Grocery store/Supermarket field trip

A few weeks ago we joined the local playgroup in visiting Publix. We all got fashionable hairnets first before heading to the bakery. There we saw cakes being decorated, felt some cool bread dough between our fingers, tasted a cookie, and gawked at the enormous ovens.

Next stop was the produce department where we stepped into the giant refrigerator (c-c-cold..!) and saw a lady cutting pineapple chunks, preparing fruit bowls.

The children loved the seafood department, where a lobster waved hi to them (the seafood guy picked him up and touched him just so he could greet us with his big claw).

They got a quick tour of the meat department and were whisked away to the deli, where we tasted some popcorn chicken and tried some Boars Head ham. Yum.

By the cards the children each got balloons and a goodie bag with a puréed fruit pouch, a banana, a coloring book, crayons, and stickers. They all had a great time.

Thanks to the friendly folks at Publix who made this a memorable and educational day!

What Charlotte Mason Thought of Children

Charlotte Mason was neither idealistic or negative in her view of children. Her view of children is that children are born persons. They are neither good or bad, but the potential to be either good or bad. In this way, nurture plays an important role in helping to develop the character of the child.

How does the educational system at large view children? As persons, or products? As blank slates waiting to be filled, or human beings already born with a great capacity to learn? Children are by no means born already completely ready to grow without any help at all. They are, however, persons. needing the tools, skills, knowledge, and experience to achieve a great level of education, and, a meaningful life. As I reread Charlotte Mason's Home Education, I realize not only how right she was, but how the nature vs. nurture debate is moot. Children are both born with a certain nature but need careful nurturing to reach their full potential as adults.

Here's a video, put out by Amblesideschools.com, that elaborates on what I'm talking about. When we cease to think of children as products, we will cease to put them through a system. Education is about methods, demands of us individualized care, attention, and nurture consistently, over a long period of time. The toughest job one may have, but the most important job one may ever hope to have.

Summer Activities

The second week of our six-week summer vacation was all but over. The first week we went to Aruba, and the second week, as we were recuperating from our trip, we eased into doing some readings and projects.

- Leonardo Da Vinci World of Inventors
- Chemistry kit, Solids and Gases by ScienceWiz
- Sculpey Clay
- Galaxy kit

Ballerina and I worked on this little lizard with the Sculpey clay I got her for her birthday. I like the feel of the Sculpey clay and the fact that it never hardens. If you want it to, just bake it in the oven.