Ourselves: Rest and Restlessness

Do any of us get enough sleep? In Charlotte Mason's Ourselves, she wrote about Rest and Restlessness.

Restlessness makes the body strong.

Restlessness is the part of us that wants to run and jump and dance. It is the part of us that wants to ice skate for five straight hours.

But restlessness may be a hard master.

[I]t is only by going on doing one thing steadily that we learn to do it well, whether it be cricket or algebra; so it is well to be on the watch for the moment when Restlessness, the good servant, turns into Restlessness, the unquiet Dæmon who drives us about from post to pillar[.]

In this section, Mason wrote about the importance of sleep, as well as the danger of sloth. Her solution:

Up and be doing, whether at work or play.

This makes me think of a cool article Jennifer Humble shared recently titled The Physics of Productivity. It included the idea that if we get moving for two minutes (the Two Minute Rule) that we will stay moving, and it's easier to convince ourselves to get moving if we tell ourselves we're only going to be doing so for two minutes.

For earlier posts about Ourselves:
Thirst
The Soul & Hunger
The Perils of Mansoul
Mansoul

When Two Vowels Go Walking

To teach vowel digraphs that use the "When Two Vowels Go Walking, The First One Does The Talking" Rule, this is a cute and easy (and fun!) idea.

I made these for my three-year-old today. She got the concept right away and learned a couple of new words. ("Mommy, what's coal?" "Mommy, what's loan?")

You can also incorporate consonant blends!

Field Trip: Imagine U

Trying to reach the gas pedal

These photos were taken at Imagine U Children's Museum in Visalia, California. Outside, there is an old fire truck, small sand boxes for playing paleontologist, and giant foam blocks. Inside, there are costumes, an electric train, a piano, an area for playing dentist and doctor, and a market complete with cash register and play money. Admission is $5 per person, and they offer annual passes for locals. It's a perfect play place for preschoolers.

How We Do Preschool

Preschool is not Charlotte Mason (not in the Santa Monica-preschool sense), but we "preschool" anyway.

Over the weekend, a mom asked how we do preschool, how much time we devote to preschool daily, and if we have a particular time set aside for "school."

I started by backwards-planning. I looked at a kindergarten readiness checklist and, because I am preparing her for a Charlotte Mason Year 1, I took that into consideration, too.

Not only do I want her to know shapes and colors, I also want her to be exposed to classical music, to watch a caterpillar turn into a butterfly, to collect rocks, to learn memory verses, to listen to stories, to sing hymns, to visit museums, etc.

When my daughter was two, I went down the kindergarten readiness checklist, checking off the things she knew and teaching her the things she didn't. One example, we focused on the numbers 1 through 5 using Mathematical Reasoning Beginner 1. Another example, I gave her scissors and bought Kumon Let's Cut Paper books.

Now, we are doing kindergarten in terms of reading and math, but calling it preschool, and when she is in "kindergarten," I'll tell her she's in kinder, but we'll work on skills at whatever level she feels comfortable and challenged.

We do reading lessons and math lessons just about every day, including weekends. For reading, we use Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Last night, we completed Lesson 76. For math, we use all sorts of stuff, but our primary resource right now is Mathematical Reasoning Level A.

Lessons are SHORT. We only work for as long as she's engaged. If she becomes distracted, I close the book and stand up, which usually results in her pleading "nonono" and finishing the page she's working on. She can "do" math for 30 minutes. Her attention span for reading is shorter, maybe 15 to 20, but she plays a lot during her lessons. I highly recommend this. During reading, she dances or acts out words or runs out of the room for a prop.

We don't have a set school-time, but reading and math are done in the evening. (During the day, my husband takes our daughter to parks, ballet, Church Mice, co-op, etc.)

We read Bible stories, talk about what she learned in Church Mice, watch VeggieTales DVDs. We do science experiments and read Lets Read and Find Out books. My husband speaks to her in Spanish some of the time, and I'm adding in some more explicit vocabulary instruction. We go to museums for art and history. My husband plays just about every instrument and we've been talking about him starting piano with her using the Alfred curriculum. We're going to see The Nutcracker in December, so we've been dancing in the living room to Tchaikovsky. We completed Lollipop Logic Book 1. She learns a memory verse each month, like psalms, and is currently learning the Lord's Prayer set to music (Readeez's Our Father on YouTube). We work on please, thank you, listening to Mommy and Daddy, and other habits.

This is the gist of how we do preschool.

The Best Part of My Day

(a post by my three-year-old)

1)hanging on the slidy thing at the park
2)playing with Brooke-y
3)doing my art

Playing in the Backyard

Our Current Read Aloud

I am currently reading A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond, a couple of pages at a time, to my three-year-old. The movie comes out in January in the United States, and the trailer looks like it might actually be as sweet as the book.

If you haven't read the book (it's surprisingly not on many reading lists), it is about a bear from Peru. And because I find this an interesting fact, I'm sharing it with you: there is only one kind of bear native to South America -

The spectacled bear (Wikipedia user Cburnett)

Paddington is found by Mr. and Mrs. Brown in Paddington Station. He is all alone, a stowaway from Darkest Peru, in the station with not much more than a hat and a jar of marmalade. And he's so polite.

But he also makes some messes. At the station's buffet, he has an accident involving tea and buns, and gets jam and cream all over his fur. Then, while taking a bath (to wash off the jam and cream), he doesn't know how to turn off the water, so the tub overflows. The tub is too slippery for him to get out and, thinking he is going to drown, Paddington uses his hat to bale out water.

I wonder if Michael Bond based Paddington on a three-year-old?