white snow.

We read about cardinals and house sparrows, and I finally believe that I can confidently say that the little birds that come to my feeder so often are house sparrows. I'd looked them up many times, but promptly forgotten what I'd discovered. This time, however, focusing on one bird at a time, I've finally internalized what I read.

There are so many nondescript little brownish birds around. I know, it's not really true, but until I started looking closely, all I could say was that maybe it was a sparrow or a finch or some other little common bird. In fact, I had a mental picture of a sparrow in my mind that was completely wrong: it was too slender, too delicate, too small. What was I thinking?

Well, now I know. These little sparrows have rusty caps, tiny little bibs below their bills, brown streaky wings and lighter brown bellies. And those bellies are very round. There is almost no neck length on a sparrow (something I had wrong in my mental picture), although you can definitely see the indentation that separates head from body.

We are now confidently identifying house sparrows all over our neighbourhood. And we're even starting to be able to pick out their calls among all the other bird sounds we're hearing these days!

We haven't put entries in our Nature Journals yet for these little fellows, but we have done our cardinals. I'll put pictures of both in my next post on the Challenge.

Steve Bell Devotion Tour Closing Concert to be Broadcast on Good Friday on CBC Radio 2

Anyone who has known me for a little while will know that I'm a fan of Steve Bell's music. This week I received the following, very exciting, note in my email inbox:

Steve Bell Devotion Tour Closing Concert To Be Broadcast On CBC Radio 2!

The final sold out concert of the Steve Bell Devotion Tour was recorded by CBC Radio 2, and will be broadcast on Canada Live, Friday April 10th (Good Friday), from coast to coast.

The broadcast will begin with a gospel concert from Montreal at 8:00 p.m, with Steve and the band starting at 8:37 (1/2 hour later in Newfoundland). Don't miss this outstanding and deeply inspiring concert event!

CBC is our National Public Broadcaster. If you like what you hear on Friday, contact the CBC and let them know you are listening and you would like to hear more from artists like Steve!

Here are some links for you:

Steve Bell Website

Signpost Music Website

Direct Link to CBC Canada Live Website Listing

Contact CBC

Let me know if you listen. I'd love to hear what you think of Steve's music.

In Which Sandy Rusby Bell Gives Us Oodles of Links for Greek Myths, Fairy Tales, and Poetry

What a wonderful meeting last night. As always, the atmosphere in Karen's home was warm and welcoming. And the cake!! We have some amazing bakers in our midst.

Thank you Liz for leading the discussion about the Will. It was not an easy chapter but you explained it so well.

I promised to send out some recommended resources that relate to our practical discussion last night. Here they are.

(Note from Jennifer: All items in colour are hyperlinks that will take you to a new website. If you want to open it in a different tab and keep this blog open, right click on the link and select "Open link in new tab.")

To look more deeply at the “Instructors of Conscience” that we spoke about see Charlotte Masons 4th Volume “Ourselves”, specifically Chapters 12-15. If you don't own a copy you can find it free online here. There is also a wonderful paraphrase of the volume in Modern English here.


Greek Myths

I'm only going to mention my favourites. You can of course find more in our library. If you'd like to see what we have in our library, remember, you can scroll down the right hand side of this blog and find a link to a “Keep and Share” document with a listing of our library books.

I've included a link so you can have a look at each book.

Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff – This is my very favourite retelling of the Iliad. We have this in the WHHE library.

The Wanderings of Odysseus by Rosemary Sutcliff- This continues the story describing, well, the wanderings of Odysseus!

Jim Weiss storytelling CDs: The Greek Myths and He and She Adventures in Mythology and Heroes in Mythology (which I forgot to mention last night).

The Heroes by Charles Kingsley. You can also read The Heroes free online .

Tanglewood Tales and The Wonderbook by Nathaniel Hawthorne -As I mentioned, I particularly like these books for after the student already has some familiarity with the myths. Hawthorne plays with the stories and makes some funny changes that kids love to be able to catch. Tanglewood Tales can be read free here. You can see the book and reviews here.

I don't think A Wonderbook for Girls and Boys is in the public domain yet, weird! But you can see it here.

Greek Myths by Olivia Coolidge. Woo Hoo! Last time I looked this book was out of print. It's expensive but at least it's available again.

Mythology by Edith Hamilton. This is a standard University text and is suitable for high school students. It has virtually all the “important” myths and very helpful explanations. “The Introduction to Classical Mythology” section is worth the price of the book (especially if you find it a library discard sale for a quarter as I did!).


