My Little Robins

Loving and Learning in the Nest

Handicrafts for the Spring and Summer with Rooted Childhood

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This question has been asked at least a dozen times in my local community Facebook group: What am I supposed to do with my kids all summer long? With school coming to a close for the summer, traditional schooling families suddenly have lots of time to fill. This is not often a problem for homeschoolers, who can fill all that time and still feel like it wasn't enough. But, as we've phased out lessons for our unofficial Kindergarten year, I'm looking forward to filling our time with handicrafts, cooking, and being outside. 

This post contains affiliate links. You can read more about them in my policies.

This year for handicrafts, we used Rooted Childhood. Each month's collection contains eight handicrafts, three recipes, book suggestions, songs and finger rhymes. While we aren't going to do year-round schooling (for now at least!) Rooted Childhood will be a wonderful way to keep some structure in our days and give us some big projects to work on so we're passing the time intentionally. 

Spring and Summer Handicrafts

Although I've written about Rooted Childhood before, I wanted to share with you the projects we've done this spring and will work on this summer. I love that these handicraft ideas are seasonal, so they are always changing and help us celebrate each season. 

In April, we made beautiful string-wrapped Easter eggs. We had friends over for a tea party, and made the eggs together.  It took us a bit to realize that if we coated the string in clear glue, it would wrap around the egg and stay much more easily. But once we got that down, everyone, even my middle guy (3.5) enjoyed making them! 

My husband even got involved with May's collection of Rooted Childhood. He tracked down wood, screws, and bolts to help us make flower presses. My children are so excited about these! Ours are a little bigger than the presses modeled in Rooted Childhood,  but in a way, that adds to their impressiveness. And of course, they can hold many, many flowers because of their size! 

Each collection comes out the month before on the 15th (if you have the subscription) or you can seasons or even months separately. I've organized each collection in a binder, so we can revisit the projects for many years to come. 

Continuing Story Time Throughout The Summer

We need to get into a new summertime rhythm for reading books, singing folk songs, and listening to poetry and rhymes. These things are a fantastic way to calm anxious little ones, interrupt quarrels, and as an added bonus,  they allow rich learning opportunities without our children even knowing it.

Every month when we get our new Rooted Childhood collection, Miss H flips through and looks for books and short stories that she'd like to read. Last month, she was really excited to learn the folk song, "I Love the Mountains." It's such a blessing when our children are eager to learn and participate in literacy-building activities!

Little Chefs

Miss H loves to cook. I often hold back from trying new recipes with her, because I'm not sure how they would work with a six-year-old, plus two little guys who love to "help." (By the way, I've learned that giving the little ones a bowl of flour and some water to pour in there is the BEST way for them to help. They stir and have so much fun, and the real recipe still turns out to be edible!) 

Rooted Childhood has three recipes in each collection. They are real-food recipes, which I love! These almond-flour cookies (see below) that we made were really delicious. We ate them pretty quickly, which was okay with me, because they are healthier than a lot of things that my boys eat! 


 

Make sure to download the beautiful Sunrise Collection for free. If you decide you want to add beauty to your days through Rooted Childhood, you can use the code mylittlerobins for 10% off. 


Picture and Composer Study in Home Education

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For the past several years, in our Charlotte Mason preschool at home, art and music have come by-the-way. I've tried to incorporate them into our home to create an atmosphere where beautiful music and art are normal, everyday things to be enjoyed. But, aside from having a deBussy station playing on Pandora over and over again, we are seriously lacking in this area. 

I'm looking forward to our first year of formal lessons, so that these areas become a regular part of our days. And, I'm especially excited that my younger sons will get to experience these things as an atmospheric bonus. 

For our first year of official homeschooling, I planned out our curriculum based solely on Charlotte Mason's first volume, Home Education. Although this doesn't take into account all of the recommendations that she made in 30+ years of sharing her philosophy, it simplified things for me, and overall, it feels like a rich and thorough feast. You can see the rest of the posts in this series here.

