Docendō Discimus...

...by teaching, we learn. This is my favorite Latin idiom because I have found it to be the most true. I have learned more as a homeschooling mom than in any other role I've ever filled. Fourth grade has taught me a great deal and I'd like to share just a few things...

Lesson One: It is necessary to spend time out-of-doors. Quite apart from the exhilaration of being away from the dishes and laundry that call loudly to me from the various rooms of my home, there's just so much going on out there! There are rocks that must be turned over and sticks that should be broken against solid tree-trunks. Outside you'll find grass that beckons you to roll, stones that beg to be tossed into water, dry leaves that call to be crunched, and seed pods bursting to be torn open. But this is only a small sampling of the excitement. I've not even mentioned all the crawling creatures or the plants!

Also, this is where I have found that God whispers most loudly to me. If I'm engaged in nature, my mind is not distracted by list of things to do, laundry piles, or dusty shelves. I find that I'm completely open to what's going on in front of me and much more likely to hear or see what God is doing.

"Nature study cultivates the child's imagination, since there are so many wonderful and true stories that he may read with his own eyes... All things seem possible in nature; yet this seeming is always guarded by the eager quest of what is true." -Anna Botsford Comstock, Handbook of Nature Study

Lesson Two: A true education should give ample opportunity for Trying New Things. The news that we'll being trying Something New for dinner is usually followed by no small amount of groaning. Roughly 83% of all New Things are distasteful to the nine-year-old palette. However, when dinner is made to be an extension of a geography lesson, a nine-year-old might happily choke down a few bites of Whatever Is On His Plate. The key is to make the dinner a Big Deal. You get some music, make tiny flags, issue a passport, and draw up a fancy menu.

This approach can and does fail from time to time. Weisse Bohnensuppe + Kartoffelknodeln + Apfelschorle = Fehlschlag. The German meal didn't work out; we all ate peanut butter and jelly instead.

Lesson Three: There's really a lot of things that you can do with feet. Take, for example, this science experiment. Is it possible to tell the difference between male and female feet? Apparently so, under certain variables. Folks actually let you take photos of their feet, and then others are willing to sit and look through an entire folio of feet photographs and tell you what they think of them. It's all pretty amazing. Just read the data.

Lesson Four: You can't force art. I'm a fairly artsy, crafty person. I don't think this stems from creative talent as much as from plain ol' practice. I've been creating things I was a wee girl. My grandmother would give me all kinds of beads, wire, thread, canvas and plenty of inspiration. I took art classes all through school. I've been told I have an 'eye' for things (though I think this is simply unfounded rumor).

It turns out that you can't just sit down and explain to someone why certain lines, shapes, or colors look good and why others do not. The only way to get people to 'see' art is to give them sample after sample of the good stuff and hope that they recognize it later. The only way to inspire someone to make good art is to give them art supplies and set them free, over and over and over. At some point (you hope), a piece of work will emerge that will make you shout, "Aha! There it is! There's some art."

Lesson Five: There are two kinds of smart: there's the kind of smart that just knows the answer and there's the kind of smart that knows how to find the answer. I heard this truth at a meeting of homeschool moms this year and it has stuck with me. As much as I would like to fill my boys' minds with lists and tables and names and dates and story-lines and quotes, it's much more important that I teach them how to find the answers that they need. This means teaching them to observe, study, research, experiment, deduce, and reason. They'll need to know how to use the library and the internet to their advantage, sifting the good information from the bad.

Most importantly, I need to teach my children to seek answers from God. No amount of study or practice or work can take the place of sitting quietly at the feet of the One who knows us and has written all our days, the One who created everything and holds it together.

Decadence?

So, I'm confused...

This often happens: I think that I know the meaning of a word and I even throw it around in casual conversation, only to find out later that I used it incorrectly. That's fine; I'm happy to refine my personal vocabulary (since it's one of my most beloved possessions), but there are times when I am shocked to discover the true definitions of my thoughtlessly tossed-out words.

