My Little Robins

Loving and Learning in the Nest

Froebel’s Alphabet Sticks: ABC’s Outdoors

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Ever since writing my post about Charlotte Mason and kindergarten, I’ve been trying to get more familiar with Froebel’s ideas. Friedrich Froebel lived in the late 18th century and early 19th century, and his principles on early education deemed him the affectionate title “the father of the Kindergarten.” Unfortunately, Froebel did not have an outstanding way with words, as pointed out in an introduction to his collection of letters explaining his Kindergarten principles, Froebel’s Letters. His works are a little cumbersome to read. There are a lot of ideas that Charlotte Mason accepted as valuable for young children, and some of them that she dismissed with sharp allusions in her her volumes. In another pamphlet Froebel wrote, called “How Lina Learned to Write and Read,” my shoulders, which were slightly slumping after poring through his bulky letters, perked up a bit. He recommended building the alphabet with sticks outside, which to me, sounded like a fun, Charlotte Mason style way to learn the ABC’s outdoors.

Froebel’s Alphabet Sticks

In “How Lina Learned to Write and Write,” Froebel described a reading instruction method that is pretty different than what Charlotte Mason described. Lina, at the age of six, showed an interest in reading a letter that her father had received. So, her mother took her outside and taught her how to make letters with sticks. Mother taught her each sound in her name at first, and then she made the letter with thin, small sticks. The rest of the process is somewhat similar: she learned an interesting word, like “father” or “mother”, by learning each sound and its symbol, and then writing it with sticks.

While Charlotte Mason thought that reading and writing were a bit more separate than this, I think the process of writing letters with sticks is engaging, low-maintenance (which I always look for!) and can be done nearly anywhere.

Suggestions

Froebel recommended using thin sticks for this process. We have a pretty silver maple tree, and the smaller branches are perfect for this. We’ve also collected willow boughs before, and their flexible branches would work well for alphabet sticks, too.

Letters with straight lines (like H and T) are the obvious choices when building letters with sticks, but Froebel recommended using a thumbnail to pierce a thin stick to make it bend easily to build letters with curved lines, like R and P. You could even get creative and add in little pebbles or the flexible stems of ubiquitous dandelions. Instead of introducing an entire word and its letters all at once as Froebel recommended, choose a letter that represents the beginning of a familiar word, and introduce it. Teaching an entire word’s worth of letters is a little more ambitious than Charlotte Mason’s approach!

Miss H and I built some letters on the ground, as Froebel mentioned, but we also tied some of the letters together with twine. She had fun playing with the letters for a few days!

When to Start

You can introduce this activity when your child shows interest in letters, although it is probably best with children at least three years and older. Your littlest children can join in too, like mine did! He loved rearranging the sticks for me 🙂

 

Why I Love This

I’m always on the search for ideas that fit with Charlotte Mason’s methods. This stood out to me for a few reasons. 1) H and I have done something very similar to this before. She had a ton of fun with it, and it was a natural, by the way learning experience. 2) It’s outside! Anything that we can do outside always has the added benefit of appealing to all the senses.

Other Ideas for Learning the ABC’s Outdoors

  • Shadow letters: Why not get creative, and make letters with stick shadows? See if your little ones can experiment with holding up multiple sticks to make shadow letters.
  • Mud drawing: When it’s muddy outside, use sticks to write letters in the mud.
  • Stick hunt: Sometimes sticks just naturally look like letters. What kind of stick shapes can you find? (We’ve found Y, L, etc.)
  • Twine sticks: Wrap your alphabet sticks in twine so they keep their shape. Connect the two sticks by wrapping the twine around them several times, and then tying a knot.

Froebel's Alphabet Sticks: Outdoor ABC's ideas for preschoolers.