Charlotte Mason Picture Study

"The six-year-old should begin both to express himself and to appreciate, and his appreciation should be well in advance of his power to express what he sees or imagines." Home Education, page 307

"When children have begun regular lessons, (that is, as soon as they are six), this sort of study of pictures should not be left to chance, but they should take one artist after another, term by term, and study quietly some half-dozen reproductions of his work in the course of the term." Home Education, pages 308-309

In this part of Home Education, Charlotte Mason described these intentional picture study lessons. The child is presented with a reproduction of the art, and then looks at it intently. He then tells back, or narrates, what he sees. But, Charlotte Mason said that the ability to narrate is not the important part. The picture can make an impression on his sense of beauty whether or not he's able to communicate it. 

In the time I've spent planning our curriculum, my plan for art has changed. I was hoping to study Mary Cassatt and Benjamin West using beautiful books that I tracked down, and printing off pictures from the Internet. But, I changed artists, and my approach. 

Picture Study Curriculum

I've used affiliate links to share our curriculum choices with you. You can read more about them in my policies. 

As much as I wanted to study Benjamin West (because he painted Benjamin Franklin, whom we are also studying, and because of the amazing book Benjamin West and his Cat Grimalkin that I can't wait to read with Miss H), but I decided to move him out of the way in order to study Monet. This seems a little more disjointed, but there is going to be a Monet exhibit at our local museum in the fall. I would love to take my children there and let them have some understanding of his art!

To simplify, I decided to use Simply Charlotte Mason's art portfolios. I had the opportunity to see SCM's resources at a homeschool convention recently, and I realized that they would be perfect for us as we piece together our own curriculum. The art portfolios have beautiful prints inside, as well as an artist biography and "leading thoughts" about each painting. 

Mary Cassat portfolio

Monet portfolio

Composer Study

In Home Education, Charlotte Mason didn't mention composer study. She talked about helping children form the habit of music, by constantly hearing and producing it, But, I wanted to incorporate some kind of composer study, so I chose The Story of the Orchestra to introduce my children to genres, composers, and pieces. This is a beautiful book that Miss H is very excited about. She has pulled it off of the shelf a couple of times already, but we're both practicing self-control by saving it for the fall. 

In the future, I'll officially do composer study as Charlotte Mason recommended in other works, but at this point, I am content with simplifying one more thing in our days together. 

This brings me to the end of my series on a curriculum pulled straight from Home Education. Once I pace it all out, and inevitably have some changes to make, I'll share another post. 

Learning a Foreign Language Like A Native

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I've had many attempts at learning French, my foreign language of choice. In elementary school, my dad encouraged me to use CD Roms and listening CD's (those were the days!) As I got older, I studied French in high school and college. Beyond college, I decided to keep learning through online programs, real-life meet-ups, and travel. All of these different experiences have led me to one conclusion: most of these learning attempts, except for the real-life experiences, were pretty much meaningless. You might think that I'm fluent in the language. You would be wrong. 

When Miss H started showing an interest in learning French, I paid close attention to Charlotte Mason's approach to language instruction. In this series of posts, I'm only looking into her recommendations in her first volume, Home Education. You can find the rest of the series here.

Those meaningful experiences I mentioned above were made meaningful for one reason: learning real-life words was interesting. In the classroom, I learned French grammar, first and foremost. Charlotte Mason said that learning a foreign language should be like learning a first language. When your precious little one learned to speak, grammar was not  your top concern. You said words like, "Daddy!" and "Hot!" repeatedly. I imagine that you did not have your young child repeat the verb conjugation of "to be." Yet, this is how foreign languages are often taught. 

Related: Foreign Language in the Early Years

Learning a Foreign Language

"French should be acquired as English is, not as a grammar, but as a living speech." Home Education, page 300

"Again, the child's vocabulary should increase steadily, say at the rate of  half  a dozen words a day. Think of fifteen hundred words in a year!" Home Education, page 301

In order to learn a foreign language, it should be integrated into a child's daily life. This poses a challenge for modern moms like me, who only speak one language! Charlotte Mason knew that this was likely, and, in Home Education, described the Gouin series method of learning a language. 