Chase and I had an enjoyable time making two decadent cheesecakes for a bake sale.* You know, cheesecakes that were rich and yummy and perhaps a bit over the top? Does this make sense? I thought it did. Here are some synonyms for decadent:

corruption, debasement, decay, decline, degeneracy, degeneration, degradation , devolution, dissipation, dissolution, downfall, downgrade, fall, incontinence, lasciviousness, lechery, lewdness, licentiousness, regression, sensuality, sybaritism

These are not words that I would have chosen to describe our (triple chocolate and chocolate-peanut butter) cheesecakes. I was hoping to convey the idea of deliciousness. I perhaps should have used the words toothfull, dishy, or hunky-dory, just to stay in safe morphological territory. Safer still would have been words like esculent or comestible, words which look fancy but could also be used to describe celery.



I can see the nuanced trail that connects the ugly words above with our decadent cheesecakes when I consider other synonyms like excess, gluttony, and intemperance. Perhaps it was excessive to lick out the bowl in which we melted the chocolate. And I may have been an intemperant glutton when I consumed an entire slice of cheesecake in one sitting. But the cheesecake was decadent. How could I resist?

*The cheesecakes were donated to the children's ministry at our church. Some of the kids helped to organize a bake sale to raise money for a few local organizations who are busy sharing the gospel around town. They raised $150!

logos 'speech' + -phile 'friend, lover'

Romans 11:34a


For who can know what the Lord is thinking?

Car qui a connu la pensee du Seigneur?

Τίς γὰρ ἔγνω νοῦν κυρίου

quis enim cognovit sensum Domini

For some (not yet fully-known) reason, God made me a logophile. I have a deep, deep love for words. I think there is something lovely about orthography and syntax. I enjoy skimming through texts in other languages and trying to puzzle out the meaning. Verb conjugation and noun declension make me giddy.

It started my sophomore year of college, after my summer of salvation. I took a course on French linguistics and was instantly hooked. This class was followed by more phonetics courses, some serious novel reading, and random minor obsessions over various literary and linguistic topics.

Until this year, my love of words and language has found little practical application in my daily life. Sure, I've read (a lot), and have whimsically studied this and that, but my logophilia (I think I made that word up) has never had a serious impact on my life. This year, however, I'm swimming in it. As part of his third grade education, Chase has been learning French, Latin and Greek! And I've been learning, too!

The French is a familiar friend to me, having studied it from my freshman year of high school until I graduated from college. I've been surprised to find how quickly the language has come back to me. I remember the vocabulary and grammar and even the cute little teaching helps that I received from different French professors along the way. (For example, my high school teacher helped us to remember the names of the acute and grave accents by drawing a picture of "a cute grave" and placing the accents above a curved tombstone).

Latin and Greek are new and fresh languages for me (though ancient and dead), and I am loving every linguistic morsel. As a bonus, I get to learn along with Chase. Our study of Latin and Greek is less like a teacher-student relationship and more like a couple of friends trying to crack into a locked safe. Chase loves helping me with my Greek writing and pronunciation and I love helping him come up with ways to stuff all that information into tidy categories in his (endlessly stuffable) mind.

Someday, I will understand why God placed this odd love of words in me. Perhaps Chase (or I) will grow up to become a Bible translator or scholar. Maybe we'll just be able to turn a nice phrase or put an abstract idea into words so that someone can understand it in a new way. Whatever the purpose, may it be to the glory of God.

Romans 11:36

For everything comes from him; everything exists by his power and is intended for his glory. To him be glory evermore. Amen.

C'est de lui, par lui, and pour lui que sont toutes choses. A lui la gloire dans tous les siecles! Amen!

ὅτι ἐξ αὐτοῦ καὶ δι᾽ αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν τὰ πάντα αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας ἀμήν

quoniam ex ipso et per ipsum et in ipso omnia ipsi gloria in saecula amen

Literary Wanderings: George MacDonald #8

7.
In holy things may be unholy greed.
Thou giv'st a glimpse of many a lovely thing,
Not to be stored for use in any mind,
But only for the present spiritual need.
The holiest bread, if hoarded, soon will breed
the mammon-moth, the having-pride, I find.
'Tis momently thy heart gives out heart-quickening.