 

Toddler Schedule for a Charlotte Mason Home

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My middle guy, my E, is three now. He is all energy and angst, moving from cheerful and smiling to angry and destructive faster than a political meme earns angry reactions on Facebook. I’ve realized that beyond a good night’s sleep, keeping a regular schedule is so good for my toddler. We can curb meltdowns when he knows what is coming next. I think that some Charlotte Mason families struggle with this, since our days are not anchored by formal lessons. But, just because we aren’t formally educating our children yet doesn’t mean that we should throw schedules to the wind. Establishing a toddler schedule is developmentally appropriate, and Charlotte Mason mentioned it in Home Education: 

The fact is, the child has already formed a habit of wakefulness or of feeding at improper times, and he is as uneasy at his habits being broken in upon as the cat is at a change of habitation; when he submits happily to the new regulation, it is because the new habit is formed, and is, in its turn, the source of satisfaction. According to Dr. Carpenter, “Regularity should begin even with infant life, as to times of feeding, repose, etc. The bodily habit thus formed greatly helps to shape the mental habit at a later period. On the other hand, nothing tends more to generate a habit of self-indulgence than to feed a child, or to allow it to remain out of bed, at unseasonable times, merely because it cries…'” pages 131-132

 I wanted to share the schedule the works for my toddler, and worked for his sister when she was a toddler, but I imagine that what works for you will be different. 

Toddler  Schedule for a Charlotte Mason Home

(I’ve used affiliate links to share great products with you in this section. You can read more about the in my policies.)

7:00 On our best mornings, I’m up at this time, waiting in the kitchen with breakfast made. I’ve had a shower, a few minutes of Bible study, and an attitude that is ready to conquer all (or at least any temper tantrums that come my way!) At 7:00, our OK to Wake Clock turns green, and an enthusiastic five-year-old storms down the stairs. If her gusto to start the day hasn’t woken up her two brothers, I let them sleep. We have rough time frames in our schedule, anchored by a few big things. It’s best if our morning starts off slowly and peacefully.

7:15-8:00 There’s plenty of time to eat breakfast in our schedule. This works well for us because sometimes we wait until after Daddy has left for work to start eating. And sometimes E will sleep in until 7:30, so this works well for us either way. At breakfast, we read a devotional and a story from a Bible Story Book

8:00 Earlier this year, I rearranged our schedule to fit in a cleaning/getting dressed time. This might sound silly to you, but this was probably the best thing I could have done for E! He no longer fights cleaning up after himself in the morning, or getting dressed. In the past, we just hung out in jammies until we felt like going outside. Heck, sometimes we went outside IN PAJAMAS. This is an awesome perk of homeschooling, but as it turns out, it made those times when we actually needed to get dressed and get out of the house SUPER stressful.

8:30 Now that everyone’s dressed, we have some time to play together. I try to give E direct attention at this time, because I notice that it affects him for the rest of the day. I’m certain that many of his temper tantrums are from feeling a little left out. We play with trucks in our basement play room. Sometimes I’m able to fit in a lesson with Miss H at this time, if she requests it.

9:00 When we’re home, this is Little Brother A’s nap time. Once or twice a week, we leave the house at this time instead of waiting around for A to sleep. If we’re out an about we’re usually:

  • Playing at Tinkergarten
  • At the park
  • Having a play date with friends

Related: The Complete Charlotte Mason Preschool Guide

If we’re at home during this time, we’re probably: 

  • Playing in the backyard
  • In our basement playroom, reading books and playing with trucks, Lego Duplos, or dolls.

10:00 Snack time! No matter where we are, we usually have a snack at 10:00. This helps to anchor our days. Then, it’s back to playing!

10:30 If A takes a good nap, this is when we leave the house. We usually:

  • Go for a nature walk
  • Visit the library
  • Head to a park
  • Run an errand

12:00 is my panic time. If we aren’t home, or close to home, at noon, I start to feel a little anxious. We eat lunch around 12:15, and have about 45 minutes to chat and relax.

1:00 A goes down for another nap at around 1:00. I so wish I could tell you that E goes down for his nap then, too, but he kicked those naps right around 2.5. Instead, I use this as quiet time for my older kids. They play quietly in the basement together, read books, and sometimes watch a TV show.

2:00 After about an hour to myself, I go play with my kids. Miss H usually thinks up a craft at this time, so E ends up playing independently. But, being in the same room as him seems to make a big difference.

