Nancy Kelly -Guidance for Your Charlotte Mason Homeschool and Life
Ian Serraillier (1912-1994) We are presently enjoying a few titles by Ian Serraillier (1912-1994). A schoolmaster and poet from London, Serraillier is well known for his retellings of Greek legends, folk tales, fairy tales, and Shakespeare. His writing is crisp, clear, and sophisticated. I like how he explains the pronunciation of his name: “My name, Serraillier, is pronounced: SER (as in serpent),…
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Christina and her mother Frances (photograph by Lewis Carroll) It is said that the mother of the Victorian poet Christina Rossetti once remarked, “I have never received a valentine from anyone.” Christina responded by not only giving her mother a valentine, but with it, an original poem. Annually. For some 40 years. The never-married Christina was very close to her mother and was rarely…
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It is possible to see the more in winter, because the things to be seen do not crowd each other out. – Charlotte Mason, Vol. 1 p. 86 Edith Holden, The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady We are having a mild winter here in Minnesota – so far. Charlotte Mason has some common-sense advice from her Vol. 1, Home…
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Last fall, we had a huge flock of strange birds take over our feeders for one day. Many of them banged into our windows and one even fell to the ground, lifeless. We identified the rowdy visitors as starlings and we haven’t seen them in our yard since. Here’s what the intruders looked like. Not very pretty. I recently learned…
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paying close attention Nancy, I have a question for you and your readers. How would you go about teaching older children the habit of attention when they have not been previously trained this way? I have a lot of reasons that I failed in this, one of which is that I made lessons too long and arduous and our school feels overwhelming…
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“Winter Child” lined writing journal by Paperblanks (image courtesy of celerystreet) Lately, I have begun to think of my commonplace book as a form of collecting; in my case, collecting ideas as well as clever or provocative expressions that stand apart from ordinary discourse and are, for that reason worth preserving…Collecting ideas also has a number of distinct advantages…
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Some commonplace books from our household Silva rerum is Latin for “forest of things”, a synonym from the 17th century for a commonplace book. A forest of things really does sum up what types of entries you might find in one of these journals. Commonplacing, or the act of keeping a commonplace book, is a worthwhile and vibrant activity for…
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A snowless Christmas Eve, 2011 Despite the fact that I want to be writing about a winter wonderland and waxing poetic about Ms. Rossetti’s bleak masterpiece, I find the ground bare and brown. So I’ll just move on to Happy New Year to each and everyone of you! The 13th of January, 2012 will be the 2-year anniversary of Sage…
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Here’s something fun and a sweet read for anyone involved in a Charlotte Mason community or co-op! This was written by Bobby Jo, our TBG handcraft leader. She gave each family a copy for Christmas. We think she’s pretty special. That black crinoline (taffeta?) dress even makes an appearance. Twas the Morning Before TBG Poem by Bobby Jo (function() {…
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