This stanza from the August section of MacDonald's 'Book of Strife' (Diary of an Old Soul) reiterated a conviction that has come to me in many forms over the last few months. I have found that I have paralysis of analysis that I am a Hoarder of holy things.

I love reading and I love learning; these are gifts that God has given to me. But in the end all that I have read and all that I have learned will cry out against me if I don't use it for God's purposes NOW. It's time to 'get out of the huddle' and seek out 'desperation beyond meditation.' Put down my book about prayer and pray. Put down my book about poverty, go without something, and give my savings to the poor. Put down my book about being a good wife or mother and be a good wife and mother. Put down my book of timeless adventure and live my own adventure.

There is safety in my books and in the hidden turnings of my mind and there is a deep part of me that rightly delights in being part of The Great Conversation of mankind. But the Lord has promised to be my Safety and Delight; the knowledge and reflection of my books are simply a taste of eternity.

O my Saviour, help me. I am so slow to learn, so prone to forget, so weak to climb; I am in the foothills when I should be on the heights;

I am pained by my graceless heart, my prayerless days, my poverty of love, my sloth in the heavenly race, my sullied conscience, my wasted hours, my unspent opportunities.

I am blind while light shines around me: take the scales from my eyes, grind to dust the evil heart of unbelief.

Make it my chiefest joy to study thee, meditate on thee, gaze on thee, sit like Mary at thy feet, lean like John on they breast, appeal like Peter to thy love, count like Paul all things dung.

Give me increase and progress in grace so that there may be more decision in my character, more vigour in my purposes, more elevation in my life, more fervour in my devotion, more constancy in my zeal.

As I have position in the world, keep me from making the world my position; may I never seek in the creature what can be found only in the Creator; let not faith cease from seeking thee until it vanishes into sight.

Ride forth in me, thou king of kings and lord of lords, that I may live victoriously, and in victory attain my end.

(from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions by Arthur Bennett -- thanks Jen!)

Third Grade, or a Recommitment

For the last week, our house has been a disaster zone. In an attempt to move a bookshelf from the dining room, we were forced to move item after item of furniture from room to room. At the end of our project (which should be soon), a Great Deal of Stuff will be squished out our back door and into the garage where it will be sent away to friends, thrift stores, or the recycling center. Some things, like the Moon Sand, will be sadly put in the garbage. What else can one do with Moon Sand? That stuff is so lame! I digress.

In the midst of the spatial uproar, I had the chance to rearrange our homeschool resources, organize and store away the records of past years, and fill a shelf with the texts we've selected for this next year. I spent some time perusing the tables of contents, increasing my anticipation for September. Chase has learned from Calvin (Bill Waterson's creation, not the Reformer) that school is something to be endured and avoided, but I have fallen more and more in love with the books and knowledge and potential of learning. My prayer is that Chase will catch my attitude this year and embrace the privilege of education. I pray that he would become a willing learner, and strive to be all that God created him to be in Christ Jesus, to His glory, amen.

I love this time of year, with the fall looming on the horizon. The season always brings me to the first things. What is necessary? What is essential? Where are we going? Who's in charge around here? What is the destination? How do we make love the central aim of our homeschool? Do Latin and Greek declensions, mathematical strategies, or historical narratives help us love God and our neighbor? I am suddenly humbled by the responsibility of stewarding these lives and the blessing of easy access to knowledge. Lord, teach us Your ways.

Writing

Once upon a time, back in my immature, self-loving, self-loathing days, I fancied myself a writer. As embarassing as it is to admit, I piled up pages and pages of over-the-top poetry and dreamed of the day that I would see the melodrama of my teen years in print.

Some perspective, as well as some major distraction in the form of marriage and children, caused me to shelve my writing aspirations. Aside from an outrageous number of college term papers, I haven't written anything in over ten years.

This blog, some reflections on my recent life, as well as the comments of a few friends, have all combined to compel to explore this writing idea again. I love books; I love words. Could there be a book in me? Frankly, it sounds preposterous, but I'm going to humor myself for just a bit here and see what comes.