3:00 A wakes up from his nap, and my big kids are ready to do something. I try to encourage E to pick an activity at this time because his big sister often calls the shots. In the afternoon, we often:

  • Play in the backyard
  • Make something in the kitchen
  • Do a little craft
  • Play in the basement

4:30 After moving from room to room today, we’ve made lots of good messes. I ask the kids to clean up. E sometimes fights this. He’s usually very good at cleaning up his toys, but it’s the other things he pulls out during the day that make the house feel messy: the socks he threw off haphazardly, the three different pairs of shoes he wore. This is the habit we’re currently working on.  Telling my kids to go clean something without actually following them to be sure that they are indeed cleaning is the only way to get them to play together happily. Ha! So, some days we all clean together, and on some days, my kids go play like they’re best friends in order to avoid me.

5:00 It’s time to start dinner. Sometimes they are still “cleaning” and this makes it easy. On more restless days, I let them watch a TV show. On nice summer evenings, they play outside while I cook. It varies.

6:00 Nate gets home from work around 6:00, and we eat dinner right away. Ideally, we finish dinner by 6:30 or 6:45 so there’s still a little time to play before bed. We don’t give baths every night, so that frees up some of our time in the evening.

7:00 We started to put E to bed a little earlier once he gave up his nap.  He often melts down by 7:30, and then he gets upset when he sees me put Little Brother A down to bed. So we’ve learned that putting him to bed before his nap-loving little brother is best for everyone. We try to put him down to bed at 7:15, which gives him almost 12 hours of sleep.

My Priorities

Right now, my priorities for my toddler guy are that he gets plenty of sleep, and that he gets plenty of time outside each day. These two factors seem to affect the number of meltdowns we have. Unlike his big sister, he does not ask me to read him books multiple times a day. I’m sure this would make some people nervous, but he is in a language-rich environment. He hears stories when I’m reading to his siblings, and he also reads books that he chooses before bed.

Your schedule will undoubtedly be different, but the important thing to remember is that children thrive on routines. These routines, that give our children comforting structure, are also what will aid us in habit training. By doing similar things everyday, we are establishing those triggers, the things that set off good habits.

I don’t try to fit in ALL THE THINGS in our day, and I don’t stress if we don’t tally up four hours of time spent outdoors. My biggest concern right now is that my children have consistency in our home, and that they know they are loved.

This early years planner was created just for you, so that you can add consistency to your days. Plan out daily routines, habits, and choose from a list of Charlotte Mason recommended activities to plan your days. You can find the planner here. 

 

 

Kids’ Advent Calendar Handicraft

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When I think of the word “handicraft,” I think of a project that my kids and I have made together that won’t go into the trash after a couple of weeks. Unlike those little cardboard Advent calendars filled with sub-par chocolates that the grocery store sells, I wanted to make a way to celebrate the season that we’d use year after year. This simple Advent calendar is magnetic and therefore space-saving: just put it up on your refrigerator or other magnetic surface, and when January rolls around, stack the jars and put them away. Kids will love helping you make this, and will especially enjoy revealing a surprise every day.

Advent calendars are often used as a way to merely count down the days until Christmas. But if we thoughtfully consider how what we want to put inside each little jar, an advent calendar can help children focus on Christ at Christmas. You can tie this into other advent traditions, like the Jesse tree or acts of kindness.

Related: 100 Handicrafts for the Early Years

(I’ve used affiliate links to share how to make this handicraft. You can read more about my policies here.)

Kids Advent Calendar Handicraft

I was able to find magnetic spice tins at the dollar store. There were two in each pack. The lids are clear; which kind of ruins the surprise, but if you’ll stuff the containers with Bible verses, the clear lids won’t be a problem at all. We also found the number stickers at the dollar store, except they aren’t very sticky. You can either make sure you buy high-quality stickers, or paint the numbers on with acrylic paints.

To avoid the inevitable fight about who gets to open each door, I bought three different colors of stickers, one for each child. They will know what color sticker they are, and hopefully this will help stop arguments. If it’s not a red day, they’ll have to wait.

