Welcome to the May 11, 2010 edition of The Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival!

This is my first time hosting since I relocated from my Rose Cottage blog, so welcome, folks! I have my steaming hot cup of tea in hand, so I’ll wait right here while you grab your beverage of choice, and then let’s get started!  (All boxed quotes are by Charlotte Mason, of course!)

Nature

“A love of Nature, implanted so early that it will seem to them hereafter to have been born in them, will enrich their lives with pure interests, absorbing pursuits, health, and good humour.”

Barb shares her garden (and some lovely photos!) in A Short Voyage to the Garden. In sharing what she has learned over the years, she says, “Last year’s milkweed crop was eaten by our Lovely Labrador, our pumpkins didn’t get bigger than my fist, and the corn was a joke. Sigh.” Glad to know my garden is not the only one that doesn’t always come out as planned! But she offers this encouragement: “…keep your eyes open for some beauty in your world. It might just be right under your nose. Take a little voyage out into your backyard.” Posted at Handbook of Nature Study.

Primal at Life on My Planet shares two great posts from their trip to a nearby State Park, covering both history and nature study! I love those two-in-one studies! Check out Tomoka State Park–A History Lesson and Tomoka State Park: Nature Hiking.

Michelle at Holistic Homeschooler presents Nature in the Yard and Nature Walks and Talks. Just because they are living in an apartment and don’t currently have a large yard doesn’t mean they can’t have some wonderful nature studies, and the joy of watching her child make “connections” with the natural world!

Art

“We cannot measure the influence that one or another artist has upon the child’s sense of beauty, upon his power of seeing, as in a picture, the common sights of life; he is enriched more than we know in having really looked at even a single picture.”

Posts like Tricia’s always encourage me to make art a bigger part of our homeschool. In Pastels plus link to tutorials posted at Hodgepodge, she shares a list of pastel resources plus links to some great tutorials. She says they like to keep pastels close so they can use them for their nature journals. Lovely!

Melissa shares resources they used for artist study, plus her kids’ art gallery in a bit of our van goghing posted at Bugs, Knights, and Turkeys in the Yard.

I always love Barb’s helpful and encouraging posts at Harmony Art Mom, like this one, the last in a series on picture study: Beyond Picture Study: Part Three.

Literature

“A child has not begun his education until he has acquired the habit of reading to himself, with interest and pleasure, books fully on a level with his intelligence.”

I love that Amber shares her daughter’s narration in this post: Book Review: Rikki Tikki Tavi… and I’m a Wimp.  Daughter Bethany begins, “This story is called Rikki Tikki Tavi, from the Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. This story is about how a mongoose fought two bad snakes through the bathrooms of a big bungalow in India…”  See the rest of Bethany’s narration (and Amber’s review)  at The Mommy Earth.

AnnieKate shares how she is Raising Bookworms at her blog, Tea Time with Annie Kate. (You’ve gotta love a blog with “tea time” in the title!)

I didn’t know what a “box of loose letters” looked like until Richele at Barefoot Voyage shared a photo of a beautiful Victorian set that cost about $2600 at auction! Yikes! But I love little bits of historical things like that. Read how she is fostering “the delight of reading” in her post First Reading Lessons with Charlotte Mason.

For the Grasp of Language is a delightful post about the importance of literature in a Charlotte Mason education. Naomi says, “A grasp of language, the ability to receive and convey thought – what enduring gifts to your child; a true heritage, one CM believed is deserved by all.” Read her entire post at Living Charlotte Mason in California.

And More

“…give your a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information.”

Did you know that Charlotte Mason wrote a six-volume poetic work on the Gospels? I didn’t, but thanks to Nancy’s wonderfully thought-provoking post, The Godward Movement of the Large Room, now I do! Posted at Sage Parnassus.

Mama Squirrel at Dewey’s Treehouse presents A Month with Charlotte Mason, #29: Fragmentation, trivialization, and redemption.

There is no one-size-fits-all curriculum, but some things, like learning how to think, are important to us all! In Thinking Out of the Educational Box, Christy expands upon this idea, and shares this CM quote, “…we must think out for ourselves, as well as work out, those things that belong to the perfect bringing-up of our children.” Posted at New Homeschooler’s Resource.

Need a few great reasons to enjoy a bit of masterly inactivity? Read Tiana’s post, Slow Homeschooling, at God Made, Home Grown.

Jennifer at Princess Momma shares a handy way she’s found for scheduling readings and remembering what to do when. Read about it in her post, My Unconventional Home School Scheduling Tool.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That’s all for this edition. We love our regular submitters and want more posts from them, but it’s delightful to see some new faces (so to speak) as well! Use the carnival submission form to submit your blog article to the next edition of The Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival. You can find past posts and future hosts on our blog carnival index page.

Jamie

Wife, mom, J-ma. Introvert who enjoys good books, sunshine, and authentic conversation. Often seen with a steaming mug of tea in hand – unless it’s lost yet again in the microwave. Read more »