Three times this last week I've sat myself down to write and each time I was surprised by where the exercise led me. Small thoughts and faint memories have opened up vast storehouses of observations and emotions that I was unaware I possessed. I let myself be honest and raw and it felt wonderful. If no book ever comes out of my efforts, I will have at least experienced some healing in the nooks and crannies of my heart.

Nature Study

A couple of weeks ago, Chase attended the first of his three nature study classes at Chippewa Nature Center in Midland. We had never been to the Nature Center before and we were delighted. While Chase enjoyed his class, Ian and I explored one of the nearby trails. It was a small 0.4 mile paved loop that went close to the Pine River and through a small pond area. The pond area was a little creepy to walk through because there were dozens of large red drangonflies flying around. We survived, though, and met up with Chase after his class.

I then took Chase around on the trail. We loved that it just sounded like a forest. There was no noise from people or from cars. It was shady, but warm, and it smelled so green! It looked like we were being stalked by a rough looking black squirrel for part of the time. We came to a stand of pines, the kind that don't have any branches except for near the top. Underneath the pines the ground was completely covered in long dry pine needles; there were no bushes or shrubs at all. Chase ran around in the open space among the pines and I thought, "This needs to be a regular part of our life!"

In the Nature Center bookstore, I had noticed a book titled Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. I had read and heard a little bit about the benefits of nature study for children. Chase and I both keep a nature journal and I've regularly encouraged Chase to add entries to his journal in an effort to grow his observation skills and allow him to practice sketching and coloring. But more was happening during our little walk through the woods than those narrow goals. I felt relaxed on that walk. I wasn't thinking about my to-do list at home and I wasn't striving or pretending. I was just enjoying the creation around me, humbled by the overwhelming number of things around me that I couldn't name and didn't understand. I was connected to a bigger world that stretched out to the sustaining hand of God.

How could such experience not be good for children? I determined right there that I would work to make sure that Chase had regular interaction with nature, without an agenda. I've enjoyed the book by Louv for the most part, (though he holds the assumption that we're drawn to nature because of evolutionary wiring and not because "[God] has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." Eccl 3:11). Louv points out a number of characteristics of our modern culture that keep us from connecting with nature like our parents or grandparents did. It's been a good exercise to evaluate some of our choices in light of our new goals for exploring outside.

Last week, all four of us visited Deerfield County Park, another tract of land with plenty of trails and trees that sits just outside of town. Niether I nor Jim had ever been there. The walk started out kind of boring on a two track trail near a scum covered pond. The trail opened up to a bridge that crossed the Chippewa River and then split into a few diverging trails. We followed one and then another and found ourselves following a quiet and very green riverside path that had all sorts of things to explore. The night ended with the discovery of an Indiana Jones-type bridge that took us back across the water. We saw huge carp under us and what must have been millions of water bugs stretching away on the river as far as we could see. Altogether it was an amazing night!

A Bibliophile's Favorite Month

August used to be a whimsical month for me. After I finished my Master's degree at CMU I would look enviously at the students walking around campus with their backpacks full of books. I knew that around this time of year, thousands of students were cramming into the bookstores, spending small fortunes on stacks of interesting books - my most favorite thing in the whole world! And what's more, the students would get to tote those books around from classroom to classroom, take notes, write papers, and learn. What a wonderful life!

God has filled the learning vacuum in my life with homeschool. Now, during the month of August, I get to wait impatiently for little brown boxes of books to arrive on my front porch (after spending a small fortune online). I get to lovingly tote the books into the dining room, map out lesson plans, and then teach and learn alongside Chase, who's beginning 2nd grade this year. One may think that there isn't anything new to learn in grade school, but that's not true! Last year, I learned a whole new way to approach Mathematics, I learned basic Latin and Greek, and I got a nice refresher course in Ancient History.

I love learning. I used to think that I just loved books, but now I see that it's the information in the books that I crave. It's (almost) like chocolate to me. The subjects for 2nd grade include Bible (Genesis - Joshua), Math, Medieval History, Earth Science and Astronomy, Spelling, Grammar, Cursive, Literature, Greek, Latin, French, Art and Music. We officially start in five days. I can't wait.