Materials

  • 24 or 25 small magnetic spice tins, available at a dollar store (there were 2 in each package)
  • A magnetic surface for your spice tins- this can be a new, clean cookie sheet, or your refrigerator door! You could also use a square piece of wood big enough to fit the 25 tins, and hot glue them on. But that doesn’t save much space, does it?
  • Acrylic paint, in a color of your choice
  • Hot glue gun and sticks
  • Decorative scrapbooking paper, or colored tissue paper
  • Number stickers (optional) I used three different colors, one for each of my children
  • 25 small pieces of paper with Bible verses, acts of kindness, etc., OR small trinkets

Directions

  1. If you chose to use a wooden board, paint it in a color of your choice. If you have a metal pan or are using the refrigerator front, skip this step.
  2. Place the stickers on the tins. This is a great thing for little ones to help with, and a fun by-the-way activity to help reinforce their understanding of numbers!
  3. Measure how big the window is on top of the tin lid. Cut a circle out of the decorative paper so that you can glue it, pattern side up, under the lid. This will hide the passages or objects you put inside the tins. Because I was short on time, I chose to stuff each tin with a little bit of tissue paper to hide the treasures inside.
  4. If you are using a wooden board, hot glue the tins onto the board. If you are using a magnetic surface, arrange the tins how you’d like them. Be prepared to arrange them over and over again, because little ones love playing with these tins!
  5. Open one tin each day to see what’s inside!

 

Things to Put in Your Advent Calendar

Kids Advent Calendar Handicraft

Classic Children’s Literature Isn’t All Rainbows and Butterflies

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When author Geraldine McCaughrean accepted her second Carnegie Medal for excellence in writing children’s literature last summer, she took the opportunity to make a statement. She said that the dumbing down of children’s literature is, “wantonly creating an underclass of citizens with a small but functional vocabulary: easy to manipulate and lacking in the means to reason their way out of subjugation.” (You can read the full article here.) While the article mostly discusses vocabulary development, the educator in me can’t help but think of several other reasons why dumbing-down children’s literature might be a problem: children will have a harder time developing higher-level thinking skills (which McCaughrean referred to in her speech), their character will be shaped by Captain Underpants instead of St. George, and the opportunities for developing character through the experiences of heroes and heroines will be lost. All of these are reasons to share classic children’s literature with your children.

I once read that if you hold on to spices in your pantry too long, you might as well use pencil shavings in your food. That’s all the flavor that too-old herbs and spices have. This seems like a good analogy for children’s literature: we can offer them the good spices, the classic literature that was written to enhance and flavor life, or we can offer our children pencil shavings: modern literature that is bland, unvaried, and adds very little meaning.

There are a lot of things I like about reading classics to my children, but I think they gently refining them like a sharpening iron. Modern children’s books are so carefully filtered that there’s barely any substance. The events are predictable, the characters are one dimensional, and the problems are easily solved. In a Charlotte Mason education, where fairy tales and children’s classics build the literary foundation, filtering ideas and language with a fine-toothed comb aren’t part of the objective. Instead, we teach children how to handle the trials and tormentors, rather than flitting through a land of rainbows and butterflies. From the safety of our laps, our children learn about unhappy endings.

Related: How to Choose Living Books

Classic children's literature

Classic Children’s Literature, Rainbows, and Butterflies

(I’ve used affiliate links to share some great books with you here.)

We temper Life too much for Children.–I am not sure that we let life and its circumstances have free play about children. We temper the wind too much to the lambs; pain and sin, want and suffering, disease and death–we shield them from the knowledge of these at all hazards. I do not say that we should wantonly expose the tender souls to distress, but that we should recognise that life has a ministry for them also; and that Nature provides them with a subtle screen. (School Education, pages 183-184)

Many of the books that are considered beautiful classics often are charged with being “too dark” for children.  Fairy tales with endings involving an ax and a wolf; poisonous apples; tales about bunnies who are threatened to be baked in pies; these things tend to make us uncomfortable. I recently read that Americans prefer happy endings in movies. I can think of a few books where the endings were completely changed in the movie so it would all work out nicely. While things end happily in Hollywood, they don’t always end up so perfectly in real-life. Our children will learn this eventually.

