Life Nurturing Education

Jenny of Little Acorns Treehouse shared a simple, beautiful solution for adding art to her homeschool.

2008 Art Page-A-Day Calendar By Workman Publishing 2008 Art Page-A-Day Gallery calendar is an art gallery for your desk. Here are hundreds of masterpieces, each meticulously photographed and reproduced, from the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Full-color throughout Printed on high-quality paper Clear plastic box becomes a desktop easel 6 1/4″ x 7 3/8″ x 1 5/8″

This calendar is now on my shopping list. Want to add it to yours? Click on the image above for more information, including additional views. Many different artists and time periods are represented.

Mixing simplicity with art suits me, and just think of all the possibilities for these prints.

The Principle Approach uses a notebook methodology. As a student reasons through lessons, her thoughts are recorded in various, creative ways. Notebooks are a tool for preserving scholarship, but they can, also, be used outside of school.

Years ago, I typed and printed recipes in constant use and placed them in a plain, black binder. My intention was to make a crafty cover to transform this workhorse, but, instead, our waffle recipe is protected by clear plastic. This humble notebook is used almost every day. Pages are easily added, and recipes can be stuffed in the front pockets until we try them.

A post about a Homemaking Binder reminded me of another notebook I made. It was going to organize my plethora of responsibilities. At the beginning of August, I placed lesson plans, calendar, and schedule into a 3 ring binder. The idea was noble, but I haven’t used it much. With 2008 imminent, I am ready to try again.

My theory is this notebook sat on the shelf because of my lack of investment. The workbook-type system I copied was too restrictive. I didn’t like it from the beginning, but refused to take the time to create my own. In opposition to inexertion, the Principle Approach teaches the notebook is the effort of the individual. It is personal property reflecting productivity. Filling-in-the-blank will not bring the same sense of fulfillment, understanding, and practicality that thinking and responding will.

As I think through the pages of a new notebook for a new year, the reward will be a tool fit for my heart and hand. May it be fashioned in wisdom by the grace of God.

If you want more ideas for homemaking binders, Hadias linked to numerous examples. Use the link in the post above, or follow this one.

Walking through store aisles full of shiny new things, fuels my covetousness. We have a nice home and adequate furnishings, but those dishes are striking and these curtains so lovely. My gift card cannot buy it all. I shake my head, muttering under my breath, that our shabby couch is chic. It works. Sometimes. Rather than focusing on what I can’t or don’t have, I try to invest money and thoughts into things that last. You know, enduring things; things like food.

Currently, our food bill is higher than our mortgage. Lest you think we eat excessively every day, we were blessed with an unbelievable deal on our ramshackle house. In the past, I succeeded in shaving a few dollars off our grocery spending by shopping sales, but I am a bit apathetic about that these days. I do avoid most convenience food and make our meals from scratch. However, that is not my point. Feeding a family of five, plus a dog and cat, requires money, like it or not.

The need to eat, also, requires a cognitive response. Frequently, throughout the days, weeks, and months that plod by, I ponder what to feed my family. I plan meals, usually. I buy food. I cook food. I clean up food. Repeat this three times a day for life, and you glimpse why joy doesn’t always bubble out in sweet laughter when I hear, “I’m hungry,” or “What’s for dinner?”

Don’t get me wrong, I love my family and don’t mind cooking. It’s just that all this effort can seem for naught. Food doesn’t last. It is consumed all too quickly, or spoils. That is why I feed it to my kids. They will be around for a number of years yet.

I am cheap thrifty. Always have been. But when my husband lost his job way back in May, I wondered if my frugality would be enough of a contribution to the family finances. Thankfully, temporary work, a few cleaning jobs, and providential gifts from friends bumped us along until my husband found a full-time job.

The bills are paid on time, but we still do not have extra money for frivolity. So why did my husband agree to buy me a potter’s wheel?

• My kiln is empty.
• It was an excellent deal.
• Because of the price, it can be sold without a loss.
• It is a tool that will last many years.
• The possibilities are undeniable.

This gift is an investment in me. My dreams are valuable, and one that laid dormant for years is beginning to take shape.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father… James 1:17

Update: I am cheap and stubborn. Gathering laundry this afternoon, my lower back wrenched in agonizing pain. Because this is a new experience, I attribute it to working on pottery even though I knew the table was not high enough. Usually, my determination pays off, but not this time. Walking, laying, and sitting are tolerable, but bending is beyond my pain tolerance. Hopefully, I can add patience to my list of characteristics before I kill myself.

I hope your Christmas is full of blessing and wonder.

Growing up, my family always decorated the house the day after Thanksgiving. My brother and I piled silver tinsel on each branch of the small pine. Then while we slept, Mom removed the mess and placed every handmade ornament perfectly. I snooped under the transformed tree while the colored lights glowed. Even if my gifts were trick-wrapped, I figured out what the boxes contained. Try as I might to wait for Christmas Day, my curiosity ruled me and ruined my surprise.

One family tradition involved an entire afternoon dedicated to powdered sugar. Every year we frosted too many sugar cookies. My conscience vividly remembers Mom saying, “Stop licking the knife,” and the sick, sugary feeling in my stomach afterwards. I dreaded frosting the double batch of cookies, but I persevered to enjoy the time with my mom.

Now that I am the mother, I wonder what my children will remember about Christmas. I strive to live purposefully, but it doesn’t always happen. As a result, our traditions are not well-defined. We decorate on a whim, or when the light strands are rekindled. Bug’s porcelain winter lighthouse is put out first to appease little elves. We arrange the nativity set I painted as a young girl and attend church service on Christmas Eve.

Our simple rituals do not match my ideal picture of sweet cherubs listening to their father recite the story of Jesus’ birth, in the original Greek, while I serve hot chocolate and prepare gift bags for all the neighbors. That image is unrealistic, but it does capture something important. A wise stranger told Four n’ Twenty,

Now that is what the Christmas season is about, parents spending time with their kids.

That is what I remember most fondly. Traditions need not be elaborate to be special. It is time to get the cookie dough ready.

Is unity in diversity possible? Can the schism between secular and religious home educators ever be reconciled? Perhaps not, but a new blog, Unity-N-Diversity, began with the purpose to “educate, inspire, and facilitate healing.” Even though I do not agree with every post and comment, I cling to the idea that unity can exist, in fact, does exist.

Getting everyone to agree about everything is impossible. As Unity-N-Diversity points out, the founding fathers of America faced that, too. Not everyone wanted the Declaration of Independence signed or the Revolutionary War fought.

The Pilgrims dealt with a similar crisis. After the long voyage across the Atlantic their ship landed outside the king’s jurisdiction. Some aboard the Mayflower jumped at the chance to be free from government. Others knew that without any law their lives and property were in danger. The Mayflower Compact formed “a Civil Body Politic, for better ordering and preservation…for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.”

Do we need such an agreement as homeschoolers? In America, the Constitution protects our rights. We educate our children according to conviction, but what if our freedom to do so is endangered? I believe, no matter our differing personal beliefs about discipline, creationism, or government, home educators will defend one another’s liberty. Our common ground is love. We want freedom to teach our children and that is worth fighting for.