One of the definitions of the word art is "the creation of beautiful or significant things". Just like a master artist, the Lord Jesus creates beautiful and significant things in our lives when we give Him the time and space to work. I feel blessed to share what He is creating in my life with you.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
52 Weeks book challenge
I am still way behind in this challenge and am making an effort to catch up. We shall see what happens by December 31st! This week I found a new author, to me, Anne Perry. She writes mystery series based in the Victorian Era. This week I chose Buckingham Palace Gardens. The detective is Thomas Pitt, who usually enlists the help of his wife Charlotte to help him solve the crime, however being that this murder takes place in Buckhaming Palace he is unable to consult her. Four couples are guests at the Palace because the men are trying to propose building a railroad stretching from Cairo to Cape-Town in Africa to the Prince of Whales. A murder is committed linking the past with the present in a well written mystery that kept me guessing until the very last few pages. I usually figure out mysteries very early in the game but this one really had me stumped for most of the book. In my opinion, Anne Perry could be compared to a modern day Agatha Christie.
Philosophy of Education vol. 6 ch. 6 pt. 3
“Education is a life”
Food is to the body what gas is to a car, the source of energy. The mind works as it is fed education. The mind is only nourished on ideas. If we only feed our minds a diet of information as in dry facts, Charlotte likens this to a meal of sawdust.
So what is an idea? It is “a living thing of the mind” according to the greatest thinkers from the days of Plato to the present.
An idea is something that “strikes us” or “catches hold of”, “impresses” and if the idea is big enough, “possesses us”. Charlotte says “in a word, it behaves like an entity”. Everyone has said “I have an idea” when a grand thought rises in the mind. Charlotte believed that ideas were present everywhere but in the sphere of education. She gives the example of textbooks that were nothing more than dry facts.
Charlotte Mason includes several passages from Coleridge describing how many men, such as Columbus, were “given the ideas to explore or discover. And those ideas, Coleridge says, were “presented to chosen minds by God, a Higher Power than Nature itself”.
Indefinite ideas express themselves like an appetite and should draw the children towards things that are honest and of good report, and should not just be offered at a scheduled time but should surround them like the air they breathe.
Definite ideas are conveyed as “meat “to the mind rather than simply inhaled like air. Definite ideas are Spiritual in origin and God created us to convey them to one another either in word, writing, Scripture, or music and we must feed a child’s inner life like we feed his body. Charlotte points out that a child will probably reject about 9/10th of all the ideas we give just like the body only keeps what it needs and rejects the rest. Our business is to supply abundance and variety and his to take what he needs from this vast buffet. Just like in the natural, children hate to be forced fed and they despise pre-digested food. Her example of how to avoid teaching this way is found in the way Jesus taught. He used parables. They were unforgettable stories and yet the reader takes the lesson in and applies it without a trace of force. Our downfall in educating is that we tend to offer opinions rather than ideas in our teaching. Instead of just teaching math or geometry, we should put them in touch with Pythagoras through use of a great biographical story. They will then see where the idea for these concepts originated making the subject more alive.
To sum up this section, Charlotte says she wants to enforce the fact that human thoughts expressed through great reading and Art should not be considered a luxury to be given in bits and pieces but rather the “bread of life” for children and therefore they should have a broad and liberal curriculum offered to them daily.
Food is to the body what gas is to a car, the source of energy. The mind works as it is fed education. The mind is only nourished on ideas. If we only feed our minds a diet of information as in dry facts, Charlotte likens this to a meal of sawdust.
So what is an idea? It is “a living thing of the mind” according to the greatest thinkers from the days of Plato to the present.
An idea is something that “strikes us” or “catches hold of”, “impresses” and if the idea is big enough, “possesses us”. Charlotte says “in a word, it behaves like an entity”. Everyone has said “I have an idea” when a grand thought rises in the mind. Charlotte believed that ideas were present everywhere but in the sphere of education. She gives the example of textbooks that were nothing more than dry facts.
Charlotte Mason includes several passages from Coleridge describing how many men, such as Columbus, were “given the ideas to explore or discover. And those ideas, Coleridge says, were “presented to chosen minds by God, a Higher Power than Nature itself”.
Indefinite ideas express themselves like an appetite and should draw the children towards things that are honest and of good report, and should not just be offered at a scheduled time but should surround them like the air they breathe.
