Feminism Has Failed

At least, that's what Linda Hirshman said on TV. Too many women are choosing to stay at home doing the kind of menial labor, cleaning, cooking, childcare that lower class people could be doing, so that those with higher education can put their educations to use by joining the work force. It's time to re-educate our women-to-be so they'll understand that they were meant for better things. Apparently women's rights was never intended to give the women the impression that they were supposed to find fulfillment raising children. Albert Mohler wrote a nice commentary on this. Thanks to the Common Room for pointing this out.

Must A Private School Accept Students It Doesn't Want?

I found this by accident on this blog: Right on the Left Coast: Views From a Conservative Teacher

"A federal appeals court said Wednesday that it would reconsider a decision to strike down the Hawaiians-only admissions policy of a prestigious private school..."

Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii were "established in 1884 through the last will and testament of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop...for the education of Native Hawaiians and funded entirely by the income from our land holdings and investments." It's through these schools that the Hawaiian language, which had just about died out, has been resurrected and is now being learned again. Read more about the legal challenge here.

My interest in this is based more on my regard for Hawaiian culture than anything else. If they can't limit their Hawaiian-tailored education to Hawaiians, then what's the point?

Mental Quirks

(Two interesting observations I've made in the last couple of days.)

I've been listening to a lot of Chopin this week. (That's a good thing.) But I didn't realize how much it affected me. We have metal poles in our (full) basement that support the main beam across the floor, and when they're hit they have a loud metallic ring. Last night we were down there playing and one of them accidentally got hit and it rang out a specific note. Immediately--without waiting for a "that reminds me of" or anything like that--my mind starting playing Chopin's Revolutionary Etude, of which the metal pole had played the first note.

And just this evening I conciously heard my brain talk for the first time. I've been able to form my thoughts into words for as long as I remember, but this was the first time I had a thought--coming from my "subconsious," as Freud would have said--that came to me in an already formed sentence, like hearing someone talk. Of course, what it said was, "Well look at you, now--you're not so bad, are you?" which made me laugh.

"Mungo Knotwise" talks about what parents really need

I loved this parenting post by Plaid Dad.

I agree with every word of it, except that I don't use cloth diapers. Laziness won out over principle--too many leaks meant I was constantly doing laundry, and in the end, I decided that $5 a week for cheap disposables was a compromise I could live with. Cloth has probably come a long way in the 15 years since I tried them, but we never could justify the lay-out of cash at one time to try the experiment again.

And I Don't Even Knit!

You are "turbo" charged.
Fast moving and classy, you get things done with power and grace. Your expensive tastes can be deceiving, since what you really value is quality and efficiency. As you're careening around those corners in life, finishing a dozen knitted objects each month, stop and smell the roses. Don't miss the beauty of process!


What kind of knitting needles are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Thanks to coffeemama!

marriage secrets...

Question

What's one thing you have learned to do differently to make your marriage better? Or one thing you think is important to a good marriage?

The Not-So-Fine-Print: If you're not married, look at your parents or a couple you know that has a good marriage and tell something you admire about their relationship. And no pressure to tell the most important thing; in fact, try to write something different than what's already been written, if you get tagged after several other people have already done it. If you get tagged, link back to whoever tagged you, so we can follow the trail and see what others have said.

My Answer

I've learned not to compare my marriage with someone else's. My husband doesn't send me like little emails like some husbands I've read about, he doesn't take me on "dates" like books say are necessary for any relationship, and he doesn't buy me diamond jewelry. On the other hand, I'm not a picture-perfect model of the ideal wife, either. We are who we are, and what we're doing works for us. When I read or listen to marriage seminars that tell husbands what they need to do and be for their wives, I always think of other things that are more important to me. Instead of letting someone else's marriage make me feel like I'm missing something that I'm supposed to feel entitled to, I like to focus on the unique things that make our marriage work--like the fact that my husband knows that I always appreciate gifts from the office supply store immensely more than jewelry!

I'm tagging Miss Roxie, the Headmistress, Donna-Jean, Queen Shenaynay, and Mama Squirrel.

Guess Who's Been Watching Olympic Skating?

Miss M has! Right after breakfast, she said 'I need my hula skirt, I hafta dance.' No thought for color, matching, suitability - the only consideration when dressing is, 'Hafta dance.' She's started insisting on wearing some kind of dress all the time, it can be short or long, and color/pattern isn't important. It just has to flair out when she twirls!

