We started back to school cheerfully enough. Our first couple weeks rolled right along, and I started to pat myself on the back for the fact that we had missed the Dreaded Winter Slump this year. Then the clouds rolled in. The kids started fighting. The basement―with its swings, slide, and giant exercise ball―had to be banned because of rule breaking (and furniture breaking). The temperature dropped, then rose, then dropped again, leading to blocks of solid ice clogging the streets and playgrounds. Mama stayed up too late one night, we skipped lessons one day, and the next day the whining “Do we HAVE to do school?!” started up.
By Sarah Lancaster It’s January, for a few more days anyway. Along with New Year’s Resolutions, cold weather, and trying to fit back into those pre-holiday jeans, January means Back to School for most of our families. For many of us, it also means the Dreaded Winter Slump. We started back to school cheerfully enough. Our first couple weeks rolled right along, and I started to pat myself on the back for the fact that we had missed the Dreaded Winter Slump this year. Then the clouds rolled in. The kids started fighting. The basement―with its swings, slide, and giant exercise ball―had to be banned because of rule breaking (and furniture breaking). The temperature dropped, then rose, then dropped again, leading to blocks of solid ice clogging the streets and playgrounds. Mama stayed up too late one night, we skipped lessons one day, and the next day the whining “Do we HAVE to do school?!” started up. So, here we are: the kids are grumpy; mom is overtired and short-tempered; the school-books look less and less appealing; and even our favorite activities have lost their luster. It’s a dull, grey, cold January day and my motivation is nowhere to be found. What’s a homeschool parent to do?
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By Heather Lee I had originally planned on offering six colors for the art kit, but decided on 3 colors for two reasons. Offering only three colors will allow me to provide more of each color. But more importantly, I chose a three color palette to show what you can do with only three colors for those on a very limited budget. For a bit over $30, you can use artist grade paints, and create spectacular paintings. Here is a color wheel I made using the three colors we are offering. No worries on how to make one as yet. That will be part of the dry brush session. Note the range of only three pigments, and that is not to speak of value (light and dark) that can be created by adding more or less water, or hue by adding more of one color or less of another. And with just those three colors, I painted this. I did fudge a bit, though. My secret weapon is a small bottle of ProWhite, which can be found at Amazon for a bit over $8. I use it sparingly, so one small bottle goes a long way. An artist can try to conserve white spaces in various ways. I prefer to add the white spaces after I have completed everything else. I will bring it to the session and talk about it, and demonstrate how to use it, but it will not be part of the kit, as it is liquid and will not dry and form a cake like the watercolors.
By Dawn Rhymer We are excited to offer optional Dry Brush Kits for sale in conjunction with the Charlotte Mason Education Retreat and Heather Lee's Nature Study and Dry Brush Workshop. We are only able to offer these sets to those attending the retreat. The kit consists of a folding plastic palette, a fine point water brush, and samples from three artist grade paints. All of these items are prefect for taking along on nature walks with your children or for times spent quietly painting on your own. Heather introduced me to the water brushes, and my children and I are grateful to no longer have to deal with water in our nature study backpacks or spilled water in the field. Also, if you have never tried artist grade paints, now is the time to try and see what they are like without committing to the expense of full tubes of paint. Heather wrote much on paints in her Getting Started With Watercolors blog. The kit costs $13.00. We need to have your order by February 4th. Please see the bottom of this post for placing your order. You may pay for the kit at the retreat. Please notice the kit does not include a nature journal. However--hint, hint--you do NOT need to bring a nature journal to the retreat. We have a surprise for you. If you already have a palette and brush, you may choose to only buy the paints for $3.00. If you are not choosing to buy anything, that is fine, but please do remember to bring your own paint and brush for Heather's workshop. The kits are no longer available for order.
By Jennifer Taylor "Justice requires that we should take steady care every day to yield his rights to every person we come in contact with; that is, "to do unto others as we would that they should do unto us: to hurt nobody by word or deed." -Mason, Ourselves This week we pause to remember, and seek to live into the dream given us by Dr. Martin Luther King. As America's preeminent civil rights activist, Reverend King led an organized, nonviolent resistance movement seeking freedom, equality, and justice for African Americans. Each year I sit down with my children to recap this watershed moment in US history by watching Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech. I cry every time. He was an incredibly gifted orator who captured imaginations and inspired change by offering through poetic passion a brighter vision for our shared future. Watch the full speech here:
By Silvia Cachia We live in the outskirts of Houston. Still we are enveloped in a city-like setting. Huge. Crowded. Traffic always dense and sometimes impossible. Our parks are very minimal, very manicured, and we have tiny, tiny curbs so we cannot walk to many places. We need cars for our nature walks, cars we drive to our secluded and untamed places.
With the retreat being just over six weeks away, excitement is growing and the speakers and retreat coordinators are hard at work behind the scenes. Some of you may have noticed we have SIX speakers and only FIVE workshops in our schedule. How do we fit it all in? What do we cut? Much thought and prayer has been given to this problem; a back-of-the-envelope* schedule has been worked and reworked. However, until recently, no amount of tweaking resulted in a schedule which seemed peaceful and reflected our heart behind the Charlotte Mason Educational RETREAT. Every change took away precious free time, time for reflection, relationship building, spontaneous conversation, and pushed the retreat further down the spectrum toward a conference. The solution which finally presented itself was to break one of the speaker's workshops into mini-workshops and optional chats and intersperse them throughout the retreat. The decision was made to do this with Dawn Rhymer's workshop on Narration. Her mini-workshops will take place during Workshops II, III, and IV on Friday. Two informal chats have been added on Thursday and Friday night. This change allows us to continue to guard the quiet times of the retreat and still spread an abundant feast. *Back-of-the-envelope: a phrase usually used with rough calculations jotted down and worked out on a slip of scrap paper. The phrase has been associated with multiple famous physicists.
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