In this method, a series of phrases is taught, both in English and in French (or the language of choice!) There are often actions to go with the phrases, to solidify understanding in both languages. Through this approach, grammar is also taught, although it's in order to articulate a thought instead of to practice conjugation. 

There are several versions of Gouin's Series available. I haven't used these resources, but there is Cherrydale Press and The ULAT. But personally, I chose a different version of these, Talkbox Mom.

Foreign Language Curriculum: Talkbox Mom

I chose ​ Talkbox Mom as our French "curriculum" for several reasons. The first is that it's not really a curriculum. It's a series of charts, cards, and audio files so that you can integrate foreign language into your day. The first box starts out in the kitchen, and contains full phrases to use while you share meals with your children. I often allow Miss H to practice with the audio files while I'm busy taking care of her brothers. 

I also like that I am involved in it. I didn't want to turn her loose on a computer program and not know what she was learning. This way, I am brushing off that dusty French as she's learning, by practicing the phrases and incorporating them in our everyday lives. 

You can use my referral code REFVH6Y7G4ITQ for $15 off of your first box. 

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Charlotte Mason Handwriting in the Modern World

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You probably know that I interpret Charlotte Mason's words with much grace. I take into account cultural differences, what materials were available in her day, and how God personally convicts me in different areas. Handwriting is an area that has changed immensely in 100 years. Not only are its purposes very different, the means in which we can practice handwriting have greatly improved. Move over, chalk and slate, hello, printable pages! 

Over the past 6 weeks, I've been going over Charlotte Mason's recommendations in Home Education. I am only discussing recommendations in this volume, although she does have many more recommendations in her other volumes, in PNEU schedules, journal articles, etc. You can find the rest of the posts in this series here. 

In Home Education, Charlotte Mason described how to teach handwriting. I'll explain her recommendations, and also share how I'm choosing to approach this area. 

Related: Handwriting During the Early Years

Handwriting

"First, let the child accomplish something perfectly in every lesson--a stroke, a pothook, a letter. Let the writing lesson be short; it should not last more than five or ten minutes. Ease in writing comes by practice; but that must be secured later. In the meantime, the thing to be avoided is the habit of careless work --humpy m's, angular o's." Home Education, pages 233-234

In this volume, Charlotte Mason recommended practicing letters on a blackboard. First, the child practices printing letters in isolation- capitals first, then lower case letters. The letters should be formed beautifully before moving on. Next, the child begins practicing groups of letters to form simple words. She gives the examples of "man" and "aunt." 

But, Charlotte Mason also recommended a handwriting book, called A New Handwriting. This handwriting was beautiful and necessary "for the distinctly commonplace writing taught from existing copy-books, however painstaking and legible, cannot but have a rather vulgarising effect both on the writer and the reader of such manuscript." Home Education, page 236

She recommended having the child copy the plates on their chalkboard, then with paper and pencil, and finally, with pen and ink.  I wonder, though, if she had been presented with today's technology of one-time-use books, like we have today, if a handwriting book would have been acceptable to her? I imagine it would! 

A Note on Copywork

Copywork, or transcription, is often described as the only handwriting practice that children need. While this might be a recommendation in her later works, in Home Education, Charlotte Mason said that transcription (writing a passage out beautifully) should begin at ages seven or eight. 

"The earliest practice in writing proper for children of seven or eight should be, not letter writing or dictation, but transcription, slow and beautiful work, for which the New Handwriting is to be preferred, though perhaps some of the more ornate characters may be omitted with advantage." Home Education, page 238

Home Education Curriculum: Handwriting

I agonized over several handwriting books before making my choice. Finally, I chose The Good and The Beautiful Handwriting books, levels 1 and 2. I like how the exercises aren't extremely monotonous, that there are pictures to color to help develop muscles necessary for handwriting, and, as Miss H begins to write words and phrases, they are meaningful (often Bible verses.) 