Definite ideas are conveyed as “meat “to the mind rather than simply inhaled like air. Definite ideas are Spiritual in origin and God created us to convey them to one another either in word, writing, Scripture, or music and we must feed a child’s inner life like we feed his body. Charlotte points out that a child will probably reject about 9/10th of all the ideas we give just like the body only keeps what it needs and rejects the rest. Our business is to supply abundance and variety and his to take what he needs from this vast buffet. Just like in the natural, children hate to be forced fed and they despise pre-digested food. Her example of how to avoid teaching this way is found in the way Jesus taught. He used parables. They were unforgettable stories and yet the reader takes the lesson in and applies it without a trace of force. Our downfall in educating is that we tend to offer opinions rather than ideas in our teaching. Instead of just teaching math or geometry, we should put them in touch with Pythagoras through use of a great biographical story. They will then see where the idea for these concepts originated making the subject more alive.
To sum up this section, Charlotte says she wants to enforce the fact that human thoughts expressed through great reading and Art should not be considered a luxury to be given in bits and pieces but rather the “bread of life” for children and therefore they should have a broad and liberal curriculum offered to them daily.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Creative Giving
I was reading a blog of a friend of mine who posts a topic on Thursday's called Thrifty Thursday. The idea this past week was to share a way to be creative and yet save while giving gifts. For years I have enjoyed making homemade gifts for friends and family. I myself would much rather have something that someone took the time to make for me. I love to cross stitch and one year I embellished hand towels as Christmas gifts. I have also made homemade cards or recipe cards which I stamped with stamps I have collected over the years. Many times Micheal's has a bin located at the front of the store with stamps for $1.00. I have often found cross stitch kits, unopened and in great shape at yard sales for as little as 25 cents with a pattern that I know is something a friend or family member likes and then all I have to do is the stitching. One year I found some picture frames at a yard sale that were basically just flat edges and I glued jigsaw puzzle pieces from a puzzle I found at a yard sale and put the photo of my daughter that I was going to give grandparents for Christmas in it. They turned out really cute and the total cost was probably $1.00. Here is one for the brave. I save taper candles that are mostly used (you will need a lot- get your friends to give you theirs too!) and remelt them down in a coffee can placed in old pot and pull out the used wicks. I buy new candle wicks, candle scents and coloring, because most wax when melted loses the color it was, at the craft store and then pour the melted wax into mason jars, which I have found at yard sales! When I want to make candles I remind myself to continually check the craft stores for markdown candle making supplies. I have also crocheted Afghans, made fleece blankets, and given away things that I have canned from my garden. I have also gotten in the habit of going out after Christmas and finding Christmas items 50% off and store them away for next year's gifting. I always budget some of my Christmas money to do this then I can usually add something small that I make myself. I also keep a list of people that we buy for and I watch clearance racks all year and pick up things like this too.
Happy Saving
Happy Saving
Sunday, July 11, 2010
52 weeks book challenge
This weeks book was The Appeal by John Grisham. It begins with a jury trial where the plaintiff is sueing a chemical company for dumping toxic waste in the small town where she lives which poisons the water and as a result a large number of people in the town contract cancer, including her husband and son, who both died. The plaintiff is awarded a huge sum of money by the jury and of course the chemical company is going to appeal. The CEO of the chemical company is approached by a politicion and told they could win the appeal if they got a judge elected to the Mississippi State Supreme Court. A polital race ensues and an expected but unexpected ending concludes this well written book. It really gets you thinking about what could go on in the political arena when desperate, dishonest people have the money to accomplish their adgendas.
Philosophy of Education Vol. 6 Ch. 6 part 2
“Education is a discipline”
It is not necessary to labor as a teacher to get the children to learn their lessons. If the lessons are the right kind of lessons the children will be delighted to learn them. More effort should be placed on learning good habits and those habits that are needed for learning are formed by themselves through the use of the right curriculum. Charlotte stresses that this happens when the children process their work and tell what they have read. This she calls the “act of knowing”. She makes the point that if this process is not done the material goes into “the dustbin of our memories”. This act of knowing produces a two-fold reward. The first is the habit of attention and the second is an educated person. From this education also flow the habits of: a fitting expression, obedience, good will, right thinking, right judging, neatness and order (which flow from self-respect). All of these habits can be obtained from an education that “respects the personality of children”. The chief function of an education should be establishing a way of thinking in children that will provide a good and useful life full of “clear thinking and enjoyment” but most of all it should have a positive effect on their spiritual lives.