Her generic term for dancing is 'hula,' but it covers gliding arabesques on the ice, too.






Dancing takes total concentration and focus. At least, if you're going to do it right and if you're doing it for the proper motivation (which is, as we all know, applause and cheers from the audience!)





Family friend "Sis" came over and did the sisterly girl thing - she gave Miss M her very first pigtails!

An Epic

Lo! In a morn of the dwindling winter,
when earth-frosting all lay melting to mud,
in that day was decreed that the trash must be taken
out to the street. (And oft we have heard
how such things are forgotten and left still to linger,
o'erflowing the lid.)

In darkling of night, after breath-freezing dusk,
an inkling returned to those ill-fated boys
of the deed unaccomplished. Desperate they rose
and donned their jackets (well-proven weeds
in elder days woven to stand against cold)
then silently (so they would not wake the neighbors)
they slipped from a side-door and lifted the trashcan.
They bore it between them, a bier of banana-peels,
lightly o'er gravel to the end of the driveway.
Then racing they ran over wintery leaves
(sodden, not crunchy like leavings of autumn)
and returned to the household with tale of their daring.
Hail them heartily, those domestic defenders,
trial-proven warriors, the home-coming heroes.



(Of course, a really first-rate Anglo-Saxon poet would have gone over the history of the jacket-makers and their well known family disputes, given the boys' family tree, and probably thrown in the trashcan's to boot. But oh well.)

Menu/Meal Meme

I was tagged by The Headmistress at The Common Room. I hate cooking, but these things are always fun, so I'm playing anyway. :)

1. How many meals does most of your family eat at home each week? How many are in your family?

We probably eat 20 meals at home (mostly self-serve, rushed, or quick and easy) and we're a family of six.

2. How many cookbooks do you own?

Maybe a dozen.

3. How often do you refer to a cookbook each week?

Not even every week

4. Do you collect recipes from other sources? If so, what are some of your favorite sources (relaties, friends, magazines, advertisements, packages, the internet, etc)

I have a recipe collection, but when I decide to make something I've never made before, I always look online for a recipe anyway.

5. How do you store those recipes?

I've started keeping recipes that I plan to use regularly in a file on my hard drive.

6. When you cook, do you follow the recipe pretty closely, or do you use recipes primarily to give you ideas?

I have to follow it pretty closely.

7. Is there a particular ethnic style or flavor that predominates in your cooking? If so, what is it?

My kids seem to like basic stuff that kids like, but I prefer Thai; I've been buying easy Thai meals recently.

8. What's your favorite kitchen task related to meal planning and preparation? (eating the finished product does not count)

Cleaning up and getting out of the kitchen.

9. What's your least favorite part?

Deciding what to have for dinner, and rinsing and chopping lettuce.

10. Do you plan menus before you shop?

Yes, usually.

11. What are your three favorite kitchen tools or appliances?

Microwave, blender (for green smoothies), can opener that doesn't leave sharp edges

12. If you could buy one new thing for your kitchen, money was no object, and space not an issue, what would you most like to have?

A COOK! Or a Vitamix super-blender.

13. Since money and space probably are objects, what are you most likely to buy next?

I already bought it - it's a coffee grinder for grinding flax seeds and nuts.

14. Do you have a separate freezer for storage?

No.

15. Grocery shop alone or with others?

Dh usually buys groceries on his way home from work.

16. How many meatless main dish meals do you fix in a week?

Most are meatless.

17. If you have a decorating theme in your kitchen, what is it? Favorite kitchen colors?

No theme (unless efficiency is a theme?) Colors - I like yellow and white, bright and clean and sunshiny.

18. What's the first thing you ever learned to cook, and how old were you?

I don't remember, maybe a cake mix?

19. How did you learn to cook?

I remember making scrambled eggs a lot. I never could get them perfect, and it probably soured me early on cooking.

20. Tag two other people to play.

Miss Roxie
Beth

A New Kind of Dance?

Miss M asked for her hula skirt and some music so she could dance. I put on a compilation of songs I never mind listening to again and again. It has a couple of songs from Lilo and Stitch, some other Hawaiian music, but also some James Taylor songs and praise songs by Ritchie Furay. When I glanced over at her during a Ritchie Furay song ('Give Thanks to the Lord') she was dancing with her head bowed and hands folded! LOL!