A book that we love is A Beatrix Potter Treasury. The main characters often disobey, and in turn, suffer major consequences for their actions. This makes some uncomfortable. But, when I read these stories with my children, I can see them processing these outcomes. Their little hearts are empathizing, recalling times when they too have suffered the consequences of their actions.

Compare this reaction to another book, a more modern book, that we also enjoy. The little mice and creatures of  Brambly Hedge are delightful, and the book is beautifully illustrated. But, instead of encouraging my children to think about something worthy, that our actions have consequences, my children mostly enjoy watching the characters make preparations for a celebration. There is room on our shelves for less in-depth books, but if the bulk of what our children read are surface-scratchers like these, then we are teaching them to focus on the material rather than the character-building ideas that many classic books contain.

Last summer, we sped through reading the American Girl series. We enjoyed the tales of brave young ladies, and the stories weren’t watered down at all. But when we started reading A Little Maid series by Alice Curtis, the beautiful language quickly made this classic series a favorite. Even though my daughter, who is five, had questions about some of the words, presenting her with beautiful language was more inspiring than mystifying. Months later, she still repeats phrases from the book.

Related: Twaddle, Junk Food for the Brain

Good and Evil in Fairy Tales

Reading books that contain nail-biting scenes and sometimes heartbreaking themes does not mean I’m disrespecting my children’s innocence. I would rather have them learn about good and evil cuddled up next to me with a book in hand. When we read something that is unpleasant or tragic, we stop and discuss the Christ-centered perspective. We stop and pray. There is so much value in that.

I am inclined to think, too, that fairy tales suffer in vigour and charm when they are prepared for the children; and that Wordsworth is right in considering that the very knowledge of evil conveyed in fairy tales under a certain glamour is of use in saving children from painful and injurious shocks in real life.” Charlotte Mason, Parents and Children

Society tells children that good and evil are relative: the standard of truth is constantly changing. But, in fairy tales, it’s very clear what is good and what is evil. This teaches children to cling to what is good, and to hate what is evil.

A Little Editing

My goal is not to water down the intricate worlds introduced to my children in classic literature, but sometimes I do make a few edits. They are very young, and there will be time to explain things that will be hard for them to grasp. These are the few things I edit out for them:

  • Words I don’t want them to repeat
  • An idea that will be too stressful
  • When it distracts from the meaning of the book

What I DON’T edit out are events that are less-than perfect, or that might spark some deep conversations. It’s true that classic children’s literature isn’t always rainbows and butterflies, but neither is life.

Early Years Math By The Way

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In Home Education, Charlotte Mason’s volume that is the most important to us as moms with very young children, she does not address acquiring math skills before the age of 6. This is a little concerning to many modern parents, including my husband, who wants our children to appreciate math. Charlotte Mason believed that no specific subject should take precedence over another.

But education should be a science of proportion, and any one subject that assumes undue importance does so at the expense of other subjects which a child’s mind should deal with. Arithmetic, Mathematics, are exceedingly easy to examine upon and so long as education is regulated by examinations so long shall we have teaching, directed not to awaken a sense of awe in contemplating a self-existing science, but rather to secure exactness and ingenuity in the treatment of problems.” Towards a Philosophy of Education, page 231

Even without weighing the scales heavily in favor of math in the early years, we CAN address it during the early years. 

Charlotte Mason described in detail how to teach a child early reading skills (letter names and sounds, beginning word blending, etc.) before formal lessons. She said that these methods should be child-led, and that they should seem like a game to the child. I believe that this gives us a good idea of what early years math should look like. When our children are ready, we can introduce math skill through play.

Charlotte Mason Early Years Math

Number Sense

Counting does not mean much without the numbers relating to objects. Young children who can count might think that they’re reciting a song or rhyme, without knowing that there is a reason numbers appear in order and that they represent different values. This doesn’t mean you should avoid counting, but it does mean that if your four year old can’t count to 50, it’s probably nothing to worry about. What’s more important than counting is number sense. Number sense is an understanding of values, where numbers fit in the grand scheme of things, and how numbers are used in the world. These are some of the playful, child-led ways that we’ve learned number sense.