Forming habits is unavoidable. Either we lay down good habits with right actions or bad habits with wrong actions form themselves “of their own accord”. Charlotte compared habits to fire- “fire is a bad master but an indispensable servant.” She asks us to think about how hard life would be if every act of grooming or eating required the effort of a decision. Our days would seem so long with little productivity. She feels that most of the indecision or hesitation of adults doing or not doing things, in her day, was because the “right rails of habits” were not laid down properly for right behavior to easily run upon. We all admire the way a soldier carries himself but most shrink from the discipline it takes to produce such carriage. Charlotte says there is no other way of forming any good habit except through the strenuousness of working through a conflict. In other words - it’s hard work. The bad habits of the easy way or laziness always look pleasant but the good habit will be formed through the pain of resistance. We must each, internally, purpose ourselves to resist the bad habit and adopt the good. We have heard “sow an act reap a habit- sow a habit reap a character” but Charlotte says we need to go back one step further. We need to sow an “idea” or thought. The habit is formed by entertaining a thought which leads to an action which produces the habit. When training the habit we need to be consistent to point out the slightest slip up. The example given is of a boy who was working on being punctual to class and making great efforts on forming the habit. After days of punctual arrival he arrives late and the teacher lets him slip with no rebuke or penalty. The boy learns it doesn’t matter and the wrong habit starts to form. The habit of an ordered life is to make life “easy and spontaneous”. Charlotte says that physical fitness, morals, and manners are the outcome of habit. Most of all, habits in our Spiritual life become strong and give us the ability to live a “godly, righteous and sober life.” There is an excerpt written by a young person named DeQincey on his feelings about going to church. He describes the church, an ancient one, with beautiful details and tells how his heart was touched by a part of the liturgy that spoke about God healing the sick. This narration did not come from a child that was “bored” with church but had developed habits, not only in Spiritual training but also through beautifully written books. By reading literature with a vast vocabulary, the habit of attention was formed and he was able to grasp the message given from the pulpit easily. There is obvious value in forming good habits. It is very important to expose the children to men and women with “great minds” and “wise thoughts” through great books so they can gain courage from right opinions. Otherwise what will happen is, as soon as the young person graduates from school they will “run after the first fad that presents itself, try it for a while and then take up another to be discarded in its turn, and remain uncertain and ill–guided for the rest of their days.
It is not necessary to labor as a teacher to get the children to learn their lessons. If the lessons are the right kind of lessons the children will be delighted to learn them. More effort should be placed on learning good habits and those habits that are needed for learning are formed by themselves through the use of the right curriculum. Charlotte stresses that this happens when the children process their work and tell what they have read. This she calls the “act of knowing”. She makes the point that if this process is not done the material goes into “the dustbin of our memories”. This act of knowing produces a two-fold reward. The first is the habit of attention and the second is an educated person. From this education also flow the habits of: a fitting expression, obedience, good will, right thinking, right judging, neatness and order (which flow from self-respect). All of these habits can be obtained from an education that “respects the personality of children”. The chief function of an education should be establishing a way of thinking in children that will provide a good and useful life full of “clear thinking and enjoyment” but most of all it should have a positive effect on their spiritual lives.
Forming habits is unavoidable. Either we lay down good habits with right actions or bad habits with wrong actions form themselves “of their own accord”. Charlotte compared habits to fire- “fire is a bad master but an indispensable servant.” She asks us to think about how hard life would be if every act of grooming or eating required the effort of a decision. Our days would seem so long with little productivity. She feels that most of the indecision or hesitation of adults doing or not doing things, in her day, was because the “right rails of habits” were not laid down properly for right behavior to easily run upon. We all admire the way a soldier carries himself but most shrink from the discipline it takes to produce such carriage. Charlotte says there is no other way of forming any good habit except through the strenuousness of working through a conflict. In other words - it’s hard work. The bad habits of the easy way or laziness always look pleasant but the good habit will be formed through the pain of resistance. We must each, internally, purpose ourselves to resist the bad habit and adopt the good. We have heard “sow an act reap a habit- sow a habit reap a character” but Charlotte says we need to go back one step further. We need to sow an “idea” or thought. The habit is formed by entertaining a thought which leads to an action which produces the habit. When training the habit we need to be consistent to point out the slightest slip up. The example given is of a boy who was working on being punctual to class and making great efforts on forming the habit. After days of punctual arrival he arrives late and the teacher lets him slip with no rebuke or penalty. The boy learns it doesn’t matter and the wrong habit starts to form. The habit of an ordered life is to make life “easy and spontaneous”. Charlotte says that physical fitness, morals, and manners are the outcome of habit. Most of all, habits in our Spiritual life become strong and give us the ability to live a “godly, righteous and sober life.” There is an excerpt written by a young person named DeQincey on his feelings about going to church. He describes the church, an ancient one, with beautiful details and tells how his heart was touched by a part of the liturgy that spoke about God healing the sick. This narration did not come from a child that was “bored” with church but had developed habits, not only in Spiritual training but also through beautifully written books. By reading literature with a vast vocabulary, the habit of attention was formed and he was able to grasp the message given from the pulpit easily. There is obvious value in forming good habits. It is very important to expose the children to men and women with “great minds” and “wise thoughts” through great books so they can gain courage from right opinions. Otherwise what will happen is, as soon as the young person graduates from school they will “run after the first fad that presents itself, try it for a while and then take up another to be discarded in its turn, and remain uncertain and ill–guided for the rest of their days.
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