I guess this takes even "Praise Hula" to a new level. Maybe "Prayer Hula??"

Snow

These first four are from an earlier snow:









And these are from yesterday's:


J's Snowman

Across the street

What used to be our scenic view


Another puddle in the driveway.

Friday Night

It all started promisingly enough. I finally felt well enough to continue reading That Hideous Strength with Tim after the other boys were in bed. It had been a late night, since we stayed up to watch the Olympics. But it was Friday night, and we could afford to sleep in. I especially was looking forward to getting to bed by 1am (early for me) and get some extra sleep to help with recuperation. During our reading, I made a mental note when I heard someone in the bathroom. That meant one of the other boys, probably J, wasn't asleep yet.

Tim and I read the part in That Hideous Strength where the guy on the horse shows up at the door (this is after the part where we finally find out who the Head of the N.I.C.E is! That's not too much of a spoiler, is it?) We talked for a few minutes, and then I went to see that both boys were in bed.

Nope, L was missing! He was in the bathroom. Still? It had been awhile since I'd heard him in the bathroom earlier. I waited, and when he finally came out, I found out why he wasn't asleep. He was sick. I'll spare the details, but we spent an hour and a half getting him back to bed. By the time he was asleep again, it was 3am and we were all up and wide awake. Then Miss M woke up, wide awake and ready to play after her nap. So much for extra sleep. J offered to stay up and play with her, so I dozed off for a few minutes in between thoughts about the sick son and the cleaning chore that still lay ahead.

An hour and a half later, sick son was up again and needed tending. Miss M was still going strong, happily playing with brother J. She finally tired out as it started getting light. Snow was falling - finally, our first good snow! But we were all too tired to enjoy it.

At 9am, sick son popped out of bed, chipper and wide awake, and came out into the family room where the rest of us were camped out on the couch, chair and floor of the family room. He felt great and wanted to know if, since he was sick, he could watch videos all day!

The snow really is beautiful, and we're supposed to get a couple more inches tonight.

Montessori - ch 21 (final chapter)

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 21 - Montessori, Froebel and the Junior School

Around age 9 or 10, the enclosed Montessori school environment is no longer enough for the child. He wants more; he's entered his next phase of development and longs to explore again, but this time he wants to explore the wide world. Traditionally, this is the age when boys escape, run away, play hookey from school, form gangs. This is the optimum time to prepare students to go out into the world. Boy scouts, which teaches survival skills, is one workable solution. But what about school? Ideally, scout-type activities should be part of school. Froebel's students learned about nature (in a way that sounds like CM's section on 'Red Indian lore' in volume 1). Froebel's students explored terrain and then made their own maps from their explorations. But preparation for the real world involves more than survival skills and map-making. It means moral training to choose between right and wrong.

The herd instinct becomes strong at this phase, and can be harnessed so that students form groups that have moral goals and standards. Froebel liked organized sports for this purpose. Montessori liked scouts, but preferred to have something attached to the school. Schools in each culture would find their own solutions.

Children at this stage begin to Reason. So Montessori's junior schools switch from isolated skill lessons with color boards and graduated cylinders to a more wholistic approach, teaching about related interests with a unified center that were similar to but not quite like unit studies that squander too much time on unimportant subjects. 'Seeds of interest' are sown about lots of different subjects (sounds like CM's varied curriculum in all different fields of knowledge). But the whole class isn't dragged through lessons in the same subject - learning is still individual and child-led yet still guided by the teacher. Before, the young child child was taught skills so that, if he chose an activity, he was free and capable to do it - he had the skills to do what he wanted to do. It's the same at this age. The teacher has to be able to help the student pursue information within his interest, which means she has to know a LOT! (I imagine this aspect of Montessori would be a lot easier in our computer age!) It sounds like this phase of education was never fully worked out and still had some problems to be worked through - the expectations of the teacher's file of knowledge, for one!

Montessori felt that the child's imagination should be inspired from the wonders of the universe, not fantasy, because fact is more fascinating than fiction.

The book closes with more hyperbole about how recognizing the inner light of the child would create a Christ-like-ness in children and lead to world peace.

To start at the beginning of this series, click here.

Montessori - ch 19 and 20

I changed my mind about skipping the Froebel chapters. In an e-group I'm on, we're just about at the part of CM's volume 1 where she says what she likes and doesn't like about Froebel. So this suddenly became more interesting for me. :) There's still one more chapter in the book, which I'll post this weekend. Then the book will truly be done.