Fairy Tales

In case you weren't convinced last night, or even if you were, please read the beautiful, beautiful blog post by Lori Lawing called “The Shout of a King”

Jim Weiss Storytelling CDs:
Best Loved Stories in Song and Dance
Fairytale Favorites in Song and Dance
Giants! A Colossal Collection of Tales and Tunes
Famously Funny!
Tell me a Story!
If you've never listened to Jim Weiss's stories, watch out, they're addictive!

I mentioned that I wrote a blog post about the moral imperative of developing imagination in our children. It is called, to my children's horror, “Naked and Blue at My Back Door”. You can read it here. (And I'd love it if you'd leave comments, hint, hint.)

Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book is the one with “Beauty and The Beast”. It can be read free here. Make sure you scroll down, when you first click on the page it looks like you can only purchase it. The Red Fairy Book is also available free here. We have some from this series in our library. I found this Wikipedia article about Lang's books very helpful:


Poetry

Remember there are two components to this: poetry reading and poetry memorization.

For Poetry Reading

I showed the “Poetry for Young People” series. You can see the the Robert Frost book here: You'll also see links to others in the series. We have several of these in our library.

We have a great selection of Poetry books in our library.

The Grammar of Poetry is wonderful for late elementary or early high school.

The Roar on the Other Side is also for late elementary or high school. It's probably best after The Grammar of Poetry.

For Poetry Memorization

I wrote a blog post on Composition for ChildLight USA. In it I discuss the importance of poetry memorization for writing skills. I refer to the article “One Myth, Two Truths” by Andrew Pudewa. Important stuff.

I recommend Pudewa's program “Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization”. It is pricey and not necessary. It has been tremendously helpful for me though. We actually do poetry memorization now. We have this in our library.

Unfortunately we ran out of time last night and we weren't able to discuss how Charlotte Mason actually did poetry memorization. It is quite different than you might expect. This article, “Memorization “Learnt without Labour” by Tina Fillmer explains it nicely. Jennifer has written well about her family's experience on her blog. Click on the 'memorization' topic on the left.

Whew, I hope I haven't missed anything!

May I just say that I came home so excited and energized last night. I am inspired by all of you incredible women. I look forward to hearing all of your insightful contributions every month. Thank you for sharing this journey with me. Every one of you is a gift.

I look forward to hearing about the High School breakout session last night. Please send us a note.

Warmly,
Sandy Rusby Bell

The Strong Silent Type

Brown Eyed Boy has always been reserved, done things on his own terms, in his own time. It's part of his personality to sit back and observe until he's ready to participate, and then he jumps in with both feet.

This boy is reserved in all respects:

When we were in Colorado for the Renovare Covenant Retreat in July, he would stand just inside the door of the child minding room and watch until a moment or two after we left, and then he'd join in the puzzles and games. Every day. All week. He wasn't afraid to be there, nor was he worried about our leaving. He simply wanted to determine on his own how and where he'd participate.

When Grandma and Grandpa (on either side of the family) come to visit, Brown-Eyed Boy won't give them goodnight hugs or kisses. And, to keep these dear ones from feeling offended, I quite honestly tell them that he doesn't kiss me goodnight, either. Ever. He smiles at me, hears my "Good night" to him, and then ducks his head away so that he can maintain his distance. If I happen to "sneak a kiss" on top of his head as Dear Man is carrying him off to bed (upside-down, most likely) his little hand immediately goes to the kissed spot and rubs it, saying, "I don't like kisses."

A mother should be able to kiss her smallest son, don't you think? But, out of respect for him, I refrain when I can, and when I forget, which I do sometimes, I end up apologizing and offering to take it back.

And this little fellow, who talks almost non-stop when we're at home or in the vehicle driving somewhere, says nothing when we're visiting others. Last fall we visited friends and I said at the beginning of the visit "You'll be lucky if you hear 10 words from him this afternoon." When our 4 hour visit was over, the eldest child of our host family said, "I counted. He said 12 words." I was impressed!

And in February, visiting other friends the week of Brown-Eyed Boy's birthday, our host said, "He's turning four? But he doesn't even talk yet!"

So, this kind of reticence is in his nature, part of who he is. I'm glad he's free enough to express himself with us, beautifully, creatively, humorously, and intelligently. And I love it when he feels comfortable enough with others to share his deeper personality with them.

What a treasure it is to see each of our children develop their own personality and style. The same family. Very different persons.

Praise the Lord!