Thoughtworthy (Giveaway Winners, New Pets, Podcast Recommendation, and MORE!)

:: 1 ::

We had a couple new additions to the microhomestead this past week. This summer, both girls lost their rabbits. Daughter A.’s was injured by our dog when she escaped from her cage. She lived quite a while afterward, but never really recovered. Daughter Q.’s rabbit, on the other hand, being on the older side, just didn’t handle the heat very well, unlike the previous summers. They were devastated and have been asking for rabbits all. the. time. ever since. “I need something to take care of,” says A-Age-Eleven.

Well, I’ve learned to be cautious about where (or from whom!) we purchase rabbits. One year we got a beautiful rabbit from a breeder who never interacted with her rabbits and the result was that we later sold said rabbit because she was scary. I was afraid to put my hand in the cage because of her biting!

We have a breeder we love, and she finally had babies ready this week. On Monday, we went and picked them up. They have the best temperaments and were definitely worth the wait.

Meet Autumn and Van Gogh:

You can probably tell by looking at him where Van Gogh got his name — he’s got just a little nub of an ear. He’s so cute and just about the friendliest rabbit we’ve ever had.

:: 2 ::

I discovered a new podcast recently and I am loving it so far. It’s called Pints with Aquinas. Many of you know that I fell in love with Aquinas’ Summa Theologica a number of years ago when I was trying to comprehend the fullness of a certain fresco in Florence, Italy. Anyhow, this podcast is super handy. If you aren’t familiar with Summa Theologica, it’s important to note that the format is something along the lines of:

• Ask a question
• List the best objections to an affirmative answer
• Explain why all those objections are incorrect
• Mike drop

Or something.

This podcast is set up to go through one question — with all the objections and counters — at a time. It’s very Catholic, of course. Even though Aquinas preceded the Reformation, Protestants have hesitated to embrace him. Personally, I think this is a mistake. I mean, yes, there are some differences in doctrine. But I found those differences to be far less than I expected, while the similarities were everywhere. Aquinas was one of the clearest — if not the clearest — thinkers in history. This is an easy way to get a taste of him.

:: 3 ::

I’ve perfected my sugar-free mocha recipe even more! I wanted a way to round out the flavor without adding extra sweetener or more chocolate syrup. It dawned on me that salt is always a good way to round out something sweet. It worked well. So, here is my revised list of ingredients:

• Coffee (I prefer French press)
• Heavy cream
• NuNaturals NuStevia Cocoa Syrup
• 1 pinch of unrefined salt (I use Real Salt but I’m sure Himalayan Salt would also be good)

:: 4 ::

Congratulations to Jennifer Stephens, winner of the Third Day Naturals giveaway! I’m so happy for you! I think you all know that I adore Third Day Naturals. The products are perfect for all the sensitive skin we have around here — plus I prefer to put food-based products on my skin since I know skin tends to absorb what’s put on it. Anyhow, if you are still looking for a great gift, or even stocking stuffers, make sure you use my code AT20 which will give you 20% off anything in the TDN store!

:: 5 ::

This month in 2013:

I had been wary of a book on Charlotte Mason notebooking, and I couldn’t have been more wrong!

:: 6 ::

This week’s links collection:

• The Death of Self-Education, the Death of the West from The Imaginative Conservative
  • “Without a major autodidactic push to learn the classic works that formed our civilization, the West’s storehouse of knowledge is in serious danger of becoming nothing more than an artifact…”
• Realistic Day Planner Only Includes First Couple Weeks After Purchase from The Onion
  • Ha!
• Restless temperament from The Times Literary Supplement
  • Interesting. I think it’s good to consider all sides of the issue when it comes to something like ADHD. With that said, the inability to control one’s own attention is still an issue, regardless of how long the issue has been around. But of course, as Charlotte Mason educators, we’d say this requires a deliberate training of habit, not medication!
• How Does An Island Feel? Raising Gifted Children In A World That Turns Its Back from Thought Catalog
  • Raising children with high IQ’s can be a challenge in its own way. Of course, correcting magnesium deficiencies can go a long way in making it much easier. Or, at least, that’s my opinion.

:: 7 ::

Answering your questions:

• Question: I’ve been homeschooling “since the beginning” … now my oldest is in ninth grade and I’m lost. I gave into the pressure for an open-and-go curriculum and bought Sonlight History of the Christian church … it’s overwhelming! I’m trying to mix CM with it and it’s quite difficult. Do you have any suggestions? I can’t return the curriculum because all the books have been labeled.
  • Answer: First off: I’m sorry! That’s hard! And I completely understand wanting to salvage it all since you’ve already used your budget! I can think of three possible options for you, but maybe the Afterthinkers around here will also share some ideas in the comments? I hope so!
    1. Sell it used and use the money you get to buy the curriculum you really want. It’s possible you could also do this in part, which will make more sense when we get to the other options. I’m not familiar with how Sonlight works, but I checked out what I think is the package you’re referring to, and many of the books would be worth keeping.
    2. Use Charlotte Mason’s methods with what you have. This might mean paring the curriculum down. But this is mainly history and literature, right? So you could schedule in the best books and do readings followed by narration (written or oral), and then schedule the other subjects (math, sciences, etc.) around your history. The videos in my posts Creating Simple Matrices and Blank Templates and Creating Weekly Schedules for the Entire Year might help you think through how to do this.
    3. Spread this out into something like AmblesideOnline. Many of these books are used in AO and so if you are willing to spend more money to round out the year, you really could use most of these books in other places over the next four years. I’d say about half of the books at least could be used this way. If you have younger children, you could use some of the books in lower years as well. This would leave you with some leftovers that you could either sell, or keep for free reading options. Here are some examples:
       • AO assigns apologetics books starting in 7th grade. The ones you have are sufficient (at least one is on the AO list!). You could just schedule them out about one per term until you finish them all, then start using the AO list from there.
       • The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is AO Y10.
       • The Gammage Cup is AO Y7 free reading.
       • Jane Eyre is AO Y10 free reading.
       • Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH is AO Y4 free reading.
       • Oliver Twist is AO Y5, but worth reading older if your child hasn’t read it before.
       • Pride and Prejudice is AO Y9.
       • Robinson Crusoe is AO Y4.
       • Romeo and Juliet is listed — Charlotte Mason students read 2-3 Shakespeare plays per year. This could be one of them! (Same goes for any other Shakespeare plays you purchased.)
       • The Screwtape Letters is AO high school free reading.
       • The Shining Company is a good book. Keep it for free reading.
       • Till We Have Faces is AO Y12.

       I didn’t go through every single book, but do you see what I mean? There is a lot of overlap between what you own and what a “real” Charlotte Mason curriculum might use. I don’t have time in this space to get more detailed than this, but I really think that you don’t have too bad of a collection if you want to just change how you schedule and implement. The important thing to note is that it will all work out okay in the end. Truly. Why? Because a lot of these books are really, truly good books.

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