Back to the Classics - Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was published in 1852.  Stowe was an abolitionist and wrote this novel as an attempt to educate her fellow citizens of the atrocities of slavery.  Here's a quote taken from the end of the novel:

"For many years of life, the author avoided all reading upon or allusion to the subject of slavery, considering it as too painful to be inquired into, and one which advancing light and civilization would certainly live down.  But, since the legislative act of 1850, when she heard, with perfect surprise and consternation, Christian and humane people actually recommending the remanding escaped fugitives into slavery, as a duty binding on good citizens, - when she heard, on all hands, from kind, compassionate and estimable people, in the free states of the North, deliberations and discussions as to what Christian duty could be on this head, - she could only think, These men and Christians cannot know what slavery is; if they did, such a question could never be open for discussion.  And from this arose a desire to exhibit it in a living dramatic reality.  She has endeavored to show it fairly, in its best and its worst phases.  In its best aspect, she has, perhaps, been successful; but, oh! who shall say what yet remains untold in that valley and shadow of death, that lies on the other side?"

According to this website, Uncle Tom's Cabin was banned at one point because "the contextual, historically and culturally accurate depiction of the treatment of Black slaves in the United States has rankled would-be censors".

This story was very moving.  It's kind of difficult to describe my feelings about it - it wasn't a hard read necessarily, but it wasn't an easy one, either.  There were times when I didn't want to pick it up because I wanted something lighter, but when I did pick it up, I quickly became engrossed in the story again.  There were tough things to read about (nothing gruesome, though, thankfully), especially knowing that events like these really did happen.

I know some may shy away from a book about this particular topic, but I'm glad I read it and highly recommend it, especially to Christians.  Stowe was obviously a Christian - the main character is a believer and the book is full of scriptural references.  It was chocked full of faith and trust in God.  And even though the topic of the book covers a difficult subject, it was also a very uplifting read.  I read it on my kindle and highlighted quite a bit.

Highly recommend.
5/5 stars

Linked up with the Back to the Classics Challenge

Back to the Classics: Persuasion (1817)

*Disclaimer - I'm not planning to give a synopsis of any of the books I review.  I don't like to read them in others' reviews because I can always find out what the book is about.  I do, however, enjoy reading why someone liked a book and what that person may have gotten out of it.  So, that is what I plan to do.

Persuasion (1817) by Jane Austen was a delight to read.  She is such a charming and insightful author.  The only other Austen I've read is Pride and Prejudice, but that was years ago so I can't really compare the two.  Although now I know that I'll definitely be reading more of her works!  (And I'm wondering why I haven't read more of her before now...)

The idea of persuasion and influence, and the consequences - good or bad - that can result from being influenced by others (or by influencing others), is the overarching theme of Persuasion.

"Anne wondered whether it ever occurred to him now, to question the justness of his own previous opinion as to the universal felicity and advantage of firmness of character; and whether it might not strike him that, like all other qualities of the mind, it should have its proportions and limits.  She thought it could scarcely escape him to feel that a persuadable temper might sometimes be as much in favour of happiness as a very resolute character."

Austen also wittingly describes the egocentric nature of humanity through the characters of Anne's family, especially her extremely vain and conceited father, and her absurdly self-absorbed sister, Mary.  Reading about them was almost laugh-out-loud funny, but at the same time brought to the surface my own selfish tendencies and attitudes and how ridiculous I can be at times.  :/

Austen writes so beautifully - this was the first "classic" I have read in a long time and I had to go slower than normal and look up so many words, lol!  But definitely worth the time (for me, especially, as I'm not a speed reader - I like to take it all in) and I know my mental muscles have grown :)

5/5 stars

What have you read lately?

Linked up with Back to the Classics Challenge

Rethinking our Charlotte Mason year - my schedule

Today I’m going to share with you my homeschool schedule.  This schedule reflects a general flow to our days rather than a we-do-this-at-this-time kind of schedule.  Also, at this point I have only one student - an almost 7 year old first grader.

I based this schedule off of the PNEU time tables.  I mainly looked at what was scheduled in the morning for form I students and for how long.  My schedule is tweaked, of course.  If you haven’t explored Nicole’s posts on scheduling, I encourage you to do so.

	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Morning Time
5	Poetry	Poetry	Poetry	Poetry	Poetry
15	Bible	Bible	Bible	Bible	Bible
10	Memory Work Hymn Poem	Memory Work Folk Song Psalm	Memory Work Hymn Poem	Memory Work Folk Song Psalm	Picture Study
Individual Lessons
20	Drawing	Handicraft	Drawing	Handicraft	Nature Journal
15	Math	Math	Math	Math	Math
15	History Great Americans	Lit Aesop	History 50 Stories	Lit Just So	Lit Blue Fairy/ Shakespeare
15	Reading Instruction	Reading Instruction	Reading Instruction	Reading Instruction	Reading Instruction
10	Nat History Pond & River	Geography Paddle	Nat History Burgess Bird	Object Lesson
10	Copywork	Copywork	Copywork	Copywork
10		Nat History		Geography
10	Spanish Salsa	Spanish Library	Spanish Salsa	Spanish Song

My grid tells me three things (as I outlined in my previous post).