Chapter 19 - Montessori and Froebel: Similarities

(Froebel was the father of Kindergarten)

Both Montessori and Froebel love and reverence the child as a spiritual being (CM also agreed here).

Both felt that the vital element in education and learning was the child's own activity, and that shouldn't be interfered with.

Both use teaching materials, although Montessori's are more closely related to Gestalt and Froebel's are called 'gifts' and are more spiritual and metaphysical (this sounds more like a difference than a similarity).

Both saw the child as soft wax to be molded. And both saw the development of humans as stages of metamorphosis - infant, toddler, child, youth, man. If anything is missed at any one of these stages, it becomes like a 'dropped stitch' in life and can't be made up for later. This is related to sensitive periods, such as the 'absorbent mind' stage of preschool. (This sounds to me like 'windows of opportunity.')

Both saw the child as an explorer, collecting data to build his mind with, and both felt that more was gained if the child discovered and figured things out for himself. But both felt that adults could offer some help. For Montessori, that help was providing a prepared environment. For Froebel, the help was more direct (by answering questions, I think.)

Macrocosm/microcosm - both felt that the child sought to recreate the order and knowledge he saw in his world, which reflected God's order and knowledge as manifested in Creation.

Both felt that too much interference and not enough opportunity to allow children to develop according to their own nature is the cause of deviations, abnormal behavior and bad habits.

Both understood that, for children to know the right thing to do, they needed more than to be told what to do. Their bodies and muscles needed to practice doing it. Froebel used 'drill' to teach coordination. Montessori put more emphasis on this wih her focus on life skills. (CM emphasized training the muscles to do tasks excellently, but she didn't feel that training the muscles had any impact on the mind as Froebel and Montessori did.)

Both were profoundly keen on freedom and autonomy - but only in the sense of being free within the law, never as a license to do wrong.


Chapter 20 - Montessori and Froebel: Differences

Although both aimed at education through self-activity, the differences between Montessori and Froebel may explain why Montessori was more successful.

Froebel's 'teaching unit' consisted of 8-10 children, so that would be an ideal class size. Since Montessori's 'teaching unit' is one child learning independently, larger class sizes of 35 students are more efficient.

Montessori puts more faith in the child's 'inner light' to choose what and when to learn within the confines of the prepared environment, so the teacher's role is merely to direct in the background. A Froebel teacher teaches. (CM said that, in a Froebel kindergarten, everything rested on the teacher's kindliness, enthusiasm and cheerfulness.)

In a Montessori school, children learn through self-initiated work. In a Froebel school, they learn through play.

Montessori didn't think it was healthy for children to hear fairy tales before they were old enough to sort fact from fiction - around age 5. While they were still in the exploring and data-collecting phase of their development, presenting fantasy would only confuse them and scare them with thoughts of witches and goblins that might stay in their minds into adulthood. There are enough fascinating real things in the world to spark preschool children's imaginations--nature itself offers lots of real fascination. Montessori found that children tended to role play about being independent. In a Montessori school, they are independent. They set real tables for real meals and clean real messes - so they don't need to act it out in play. Froebel focused on play and the imagination, even suggesting activities to act out (the 'flapping like butterflies and frisking like lambs' that CM criticized). Montessori focused on work and intellect and believed the imagination would take care of itself because people were designed to be creative. It is as true for children as adults that work brings the greatest satisfaction, and all play and no work makes recreation boring. Montessori felt that much of children's playing was an attempt to escape the authoritative adult world where children didn't fit and mastery is frustratingly impossible. Under the right circumstances (prepared environment, freedom to work) Montessori hd no objection to play. She even sometimes had them role play situations or scenes in stories. Froebelians objected to Montessori's insistance that teaching materials be used only for their intended purpose. Froebel would have praised children using them imaginatively, but that was contrary to Montessori's purposes. If the child wants to wash something, let him wash real (child-sized) laundry. If he wants to build, let him use real building materials, not the graduated cylinders.

Froebel was pantheistic (Nordic, the book says) while Montessori was Catholic and believed in one God.

Froebel emphasized 'making the inner the outer' through self-expression, while Montessori focused on the child internalizing and ordering the outside world in his mind - more like 'making the outer the inner.'

To start at the beginning of this series, click here.
Read the final installment.

CM Sights (Sites?)

