This is a picture of three ticks in a paper cup sealed in a plastic bag from 2018 when I found them on our black lab. They were all three camped out in a row on his back. They hadn’t embedded in his skin, they were just lined up ready for a feast. Surprisingly, I […]
Time in nature and nature notebooks have become all the rage over the last decade – far beyond CM circles. Perhaps in response to Charlotte Mason’s influence in our culture, or maybe a repercussion to the effects of industrialization and the unnatural detachment of children from nature. Whatever the case, it is fascinating to be able
Nature Notebook from the CMDC Read More »
Did you know that after Charlotte Mason’s death in 1923 there was a tribute written by her students and colleagues? In Memoriam. Brandy at Afterthoughts has just made it available to us all in book form with a beautiful cover by local CM mom/artist/graphic designer, Alissa Clark. She also designed the beautiful new AmblesideOnline logo some
The Delightfully Casual Element of Nature Study – In Memoriam Read More »
A couple years ago we were hiking up by Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary and learned about Flores Peak (pictured above) where the bandit, Juan Flores, wanted for the murder of LA Sheriff James Barton made his daring escape by leaping over its precipice in 1857. After some digging around I found a book by Hubert H. Bancroft titled, Popular Tribunals
Bandits in our Backyard Read More »
While we are getting our kids outdoors to experience God’s glorious creation, let’s remember that, though we’ve been given dominion over creation (Gen 1:26), we are also called to be good stewards (Gen 2:15). Charlotte Mason never intended nature study to be a careless ramble. In fact, she expected mothers to teach their kids reverence
Reverence for Life Read More »
Cindy Rollins has been running a podcast called The Mason Jar over at the Circe Institute Podcast focusing on Charlotte Mason’s methods and if you don’t know Cindy, you’re going to love her. She is down-to-earth, genuine, humble, knowledgeable about CM, and has practical experience from her years of homeschooling her many children. She has
The Mason Jar with Cindy Rollins – Nature Study Read More »
Thanks to Kathy Wickward, Lisa Kaufman, Christine Wood, and all the other wonderful ladies over at Northwest CM Educators and CM West who invited me to speak on Charlotte Mason Nature Study in Seattle earlier this year and recorded the session so we can share it with all of you! The audio is sketchy for
Nature Study Talk from Northwest CM Educators Conference 2015 Read More »
In a previous post, inspired by the sheer spot-on-ness of what was written in W.S. Furneaux’s A Nature Study Guide which I had just happily acquired, I made an outline of it hoping you could employ its truths. It’s a rare old book mentioned by Charlotte Mason in her programmes to be used in Special
A Nature Study Guide by W.S. Furneaux Read More »
New for us this year (AmblesideOnline YR7) is Adventures with a Microscope. Today, our daughter chose the chapter on how the fly walks on the ceiling. Instructions are to catch a house fly in a jar and use chloroform to kill it. We didn’t have any chloroform so she caught one and we covered the
Adventures with a Microscope – House Fly Read More »
Here are some nature journal entries from YR6 as we attempt to transition to Special Studies this year. Whether we are doing what CM truly intended or not, is hard to know. And I sometimes have to squelch the comparison bug that peers its ugly head when I see what others are doing. But as I read
YR6 Nature Journal Entries Read More »