1.  What to do – I have each subject plugged into a specific slot, along with a particular book for that subject, if needed.  So each week we will just get through what we can for that reading and continue where we left off the next week.  If we cannot read and narrate a whole chapter of Just So Stories, for example, no big deal, we'll just continue the next week.  Pressure off!  The books are in red type and are mostly taken from Ambleside’s year one list.  (I have made a change or two here and there.)

2.  How long to do each thing – The column on the far left has the suggested amount of time to complete each subject.  Again, I’ve made some tweaks here and there to best fit my child.  For example, on the time-tables copywork (or writing) was done for 20 minutes, but I’ve shaved that down to about 10 minutes.  We may take a little longer than the suggested amount of time for a particular subject, but never more than 20 minutes.

3.  What comes next – The grid shows the flow of subjects, i.e. what to do next.  I've tried to order the subjects so that there's some variety, and my child isn't doing the same type of work back-to-back, like two narrations in a row.

Also, it’s interesting to me how the PNEU schedules had drawing and handicrafts actually scheduled in the morning, rather than in the afternoon (which is where I would have a tendency to place subjects that fall under the category of "we’ll-get-to-them-if-we-can").  I think that shows the value placed upon those subjects.  (It makes me think of The Little Prince and how he lamented the fact that he was not taught to draw when he was a child.  Actually, lots to think about in that book in regards to childhood and what's most important in life.)

So that's a little bit of an overview.  I'll talk more about some details - books, morning time - of this schedule soon!

Rethinking our Charlotte Mason year

I emailed an online friend awhile ago and we chatted a bit about our homeschools and the feeling of being a *little* overwhelmed J  And I made the following comment to her:  we haven’t been narrating everything under the sun.

Now, before you throw anything at me, let me say that I understand and completely agree with Charlotte Mason’s method of narration.  I realized later that the reason I said that we haven’t been narrating everything in our curriculum is because we’re behind. 

I felt that I needed a picture somewhere in this post :)

 Then I got to thinking, why are we behind?  I read to my dd6 every day, at least twice a day (which is supposed to be the norm for year one), from our school books and she narrates.  The process lasts 15 to 20 minutes, which is the recommended amount of time for such a young child to spend on any one subject.  So why aren’t we getting through all the readings for the week?

Because my child can’t.  And that’s okay.  

Beauty and the Beast is a long fairy tale for a 6 year old to narrate.  So is Aladdin.  And the Tales from Shakespeare stories.  And the stories from Parables from Nature.  At least they’re long for my child to narrate.  We have to read and narrate a paragraph or two at a time (depending on how long the paragraph is, of course).  And again, that’s okay.

I love what Nicole says on her blog:  you have to fit the schedule/curriculum to the child, not the child to the curriculum.  It’s about the child.  I think CM was definitely about the child, and more concerned about an appropriate amount of time spent on a certain subject (depending on the age of the child), rather than getting through a certain number of pages.  Because if it’s about the latter, it’s not really about the child anymore.

And besides, we all know that our children are not going to be able to read every wonderful book in the world, and are not going to learn everything there is to learn in the world.  There will be gaps somewhere.  No one is complete in their education.  If they were, they would be on the same plane as God, and that’s impossible (and we shouldn’t strive for that anyways!).  We ultimately want our children to fall in love with learning, to pursue a relationship with God, and to pursue truth, goodness, and beauty.  How each child gets there will be different.

So, gleaning lots of wisdom from Christy Hissong in her two great posts (scheduling for peace and scheduling for peace revisited), and from Nicole, I’ve decided to cut back – not necessarily on the books, but on our schedule.  I’m going to take the AO year one books and stick them into our daily schedule, and not worry about if we finish what the AO schedule says we’re supposed to finish for that week.  We’re going to spend the suggested amount of time for each reading, getting through what we can, and the next week continue where we left off.

I think having a schedule is important, but what I do not mean when I say schedule is a schedule with times of the day.  For example, at 9:00 we do this and at 9:20 we do this, and so on and so forth.

By schedule I mean three things:
1.  Knowing what to do
2.  Knowing for how long to do each thing
3.  Knowing when to do each thing, i.e. what comes next

The times of day that each thing happens really depends on each family and how they can get each thing accomplished.  For me in particular, at this season of my life we usually cannot sit down at some time in the morning, before lunch, and accomplish everything in one sitting.  Things spill over into the afternoon on most days and that’s okay.  (Which, on a side note, I kind of like because I think it shows my children that learning is a part of our life and happens at any time, not just at a certain time of day.)

I’ll be back in a day or two to share our particular family’s schedule, so stay tuned!