I also considered Handwriting without Tears (affiliate link) as I had experience with it as a teacher, but I ultimately decided that the latter curriculum was, well, more beautiful. 

Finding handwriting worksheets online is also an option. If you feel adventurous, you can even create your own handwriting worksheets! 

Geography- Discovering the World, Not Memorizing Facts

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Geography, as it is traditionally taught, can be a cringe-worthy subject! The memorization of states and regions, facts and facts, can drain the joy out of learning faster than an eight-year-old can spell M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I. But, after going through Home Education again, to understand Charlotte Mason's recommendations from this volume, the idea that geography doesn't have to be tedious and boring was reinforced in my mind. 

A few months ago, I wrote about what Charlotte Mason's suggested for playful, outdoor-based geography. We will continue to do that next year, But, we'll also follow her recommendations found later in Home Education. 

Like I've mentioned before, I'm choosing to hone in only on the recommendations from her first volume to create our curriculum for our first year of homeschooling. I did this for simplicity's sake. I don't think Charlotte Mason intended for her philosophy to be a set of rules, and that the fact that there are additional recommendations make these less worthy. You can read the rest of my posts in this series here.

Geography

"We begin to see the lines we must go upon in teaching geography: for educative purposes, the child must learn such geography, and in such a way, that his mind shall thereby be stored with ideas, his imagination with images; for practical purposes he must learn such geography only as, the nature of his mind considered, he will be able to remember; in other words, he must learn what interests him." Home Education, page 273

Geography is not an area that I feel fondly towards, although I love exploring different countries, learning different languages, and reading books about foreign lands. Thankfully, the recommendations in Home Education for geography appeal to my favorite things about foreign lands, and steer away from the memorization of states, regions, etc. 

What she did recommend in this volume is: 

Reading several well-written travel guides-"Supposing that between the child's sixth and his ninth year half a dozen well-chosen standard books of travel have been read with him in this way, he has gained distinct ideas of the contours, the productions, and the manners of the people, of every great region of the world; has laid up a store of reliable, valuable knowledge, that will last his lifetime; and besides, has done something to acquire a taste for books and the habit of reading." Home Education, page 276

Maps- "Maps must be carefully used in this type of work,--a sketch-map following the traveler's progress, to be compared finally with a complete map of the region; and the teacher will exact a description of such and such a town, and such and such a district, marked on the map, by way of testing and confirming the child's exact knowledge..." Home Education, page 275

"The child who gets no ideas from considering the map, say of Italy or of Russia, has no knowledge of geography, however many facts about places he may be able to produce. " Home Education, page 278

Read books that feed their imagination-  "I know of nothing so good as the old-fashioned World at Home by Mary and Elizabeth Kirby for children between six and seven. As they hear, they wonder, admire, imagine, and can even 'play at' a hundred situations." Home Education, page 276

Observation- "But definitions should come in the way of recording his experiences. Before he is taught what a river is, he must have watched a stream and observed that it flows; and so on with the rest." Home Education, page 277

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Geography Curriculum Choices

I've used affiliate links to share these books with you. You can read more about them in my policies.

One thing that Charlotte Mason mentioned that stood out to me is that we have the freedom to skip passages and pages that don't interest young children, or that aren't appropriate for them. She called this "judicious skipping." In this way, books that are geared towards adults aren't "too much" for young children. 

These are the travel guides I've chosen:

Baedeker's Travel Guide, China (with judicious skipping) 

Baedeker's Travel Guide, France

French at A Glance (Phrase book and Traveler's Aid)

Literature Tie-in

Like I mentioned in our literature selections, we are reading

Little Pear by Eleanor Frances Latimore (set in China)

The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson (set in France) 

I'm looking forward to learning about these countries right next to my daughter!

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