Thanks to The Common Room for pointing these out. The Bookworm took a field trip to Ambleside and posted these pictures of Scale How (Charlotte Mason's training school for teachers) and CM's grave.

I did a search and found more Scale How pix here.

And pictures of The Lake District (which includes Ambleside, England) here.

Quick Recap

Today was one of those beautiful days that make you want to play music or paint a picture. It also makes one wonder why it feels like spring in February. But no matter, it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed it. I tried both composing and drawing, but neither attempt turned out well. I think that it would take talents far beyond mine, if it is possible at all, to capture in a painting or piece of music the feeling that stirs this creative impulse. It seems to be a desire to create, a desire to preserve, and a simple enjoyment in the the thing to be preserved (in this case a Spring-y day) all rolled together in one feeling. Or maybe they only appear one feeling because they are rolled together?

Our local homeschool teen group had a get-together this Monday which Brother J and I went to. That was fun--ping-pong, card games, pizza, foosball, and such. I observed that when a ball is thrown into a crowded room, the boys all try to catch it, and the girls all duck. I wonder if this is just training, or if the difference goes deeper? (I'm sure if I were Freud I could come up with some sinister subconsious reason for it.) The pizza slumber party lastnight was great fun too. But the happiness of late nights with good friends is not something I can describe here. I hope it does not need describing.

The men's figure skating has just ended. We don't like the new scoring system: it puts too much emphasis on jumps and the designated elements that have to be done. And getting a higher score just for attempting a quad? Not good. I thought Matt Savoie and Evan Lysacek had the best performances tonight, and (bad as it may sound) I'm glad Johnny Weir didn't medal.

And I saw my new favorite commercial. Actually, my first favorite commercial in memory. It's a stop-frame animation sequence (with a dragon!) for United Airlines. You can see it (and a nice making-of video) here.

Gardening

How often do we look at our own homeschools and feel discouraged by what didn't get done?

This post from CM, Children and Lots of Grace is titled Gardening, but it's about more than that.

Back to Reality

Such a nice little vacation.

Then I came back - sick! Everything hurts - my legs are sore, back is sore, headache, even chocolate sounds disgusting. I think I'm still dealing with the same virus from three weeks ago. The boys have been great, taking care of things, entertaining Miss M. She hasn't been so great - she woke up at 4:30 am and SCREAMED for an hour and a half because I was too sick to carry her out to the family room, get her juice, read her books and play with her.

Then, later today, she put peas up her nose. One in each nostril. I know, someday I'll laugh about this. Actually, we laughed when it happened! But it scared her. I'd like to think she learned her lesson, but I know it doesn't work that way. Not with two-year-olds.

(Update - it's Friday, and I'm better!)

Valentine's Day

I had hoped to take dh out to dinner for Valentine's Day - we have a pretty rigid diet at home, and I know he misses steak and lasagna, so I wanted to take him somewhere and let him order whatever he wanted. The problem is Miss M. I was pretty sure I could figure out something with the boys, but I couldn't leave her home, she'd have to come with us, which would make any meal out . . . well, kind of wild. ;)

As it turned out, he surprised me by taking a day off from work to take me out for the day! He arranged for a friend to stay with the boys so we could spend the day out in town (with Miss M; she's still too young to leave without a lot of distress for her and for whoever she's left with!)

After we'd been out for awhile, he informed me that he had reserved us a hotel room and arranged it so we could just stay away all night! So we did a little shopping (mostly for stuff we needed - he tried to pack everything we'd need for an overnight trip, but didn't think of everything, so we had to get a couple of things - like a toothbrush - but at least he remembered the important things - like chocolate!) We ordered dinner to go (he got his lasagna!) and took it to the hotel room with us. Miss M was so excited with her new surroundings that she stayed up opening drawers and trying out all the chairs and running around the room - until midnight!

The boys had a great time, too - it turned out to be a pizza slumber party for them!

