Book club and habits

We are still deciding/discerning whether our kids will be homeschooled or what school they will go to, but in the midst of this I feel like I am homeschooling myself. My main goals are reading and music, in my case piano playing. I think if we could be really great readers and have lots of books, and play instruments together, that would be the foundation for all the rest. Sports we'll outsource. Other academic subjects, too. But reading and music I feel passionate about not outsourcing.

I am not the voracious reader I thought I was. Or I used to be in sixth grade. I mainly want to buy books online, but then they pile up in a big, tall stack of books "to read". My Little Catholic Bubble Book Club on Facebook has been really motivating in that sense. I have a deadline each week to read a certain amount, which if I didn't have a deadline I wouldn't read. I've already read St. Catherine of Siena by Sigrid Undset, The Power and the Glory and now The Power of Silence, which are books I wouldn't have picked by myself or wouldn't have read so quickly, but the book club really helps. See pic above of the "his" and "her" bookmarks I made for my husband too, who wanted to read along with me.

The piano playing is another story. Maybe I need a club? Or some guidance? I know I can't get around the "grind" of a little practice every day, but I haven't been successful yet.

And on the subject of homeschooling, here is a really great article: My Education in Home Schooling

The Outdoor Life of Children by Charlotte Mason

I loved this little book of writings by Charlotte Mason on nature, compiled by Deborah Taylor-Hough. As she says in her forward, "Basically, go outside with your kids as often as you can. You'll all be healthier, happier, and will learn a thing or two in the process." I was incredibly inspired by this book to appreciate nature even more, and learned some practical tips on how to start all learning from nature. I still have a few years before Adelaide can keep a nature journal, so I am taking advantage of them to learn as much about tree, plant and animal classification as I can. I know NOTHING. Here are some of my favorite quotes

"People who live in the country know the value of fresh air very well, and their children live out of doors, with intervals within for sleeping and eating."

"Never be within door when you can rightly be without."

"In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mother's first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it spent for the most part out in the fresh air."

"A great deal has been said lately about the danger of overpressure, of requiring too much mental work from a child of tender years. The danger exists; but lies, not in giving the child too much, but in giving him the wrong thing to do, the sort of work for which the presente state of his mental development does not fit him."

"Whoever saw a child tired of seeing, of examining in his own way, unfamiliar things?"

"It is infinitely well worth of the mother's while to take some pains every day to secure, in the first place, that her children spend hours daily amongst rural and natural objects; and, in the second place, to infuse into them, or rather to cherish in them, the love of investigation."

"A love of Nature, implanted so early that it will seem to them hereafter to have been born in them, will enrich their lives with pure interests, absorbing pursuits, health, and good humour."

"The mother's real difficulty will be to keep herself from much talk with the children, and to hinder them from occupying themselves with her. There are few things sweeter and more precious to the child than playful prattle with her mother; but one thing is better - the communing with the larger Mother, in order to which the child and she should be left to themselves."

"But, pray, let him work with things and not signs - the things of Nature in their own places, meadow and hedgerow, woods and shore."

"The child who does not know the portly form and spotted breast of the thrush, the graceful flight of the swallow, the yellow bill of the blackbird, the gush of song which the skylark pours from above, is nearly as much to be pitied as those London children who 'had never seen a bee'."

"It would be well if we all persons in authority, parents and all who act for parents, could make up our minds that there is no sort of knowledge to be got in these early years so valuable to children as that which they get for themselves of the world they live in."

"We were all mean to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things."

"He must live hours daily in the open air, and, as far as possible, in the country; must look and touch and listen; must be quick to note, consciously, every peculiarity of habit or structure, in beast, bird, or insect; the manner of growth and fructification of every plant. He must be accustomed to ask why - Why does the wind blow? Why does the river flow? Why is a leaf-bud sticky? And do not hurry to answer his questions for him; let him think his difficulties out so far as his small experience will carry him."

"In Science, or rather, nature study, we attach great importance to recognition, believing that the power to recognise and name a plant or stone or constellation envolves classification and includes a good deal of knowledge. To know a plant by its gesture and habitat, its time and its way of flowering and fruiting; a bird by its flight and song and its times of coming and going; to know when, year after year, you may come upon the redstart and the pied fly-catcher, means a good deal of interested observation, and of, at any rate, the material for science."

Habits by Charlotte Mason

I read this book of Charlotte Mason's writing about habits, compiled by Deborah Taylor-Hough, and in general liked it, but only certain parts and not others. I liked part two in this series (The Outdoor Life of Children) much more. I was generally inspired and confirmed in my intuition of habit training myself and then children, the earlier the better. We could all use a little more self-discipline, right? I especially liked the why that Charlotte Mason explains behind obedience to parents and developing good habits. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"A mother whose final question is, 'What will people say? What will people think? How will it look?' and the children grow up with habits of seeming, and not of being; they are content to appear well-dressed, well-mannered, and well intentioned to outsiders, with very little effort after beauty, order, and goodness at home, and in each other's eyes."

"Not the child, immature of will, feeble in moral power, unused to the weapons of the spiritual warfare. He depends on his parents; it rests with them to initiate the thoughts he shall think, the desires he shall cherish, the feelings he shall allow. Only to initiate; no more is permitted to them; but from this initiation will result the habits of thought and feeling which govern the man - his character, that is to say."