Inchimals

This math toy was gifted to us by a thoughtful family member. There are 12 different blocks, from 1 inch to 12 inches long. Each inch is identified with marks, so that one side of the block looks like an unmarked ruler. The other side has an animal or insect on it; the largest block is a giraffe, while the smallest block is a ladybug. The ends of the blocks have either the number of dots that relates to the size of the block, or the numeral.

I’ve been asked a few times how I use these in our home. I’ve avoided answering this question because I really just try to follow my children’s lead. But, here are a few ways we’ve played with Inchimals.

  • Count the dots and inches
  • Put the blocks in order from least to greatest (smallest to biggest)
  • Find the block that falls in between two numbers (for example, Which block comes between five and seven?)
  • Demonstrate simple addition problems
  • Make the animals talk to each other, which has nothing to do with math, but sure is fun!

Other number sense ideas

There are other ways that you can gently help your eager-to-learn child develop number sense.

  • Count steps when you walk up them, seconds when you wait, etc.
  • When you’re reading a story, count like objects on the page (example: Count all of the trees on this page.)
  • Play hopscotch
  • Count backwards when a timer is almost up
  • Put dot stickers on a piece of paper, and cross out each sticker as you count it. This is also great for fine motor skills! (Miss H did this when she wanted to learn, and counting immediately clicked!)

Money

Being able to actually count money is something that should occur long after a child learns to skip count by 5’s and 10’s. But, playing with pretend money is realistic play that little ones love. I focus on counting the units with little ones instead of counting the values of, say, nickles. We have this cash register and it has been lots of fun! It came with money that my children love playing with.

  • Play “store” together; designate prices, and dole out pretend money
  • Sort coins by size and color, and eventually name and value
  • Give your child a dollar or two to spend at the store (Target dollar spot!)
  • If your child shows interest, help him or her run a lemonade stand or other entrepreneurial endeavor. Miss H often sets up “art galleries” at home, prices all of her art work, and sells it to family members for a few cents each.

Related: The Complete Charlotte Mason Preschool Guide

Measurement

This IS an area that Charlotte Mason addressed in Home Education.

the first idea of distance is to be attained by what children find a delightful operation. A child walks at his usual pace; somebody measures and tells him the length of his pace, and then he measures the paces of his brothers and sisters. Then such a walk, such a distance, here and there, is solemnly paced, and a little sum follows–so many inches or feet covered by each pace equals so many yards in the whole distance. Various short distances about the child’s home should be measured in this way…” Home Education, page 73

Although younger children won’t do any sums to discover inches and feet, they can still use their bodies to count paces, hand widths, etc.

  • Measure objects with hands or feet (i.e how many hands long is this chair?)
  • Grab different sized items and decide which are longer or shorter.  (Like we do with Inchimals!)
  • Walk across your backyard or another area outdoors and see how many paces it takes to get from one end to the other
  • Bake something delicious together. Help your child level out the measuring cups. (I don’t mention fractions, I just discuss how many scoops we need.)

Patterns

Nature is a beautiful place to identify patterns. If you pay close attention, they can be found in many areas of creation. Just spending several hours outside each day, like Charlotte Mason recommended,

  • Identify patterns in nature, fabric, and pictures
  • Use nature objects to make different patterns
  • When organizing books, clothes, etc., come up with a pattern to use- if this doesn’t drive you crazy!

Geometry

For young children, geometry means a focus on shapes and spatial skills. Like colors, children will probably begin to identify shapes without much prompting. In the grand scheme of things, knowing the vocabulary word for different shapes

Logic

There are many developmentally-appropriate ways to introduce logic to young children.

  • Play Tic-tac-toe, Connect 4 , checkers, and other games requiring strategy
  • Allow your child to participate in solving everyday problems instead of stepping in and solving them
  • Play the “What’s Missing?” game. At a restaurant or the dinner table, remove one item while your child isn’t looking, and ask them to figure out what’s missing.

There’s no need to worry that delaying formal lessons will mean a future delay in math. There are plenty of natural, playful ways for your child to experience early years math without any pressure or workbooks.

Delaying formal lessons does not mean that our children won't learn any math concepts until they are six.

 

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