Seven Quick Takes: CM Myths, a Blog Award, Book Buying, and More!

Oh, October is going to be so great! The guest posts for my series Busted: 31 Days of CM Myths are beginning to roll in, and they are fantastic. I am so excited. We’ve got a lot of great authors from last year, such as Karen Glass and Celeste from Joyous Lessons, and also some newbies, like Jennifer Dow.

The topics are also great. I had help building this list from friends at Ambleside Online, as well as the opinionated Mystie Winckler and Pam Barnhill. Like a lot of things, I could have done okay on my own, but all the contributions are making it something far beyond.

We’re going to cover all sorts of interesting topics. Whether it’s the intersection between Charlotte Mason and the principles of classical learning, time spent outside, math and science in the CM curriculum, and so — there will be something for everybody.

I’m working on a couple other Top Secret Blog-Related Projects as well. Don’t worry. I’ll be telling you about them very, very soon. But in the meantime, if posting around here slows a tiny big, that’s why. It’ll be worth it in the end!

One of the other projects I’m working on is AO’s upcoming Mother’s Education Course. This has nothing to do with the blog projects, but it is adversely affecting my budget, so I thought I’d mention it. I keep finding books from Miss Mason’s original course that I have to have, you know? Especially when I find other places where they are basically called “the best books on education ever,” and then I go and find them at an unusually good price.

This is my latest purchase:

It’s Levana: The Doctrine of Education by Richter. And it’s sublime.

We got a blog award, My Dear Afterthinkers! We did, we did! Courtesy of The Duchy of Burgundy Carrots, which almost always makes me laugh, we are officially an Inspiring Blog.

We are very thankful for this. We are supposed to reveal seven previously unknown things about ourselves. We just realized this could have been our entire post for today.

We’ll try and be quick, since it is not our entire post.

1. I am legally blind, but do fine with gas permeable contact lenses.
2. My husband is a twin. {Maybe you knew?}
3. When I was about 10, I won a Crayola drawing contest. We were supposed to draw ourselves in the future. I drew myself as a writer. Hence the blogging compulsion.
4. Most of the women in our family are clumsy. This makes for good stories when we get together.
5. We, unfortunately, do not live near any of my children’s first cousins, but many of my first cousins stayed in the area and so what does that make the relationship? First cousin once removed? Second cousin? I’m not sure. Anyhow, there are 12 of them locally, and so they still get to experience cousin-ness, which makes me happy.
6. I’m still waiting for my first gray hair. This is pretty much my only source of vanity, which means I’ll probably grow one now that I’ve announced it. I’m also painfully aware that I sound just like my father right now…
7. Sometimes, on Fridays, when I have no clue what to feed my children for lunch, I just take them to Costco. I stock up on pantry items and they wander from booth to booth getting snacks. Problem solved.

I keep meaning to write an update post concerning our schedule for this year. Until I have time to do that, I just have to say that it’s going swimmingly. I’ve had to move a couple things around, but mostly we’re able to do it as written, which is really nice…and saves me a ton of time lost in reconfiguration, of course! I will say that it’s taking me a lot of willpower to do composition and Grammar of Poetry, having scheduled it near the end of the day.

I could move it.

I know that.

But this time, I’m choosing to confront the monster inside that wants to stop before it is time. We did GoP yesterday, and it was great. I’m glad we didn’t quit.

In an attempt to make a final grasp at summer, we headed to Ventura again last Saturday. I think this is a record for us; we’ve been there four times this year so far. Granted, all but once was a day trip, but still. I would almost begin to classify us as fun, which is usually unthinkable.

There had been a hurricane off the coast, and so the beach we normally visit was too violent. Instead, we turned to Mother’s Beach near the harbor entrance. It acts more like a lake, which means A-Age-Ten and E-Age-Twelve were able to swim far out to the buoys and back.

— 7 —

Did I mention E-Age-Twelve is taking a logic class out of the home this year? I think I did. It is so wonderful to have him being taught by someone who is…well…not me. They’re using The Art of Argument, about which I’ve heard good things.Not that it matters.

Honestly, our pastor, who is teaching the class, is such a good teacher that I doubt the curriculum is of much consequence. He’s definitely one to drive the curriculum, rather than being driven.

More importantly there are a whole bunch of other boys around his age in the class, and I think that’s good for him, too.