Montessori ch 18

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 18 - The Montessori Directress

A Montessori teacher needs to undergo religious/spiritul preparation in order to properly understand the child as a dignified person. This is the most difficult and important part of her training. She must learn to analyze and correct her own faults rather than looking for and trying to fix a child's faults. She must cultivate humility and patience and get rid of pride and anger. Adults who act angry or arrogant are received coldly by other adults, but children don't know any better and, instead of reflecting it back, they absorb it all and it affects their self-esteem. She must seek to serve children instead of tyrannizing them as an authority. She should be interested and enthusiastic without being too energetic or too forced and turning the children off; she must move gently, calmly, delicately, naturally. She must be interested in what she's teaching and know how to present it in a fresh, novel way if she hopes to interest her students. (I guess that implies that she'd need to be constantly improving herself as a sort of parallel to CM's model of mother/teacher culture?) She must encourage the child without giving so much praise that he begins to do his work for her instead of for his own growth. She should give enough guidance and direction to get the children working, but she must practice non-intervention (which sounds like CM's masterly inactivity).

The two final chapters are about the similarities and differences between Montessori and Froebel. I might delve into that someday, but I think I'm ready to be done with this book for now and move on to something else. I changed my mind about skipping the chapters about Froebel.

For all practical purposes, I've finished the book, and there never was any mention of books or instilling any kind of ideas to inspire children's minds. I gather that, in Montessori's view, children's 'inner lights' and work to create themselves didn't need the outside influence of other people's ideas. Maybe that would be seen as an intrusion into the child's development?

To start at the beginning of this series, click here.
To read the next entry, click here.

Montessori ch 17

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 17 - Liberty in Education

The idea that Montessori means 'freedom in a prepared environment' is only partially true. Montessori didn't believe in letting children do whatever they wanted with no discipline. Montessori has definite principles (as Charlotte Mason does) and those principles include order. Freedom doesn't mean doing what you want, but being able to choose what's right. That requires the ability to reason and make choices, and the ability to physically do whatever choice you make.

But you can't be free if you have to rely on others, so the Montessori method emphasizes independent skills. An informed choice requires knowledge, so the Montessori method strives to help children acquire knowledge and experience to base choices on.

The goal is to get children to do the right thing (such as their schoolwork) because they choose to, not because someone is making them. And they need to build confidence in doing for themselves and choosing for themselves, rather than being 'in slavery' to an adult who tells them what to do, when to do it, and how.

The teacher/directress provides guidance. She might reprimand a child for not using materials properly, suggest a better activity for a child (children are never allowed to use what they haven't learned to use yet), separate two children who would be better served in different partnerships. She takes an active role in getting rid of any evil, and maintaining harmony in the classroom.

Curiosity is often cited as what makes a child learn. In reality, children may pick up an item and study it out of curiosity (like an unfamiliar Montessori resource) but it's only when they understand the activity and choose to practice and master it that they truly learn from it. That's not the same as curiosity. (The book goes into a child's 'inner light' in repeating and internalizing as the activity is mastered.)

Children in a Montessori setting are required to use the learning resources only for their intended purpose--they aren't allowed, for example, to use the cylinders for building blocks, or to pretend they're trains. The materials are designed for the child's maximum development, and using them as toys wastes the children's time and wastes the resources. Montessori likened the requirement to use materials properly to a large family where the child was not allowed to wear just any shoes in the name of freedom. Shoes are designed to help walking, and the child must only wear his own because that's how he'll walk most efficiently. Using things for their correct purpose isn't a denial of liberty, it's just efficient. And improper use - such as allowng scribbling instead of insisting on using color shapes to fill in colors neatly - becomes boring, so the child loses interest quickly. Yet, within these limits, we need to trust the child's 'inner light' to sense what he needs, and to know which activity his development requires. Their sensitivities to their 'inner lights' haven't been spoiled with brights lights and sounds and stimulus like ours have. We can't know what his inner light is saying, but we can present Montessori materials to make his options clearer. We can let children work as long as they need to without interrupting them for 'rest breaks' that we think they need.

The fruits of freedom: children retain their individuality. The flip side of freedom's coin, discipline, isn't neglected. Freedom enables children to concentrate and develop better. It encourages them to obey by choice - willing obedience.

Will liberty make children avoid hard tasks in their Montessori schools? No, because they like the challenge and satisfaction of mastering hard things. The liberty of a Montessori school allows children to learn how to socialize (because there are other children there that he's allowed to socialize with if he wants, and because lots of visitors tour the schools - not sure how this relates to liberty, exactly.)

Read the next part of this series, or start at the beginning.
CM's Letter to the Editor regarding Montessori

Is Grace-Based Discipline Permissive?

Crystal Lutton has written an article comparing GBD (grace-based discipline) with TCS (Taking Children Seriously) and NCP (non-coersive parenting).

