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Planning: Choose a Curriculum Spine Part 1

Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat
Leonardo da Vinci

Aside: I use the term spine in this blog, so I have been thinking about it as it is often used in modern Charlotte Mason speak. For example, a history spine would be the main book you would use for history, though there might be other side books you use in conjunction with it. With a simple search of Mason’s Volumes, though, I do not find the word spine used in this way. Perhaps a more thorough search of Parents’ Review articles or other vintage CM publications could reveal something else. Until then I will take the term as modern but also widely accepted in the CM community.

Last week  I wrote about planning for the new school year. This week I share more about choosing a curriculum spine.

A spine. We all have one, and, when functioning optimally, our spines are a blessing to us. When they are damaged and not working properly, though every bit as vital, our spines become a major source of pain. So whether helping or hurting, what should our spine be doing? I like this short list of functions.

Functions of the Spine1

The three main functions of the spine are to:

  1. Protect the spinal cord, nerve roots and several of the body’s internal organs.
  2. Provide structural support and balance to maintain an upright posture.
  3. Enable flexible motion.

This is what I want my choice of a Charlotte Mason curriculum to do: to serve as a healthy spine which will protect, provide support and balance, and enable flexibility. [Read more…] about Planning: Choose a Curriculum Spine Part 1

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Planning for the New School Year

Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat
Path in the Wheat Fields at Pourville, Claude Monet

We are about to begin Week 5 of Term 3 for the 2019-2020 School Year, and I have begun planning for 2020-2021. This is probably the earliest I have ever started this planning, and I am appreciating the extra time. Here are the essential steps I have worked out in my mind.

1. Pray for wisdom

As I have had the opportunity to attend Charlotte Mason events, to read widely both in vintage CM and modern publications, and to receive help from CM mentors and peers, I am reminded again and again of the sacredness of the education we present to our children and the amazing presence of the Holy Spirit at each step of the way. There is nowhere else to begin but in prayer.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (James 1:5) [Read more…] about Planning for the New School Year

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Clay Modeling III: The Modeling Board

This blog is the 3rd in a series on clay modeling.

What is a Modeling Board?

A modeling board is simply a surface on which to make a clay model. In this figure, taken from Unwin’s A Manual of Clay Modelling for Teachers and Scholars, there is also a vertical piece called an armature. When I use the term modeling board, I am referring to this combination of a board and armature.

Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat

Is a Modeling Board Necessary?

As I was preparing to teach clay modeling in our co-op, I read and reread Unwin’s manual. Having no background in art outside of a few middle school classes, everything was new to me. While her principles and directions were inspiring and clear, the materials I needed were another matter. I have written about finding the clay. Another challenge was the modeling board. [Read more…] about Clay Modeling III: The Modeling Board

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Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat, 2021

It is odd to be thinking about planning the 2021 CMER right now, but as we look to the future with hope we know that

The heart of man plans his way,
but the LORD establishes his steps.

Proverbs 16:9

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

James 4:13–15

If the Lord wills, we invite you to take part in COMMUNITY, MOTIVATION, self-EDUCATION, and REFLECTION and join us at the Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat, 2021.

WHO?

The CMER Team and our plenary speaker, Nancy Kelly

Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat

We are excited to announce the Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat 2021 Plenary speaker! Nancy Kelly lives in a little town on the prairie called Windom, Minnesota. She and her husband Kent have home-educated their six children for 25 years using the principles and practices of Charlotte Mason.  After meeting and listening to Susan Schaeffer Macaulay speak on education at the 1994 L’Abri Conference in Rochester, MN, she decided to wholeheartedly pursue this way of learning and living. [Read more…] about Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat, 2021

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CMER Book Sales

Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat

For those who are local, I have been encouraged to bring out the books from the CMER books sales. I haven’t had a lot of time to restock from the CMER in February, but there is still a lot there. This weekend I’ll be adding the picture book boxes which somehow didn’t make it to the CMER.

All the instructions are on the Intro Tab of this Google Sheet.

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Endurance

Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat
State Library of New South Wales / Public domain

May the Lord help you to do your duty & guide you through all dangers by land and sea.
May you see the Works of the Lord & all His Wonders in the deep.

On the flyleaf of Shackleton’s Bible,
given to the expedition
by Queen Mother Alexandra of England

Endurance

The order to abandon ship was given at 5 P.M.

Thus begins Endurance, Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing1. I have had the privilege of reading this book over the past few weeks in preparation for our monthly young adult book club. It is the true story of Ernest Shackleton’s attempt at a transcontinental crossing of Antarctica from 1914-1916.

The date was October 27, 1915. The name of the ship was Endurance. The position was 69°5’ South, 51°30’ West—deep in the icy wasteland of the Antarctic’s treacherous Weddell Sea, just about midway between the South Pole and the nearest known outpost of humanity, some 1,200 miles away.

Few men have borne the responsibility Shackleton did at that moment. Though he certainly was aware that their situation was desperate, he could not possibly have imagined then the physical and emotional demands that ultimately would be placed upon them, the rigors they would have to endure, the sufferings to which they would be subjected.

In God’s providence, this book has provided thoughts that burn2 in a great time of need, and it is especially the area of Shackleton’s leadership of his men in this unimaginable situation which captivated me. I began reading the book while the Coronavirus was nothing more than something that was happening far away in China. By the time I finished, our lives in the United States had been turned upside down. I struggled with what I was to do. So much was out of my control. I could do nothing more than submit to the leaders of my local and national government and hope they were making the right calls.

Or was that really all I could do? As I read page after page of Endurance and pondered Shackleton’s leadership successes and failures, an idea began to burn in my mind. While I am not a president, congressman, governor, mayor, or even an advisor, I am a mother and in perhaps one of the greatest positions of leadership a man can have. [Read more…] about Endurance