Bits of wisdom from Charlotte Mason

On page 231 of her book Towards a Philosophy of Education, Miss Mason says that we should communicate to our children the beauty and truth of mathematics. They should understand that it is a "great thing to be brought into the presence of a law, of a whole system of laws, that exist without our concurrence,-that two straight lines cannot enclose a space is a fact which we can perceive, state, and act upon but cannot in any wise alter..." and this "should give to children the sense of limitation which is wholesome for all of us, and inspire that sursum corda which we should hear in all natural law."
Sursum Corda is the name of a particular versicle (a response exchange, whereby there is a short verse the minister recites and given response for the congregation's reply). Sursum Corda is the 'lift up your hearts' versicle. So Sursum Corda refers to the portion of the service when the minister says to the church "Lift up your hearts" and the congregation responds "We lift them to the Lord."
Miss Mason is pointing out that all natural law is God's law, and is part of God's voice to us. Whenever we learn of one of God's natural laws, whether it be that two and two make four and never three or five, or that apples fall down and not up, or that all things reproduce after their own kind, or that a blade of grass produces food from sunlight in a process we now call photosynthesis- it should be to us as though that natural law were the voice of God (which it is) saying to us "Lift up your hearts" and we should feel our hearts naturally, gratefully, and willingly responding to the voice of God in affirmation- "We lift them up to the Lord."
- excerpt from an article in the Charlotte Mason Educational Review written by Wendi Capehart

Out of all of the many styles, approaches and philosophies on education I find myself identifying most strongly with the ideas of Charlotte Mason. It took me a while to come to this conclusion...and I will explain more of the process of coming to this conclusion over time. There is so much wisdoms and practical goodness that comes from Charlotte Mason.
My degree is in elementary education and I started out homeschooling the same way that I was taught as a kid and the same way that I was taught to teach when I was in my teaching program. But finally, and I say this with much enthusiasm, for the first time since we decided we were going to homeschool (which was before we even got married and had children) I feel myself pulling away from my training towards public education and I feel a tremendous amount of freedom in that. I feel like I have gained this new confidence and peace in the understanding that one of the greatest things about homeschooling is that I don't have to do it like the public school... and in fact, I can do it better! I am not saying this in an arrogant way; I can say that because I know my children better than any teacher in the public school ever could. I know their strengths, weaknesses, passions, frustrations etc. I can move at a pace that is comfortable for them, whether it be fast or slow. There are a million reasons why homeschooling is great, but perhaps the biggest reason of all is that I get to spend time walking and talking with my children. I get to know and understand their hearts. I get to disciple them and train them up in the way that they should go...and for that I feel so blessed.
Last year I started "Kindergarten" with Elijah and he is bent towards math so I focused a lot on math and probably pushed him too hard. Ultimately I ended up with a frustrated child that dreaded "school". So I had to take a step back a re-evaluate the situation. Just because a child might be good at something doesn't mean that it is good to push them to the point that they no longer enjoy it. I just hope I didn't do too much permanent damage in my first year of homeschooling! I'm just hoping that he won't remember all my mistakes because he is, after all, only 5 years old...but he is also like his father- the "rain man"-...so maybe I should just hope that he would be forgiving instead.
Anyways- math has been the toughest subject for me to choose a curriculum for because I find myself debating over should I go with a program that emphasizes mental math, or one that is real hands-on, or one that goes right along with the scope and sequence of the public school??? After a lot of thought and research I have decided to go with the mental math curriculum. It does not follow a traditional approach, but it teaches the child how to "think" mathematically and logically. Charlotte Mason takes the purpose of math to an even higher level- when she basically says that all natural law is God's law- God is revealing a little bit about Himself to us through these natural laws. That made so much sense to me. So hopefully this year we can start with a clean slate and maybe this time I will have a better sense of my goals and priorities for our homeschool.

Fourth of July

When I was thinking about the 4th of July, I realized it involves a lot of things that start with F... family, food, fun, the flag, and fireworks! I love Independence Day. It's one of my favorite american holidays. We usually do the same thing every year, but I just love it! We started off the day by going downtown for the parade. It was just a small parade, but the kids really liked the fire trucks and old cars and clowns (which I am not particularly fond of...kind of scary). Then we went home and gave them naps so they could stay up late and watch the fireworks. When they woke up we grilled out with my in-laws, my niece who was visiting from Charlotte, and my friend Adria. We let the kids swim for a while in Nana's pool and then it started to rain! I was hoping that it would stop before it was time for fire works...and thankfully it did or the kids would have been disappointed and up until midnight after that long nap that they had! We were trying to think of good places to watch the fireworks- a place that wasn't too crowded and where the traffic wouldn't be ridiculous...and my friend Adria came up with the perfect plan...the top of the parking deck at UNCG! It was less than a mile from where they were setting off the fireworks and it ended up being this secret, fabulous place. I don't know why other people haven't thought of it, but there were probably only a handful of other people who had the same idea. We had an amazing view of the fireworks and the kids loved it...even baby Jonas was saying "wow"! It was really cute.

Hair today, gone tomorrow!

"Funny" things are always happening at the Vaughn house. This particular incident involved hair- my hair to be exact! For the past 3 years I have been trying to grow my hair out and it was getting pretty long...about half way down my back. I usually get the urge to cut it once it gets a few inches past my shoulders, but I was doing really good this time about being patient and letting it grow.
Well, I have resolved to do most of my computer stuff at night so that I can stay focused on the kids during the day, but on this particular day I had to be on the computer for a brief 5-10 minutes. I am attending a homeschool curriculum workshop in August and the one for July filled up so quickly that the organizer told me that I needed to hurry up and fill out the registration form before the class was full. So here I am frantically trying to fill out the form on the computer and I hear this little voice behind me say "Mama, I cut you's hair"!!!! What????? It was Caleb, my 2 year old. He snuck up on me like a ninja and cut my hair! I didn't even hear him do it! So I grabbed my hair to access the damage and I pulled out a good sized chunk, so I ran to the mirror and sure enough he cut a top layer piece in the back all the way up to my chin! So much for growing out my hair! I don't even know how he even got the scissors in the first place because I usually have those on a high shelf where the kids can't reach them...so that is still a mystery.
Thankfully I didn't have to get it all chopped off. I went to a great salon Jade Aveda(which we can't really afford), but I figured they were so good that they might be able to salvage my hair some how and they did! I only had to have 2 inches taken off the bottom and then she put in some additional layers on the top to blend in where Caleb cut it. So when it was all said and done, I actually ended up with a pretty decent hair cut!