Of TCS and NCP, she says, "these philosophies are insidious with problems, and it is often the results of these approaches to parenting that create homes of permissiveness and the child-centeredness that punitive experts warn against."

Read the complete article here.

Montessori ch 16

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 16 - The Prepared Environment

Children have absorbent minds to soak in knowledge from birth to six years, so there's no reason to put off learning to read and write, as long as it's done in the context of a prepared environment. Adults see all the progress that a child makes and then conclude that he's finally ready to be educated at age seven. But, in a prepared environment, the child's absorbent mind can easily absorb reading and writing at age five or six. A prepared environment is especially necessary in these days when children don't have gardens to grow up in and their homes are set up for adults. In a prepared environment, children can reach everything and help themselves. Everything is safe - no bees to sting, no rocks to fall on.

Besides child-sized furniture, a Montessori prepared environment needs things to practice life skills (like brooms), sensory materials (like color boards), cultural lesson materials (timelines, math manipulatives) and whatever is necessary for religious development (I have no clue what that would include!) A child's need for order means that everything should have a place and things should be where the child expects them to be. Children like this environment so much that they naturally maintain it, even cleaning up their own messes. The cultural lesson materials are used more with older students. The teacher is available and accessible to help when needed. She is 'the dynamic link' between the child and the prepared environment. Without her, the environment is wasted. An ideal Montessori classroom has 30-40 children. They'll naturally cluster in small groups and work together and learn from each other.

When the child has developed beyond his need to coccoon himself in the limited environment, he'll naturally want to broaden his horizons, but he'll still have some need for the prepared environment.

There's a list of 14 things the teacher is responsible for:
1 keep the area tidy and clean
2 add touches of beauty
3 show how to use the materials
4 connect the child to the environment, then move out of the way
5 watch to see who needs help
6 come when called
7 listen and respond to children
8 don't interrupt working children
9 don't correct a child making a mistake
10 let children rest if they want
11 continue offering materials
12 be a loving but inobtrusive presence
13 be accessible but not in the way
14 be invisible to children offering work to God (?)

Read the next part of this series, or start at the beginning.
CM's Letter to the Editor regarding Montessori

Multi-Purpose

It's not just an unused household attachment --


It's a vaccuum cleaner for role-model play.




It's a horsey!





But, more than that . . .


it's a friend.




(I didn't get the pictures of her cooing over it and kissing it!)


And another sling-turned hula-skirt picture:

Montessori ch 15

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Ch 15 - The Fundamental Problem in Education

The author lists some of the suggestions offered by critics for improving education - more teacher pay, more activity, better buildings, etc., but none of those seem to help education get any better. (Oddly enough, he doesn't mention anything about ideas, or knowledge, or books!) Maria Montessori saw the problem as being rooted in the relationship between teacher and child. Relationships based on oppressers and the oppressed can never work, and teachers can't seem to unlearn the concept of lording it over their weaker pupils! Why else do teachers have the attitude that they need to mold students and tell them what to learn? Like all other oppressed classes of people - women, slaves, workers - children needed to be liberated in a revolution. She felt that children had the right to be independent in doing for themselves, to be able to move freely instead of being forced to sit still, to explore without being reprimanded for getting dirty, to have access to a suitable working environment. She wrote about this in her book, The Secret of Childhood.

If parents and teachers had to be subjected to living where everything was too high and too big, and their treasures were flung away because they were deemed dirty or worthless, and they couldn't decide what to do for themselves, they'd understand what abuses children have to deal with. The solution is for adults to learn to see children in a whole new light.

I think Maria made a good point that children are people and that adults should try to see things from their perspective. But Charlotte Mason had already found the perfect balance between the need to view children as people and not to hinder them in body, mind or soul - and yet not overlook their need for guidance and good habits and a sense of their duty to others. Since I already know about her perfect balance, it's hard to read Montessori without reacting to her lack of balance. Seeing children as persons who didn't need someone telling them what to do, and providing an artificial environment where everything is sized for them can't solve all the problems of education. Human nature tends to take the path of least resistance, and Montessori doesn't address that. Charlotte Mason wanted children to strive to be better people; Montessori seems to think they already were perfect and just needed adults to stay out of their way. I think a Montessori perspective might mesh well with a TCS/non-coersive view of parenting, but it doesn't mesh well with a Christian worldview.