"And here we have the reason why children should learn dancing, riding, swimming, calisthenics, every form of activity which requires a training of the muscles, at an early age: the fact being, that muscles and joints have not merely to conform themselves to new uses, but to grow to a modified pattern; and this growth and adaptation take place with the greatest facility in early youth."

"It is it so easy for ourselves to take up a new habit, it is tenfold as easy for the children; and this is the real difficulty in the matter of the education of habit."

"Rewards? No; to him a reward is a punishment presented under another aspect..."

"For a habit is a delight in itself; poor human nature is conscious of the ease that it is to repeat the doing of anything without effort; and, therefore the formation of a habit, the gradually lessening sense of effort in a given act, is pleasurable."

"Let them make their mud pies freely; but that over, they should be impatient to remove every trace of soil, and should do it themselves."

"In conclusion, let me say that the education of habit is successful in so far as it enables the mother to let her children alone, not teasing them with perpetual commands and directions - a running fire of Do and Don't; but letting them go their own way and grow, having first secured they will go the right way, and grow to fruitful purpose."

"When a child grows stupid over a lesson, it is time to put it away. Let him do another lesson as unlike the last as possible, and then go back with freshened wits to his unfinished task."

"What is the natural consequence of work well and quickly done? Is it not the enjoyment of ampler leisure?"

"Allow them, at the utmost, an hour and a half for their home work; treat them tacitly as defaulters if they do not appear at the end of that time; do not be betrayed into word or look of sympathy; and the moment the time for lessons is over, let some delightful game or storybook be begun in the drawing room."

"At the same the custom of giving home-work, at any rate to children under fourteen, is greatly to be deprecated."

"Indeed, exceedingly little actual punishment is necessary where children are brought up with care."

"You want a child to remember? Then secure his whole attention."

"Indeed, obedience is the whole duty of the child, and for this reason - every other duty of the child is fulfilled as a matter of obedience to his parents. Not only so: obedience is the whole duty of man; obedience to conscience, to law, to Divine direction."

"Exactly so; because, in these cases, there is no gradual training of the child in the habit of obedience; no gradual enlisting of his will on the side of sweet service and a free will offering of submission to the hightest law: the poor children are simply bullied into submission to the will, that is, the willfulness, of another; not at all, 'for it is right'; only because it is convenient."

"The mother often loses her hold over her children becasue they detect in the tone of her voice that she does not expect them obey her behests; she does not think enough of her position; has not sufficient confidence in her own authority."

"By-and-by, when he is old enough, take the child into confidence; let him know what a noble thing it is to be able to make himself do, in a minute, and brightly, the very thing he would rather not do. To secure this habit of obedience, the mother must exercise great self-restraint; she must never give a command which she does not intend to see carried out to the full. And she must not lay upon her children burdens, grievous to be borne, of command heaped upon command."

**Radiant JOY**

I am really enjoying having two kiddos this summer, even though sometimes it can seem like double trouble. But two kiddos to look back to while driving and see chattering in their car seats, two kiddos to sit side by side and give a sandwich to at the park, two kiddos to splash together in a bathtub.

I am still listening to Bishop Barron's podcasts whenever I can and I listenened to one the other day called "Why Mother Teresa is a Saint" and it has really stayed with me. He describes his visit to Calcutta and how it is still one of the worst slums in the world, with people living in cardboard boxes and lots of death and sickness everywhere. In the middle of what is still one of the most terrible environments in the world, the sisters are serving with RADIANT JOY. He says it is pure grace, and not naturally possible. I have been thinking to myself, how can they serve people that they have no relation to, people that might even be rude and mean to them, who smell bad and who have terrible diseases... and see Christ in them and have radiant joy? While I have the PRIVILEGE of serving two adorable children, perfectly healthy and perfectly loveable, fruit of my own womb, in the EXTREME comfort that we live in... and let me just put it this way, I don't have radiant joy. I have radiant all the opposite. Something I've been reflecting on.

Studying nature

I've grown somewhat tired of playgrounds for a variety of reasons and that, in combination perhaps with reading Charlotte Mason's writings on nature, led me to try to do hikes again. We have a treasure of a forest a ten-minute drive away, with plants, animals, hikes and picnic tables.

Our first hike we went alone and for some strange reason I thought our 12-month-old would walk and we wouldn't need a stroller. Plus they both seem to feel the urge to poo whenever we're outdoors. We sat down and they ate cookies and crawled all over me, which is basically what we do in our living room. So I was about to call off all hikes as failures when I looked in the book the forest provides and learned what a cork oak tree was (pictured above) and pine trees. Then we looked for acorns hidden in the pine needles on the ground. This might seem basic, and it is, because I know NOTHING about plant and animal classification, but it was a game-changer for me. Now I have a goal. Addie is still little, so I still have some years to educate MYSELF on simple nature classification and especially appreciation. I ordered some books online (see above) and am really dedicating myself to this task. We have since been back with neighbors, which is so much nicer, and have tried to include a picnic dinner, which is also nice.