Start at the beginning of this series or go to the next chapter.
CM's Letter to the Editor regarding Montessori

What We're Listening To

One of our very best friends, artist Tom Root (he and his wife Peggy helped plan out the artist rotation for Ambleside Online) has recorded a CD! We've been listening to it for the past few weeks, and we love it! And now it's for sale at CD Baby! CD Baby describes it as "Southern eclectic jazzy folk/popster; Root crafts interesting well-written songs with expressive, tasteful arrangements."

You can even hear samples of all the songs at the site. My favorite is Happy Girl. We happen to know the girl, and she's just as happy as the song says. :)

You can also see samples of his art here.

Puddle

or, What to Do with a Rainy Day


or, What Happens When it Rains on a Gravel Driveway

Commonly Heard These Days

Miss M: "I'n not Mahmahndah. I'n Tistopher Wobbin."

So there you have it. We may have to start calling her C.

There's more. After a little tantrum, I asked her brother to get a tissue to wipe her little nose. And she screamed, 'It's NOT a little nose! It's a teapot!"

Another M-ism - "bloo-blooey" It's what she calls blueberries.

And she calls her friend Anhelika, "Ahn HEDD uh luh"

And then, there's the way she reads books. I always wondered what she was hearing as I was reading to her. Now I know. One of the books is an old Sunday-schoolish book, and there's a picture of a little boy and his dog looking out at a window and it's raining, and the text says something about God speaking to our hearts when it's thundering and saying, "Don't be afraid."

Her rendition is, "Awww, don't be afraid of the window!"

I don't think I'll ever be able to read that book with a straight face again!

Today's Tea

The one thing we've done really well at keeping up this school year is teatime on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Miss M is learning how to drink from a cup (she uses a Fisher Price plastic teacup and saucer) and she's starting to really eat. When we started, I would put a couple of things on her little plastic saucer just for her to play with, but now she gets a real plate and she eats more than she plays with, and she drinks three half-cups before she gets bored and pours the rest on the table or sticks her fingers in it. Progress! Just a few weeks ago, I'd only put a half teaspoon at the bottom of her cup.

We found a tea that's become our favorite - Bigelow's Vanilla Caramel. I've had a hard time finding it in my area, so I actually bought a couple boxes of it on ebay! I use one teabag of that, and a French vanilla teabag (I can find that anywhere, so I'm adding it to stretch the vanilla caramel) in a pot of tea. Everyone loves it, the boys like it with half soy milk. I haven't exhausted my search for a place that sells the Vanilla Caramel in my area, so I still have hopes of finding a local source.

Being Feb 2, we watched Groundhog Day with Daddy last night. We have an edited version, and we've watched it every year. It's one of the few family traditions we have. First it was just the adults, this is the first year the boys saw it. So teatime today was spent with the boys re-playing dialog from the movie.

I found a way to get Miss M outside for a little while every day - I pay her big brothers a quarter every ten minutes to take her in the backyard. I know, it's terrible, but they like the opportunity, and they're young and can handle more chasing! In the spring, she'll be a little more settled and it'll be warmer. I hope to be able to sit out with her a lot more. I'm not really much of an outdoor person. I remember my parents telling me as a kid to get my nose out of a book and go outside and play. Miss M loves to be outside. She's never ready to come back in, and cries when her brothers bring her in the house. But she's a real handful! We have no fence and she wants to go everywhere, and she's not very easy to interest in anything that might keep her in one place. She really needs a fenced-in area.

Waldorf

I hear Waldorf and Montessori mentioned together a lot (maybe they both appeal to free-thinking parents wanting a gentle, free learning experience for their children?) My only knowledge of Waldorf is that they use a lot of fairy tales, encourage free expression and believe that children should only play with toys made of natural materials like wood or fabric. Someone on the GCM parenting message board posted this Waldorf Critics site about Waldorf and its founder, Rudolf Steiner. I never knew it was founded on occult, karma and reincarnation.

Some quotes from the site: "Since the beginning, Waldorf schools have kept parents in the dark about the real intention of Waldorf education, which is to guide the reincarnation of the children's souls."

"Many Waldorf children are not immunized, and those parents who support immunization may be harshly judged. Steiner believed that certain diseases help children work out problem areas left over from their past lives."

"Waldorf is not just an 'alternative' education; it is a front for Anthroposophy. Anthroposophy has many of the characteristics of a cult, and the schools are the missionary arm of Anthroposophy."