Madam How and Lady Why: Preface - A Narration

This is a narration of the Preface of Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley.

In the time the author wrote this book, it was easy to find beautiful books with lovely pictures to learn from, but it wasn't always that way. Books when the author was a child were much more dull. However, there was one book that he remembered learning from that had stuck with him and one story in particular from it that he wished to share with his children. It is about eyes and no eyes.

There was a school that was reopening after being closed for a holiday session. The teacher asked one student, Robert, where he had come from and what he had seen. Robert replied that he had walked through the woods, hadn't seen a soul, and that he had been so bored he wished he had walked by the turnpike. Another boy walked into the class, dressed in his school clothes but showing the signs of having been playing in the mud. The teacher asked this boy, William, where he had been and what he had seen. William replied, "Oh, I have had the most delightful walk!" He explained that he had walked through the woods and showed a handkerchief full of treasures he had found along the way. He saw a peewit that he chased into a swamp. He chatted with a man who was cutting sod and showed him how to cut sod himself. He found a piece of mistletoe that he was wanting to identify. He climbed a hill and saw a glorious view, and then remembering the name of the hill was something like Fort Mount, he looked to see if there was an old Roman fort, and sure enough, he found one and explored it. Then he found his way to the school.

The teacher wisely said to the children, "There are two kinds of people in this world, those who use their eyes to see all that is around them, and those who might as well not have eyes for they do not use them. William, continue to see all that is around you. Robert, learn to use the eyes you have."

So we must use our eyes to see the world God made. The Universe is God's Book and the reading of God's Book is Science. Of course there is much more truth in the world that cannot be seen and heard and touched, but we must start there. When we study the truths we find in Nature we will begin to know the One who made it all.

Learning Through AO Year 4 Myself

As a family, we have been learning and growing together under the influence of the ideas of Charlotte Mason for three years now. What a beautiful and tender way to flourish together! My children have soaked in so much truth and found joy in many new ideas and things over the years. And I couldn't be left behind! I've read and delighted alongside them.

However, there is at least one area that I am falling behind them. I do not narrate as regularly as the kids do and it is beginning to show! I am forgetting too quickly what I should have made more effort to retain!

In an attempt to remedy that lacking, I am embarking on a personal journey. I am beginning to study through AmblesideOnline's Year 4 for myself, complete with narrations for each reading. Yikes -- that sounds terribly ominous and intimidating. I am not saying I will complete it all in a year's time, but I will at least make a beginning of it, partake of the feast as I am able, and narrate each reading before moving on. I'm hoping writing about this here and also having a plan will keep me accountable!

 First narration to be posted post haste!

Commonplace Entry: September 30, 2016

"There was nothing to be spoken, for there was nothing to be concealed between these two souls as clear as glass. Each knew all which the other meant; each knew that its own thoughts were known."

~Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley, Chapter 3

"Plato spoke of the necessity for divine madness in the poet. It is a frightening thing to open oneself to this strange and dark side of the divine; it means letting go our sane self-control, that control which gives us the illusion of safety. But safety is only an illusion, and letting it go is part of listening to the silence, and to the Spirit."

~Walking on Water by Madeleine L'Engle, Chapter 1

"Leonard Bernstein tells me more than the dictionary when he says that for him music is cosmos in chaos. That has the ring of truth in my ears, and sparks my creative imagination. And it is true not only of music; all art is cosmos, cosmos found within chaos. At least all Christian art (by which I mean all true art...) is cosmos in chaos. There's some modern art, in all disciplines, which is not; some artists look at the world around them and see chaos, and instead of discovering cosmos, they reproduce chaos on canvas, in music, in words. As far as I can see, the reproduction of chaos is neither art, nor is it Christian."

~Walking on Water by Madeleine L'Engle, Chapter 1

Walking on Water by Madeleine L'Engle: Chapter 1

The author begins this book by humbly describing her wrestling with accepting the challenge of writing it in the first place, this book about the Christian faith and art. To her, all good art is Christian, as it points to the Creator. There is no such thing as Christian art as separate from secular art. Rather, all art has this holy awe of being something outside the artist, a work of obedience by the artist to surrender to the work itself, to give up being in control, and to serve the work itself as well as the community at large by producing the work. Ms. L'Engle sees the reality of angels and feels the impression of that vision on her work, recognizing the supernatural as a door into the beautiful. She acknowledges that it is the difficult times, where there is ugliness and harsh reality to grapple with, that the ability to see the fairies and angels and the magic all around is what can give the artist the ability to create true art.

*I'm forgetting some key ideas I'm sure, but this writing was more flow of consciousness than ordered narrative, so I'm adjusting to that!*

Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: Chapters 1 and 2

*Disclaimer* I read these chapters in an abridged version without realizing it at first.

Our story begins with a couple of sailors telling tales of their adventures on the seas, especially of all the gold that they almost secured, but thankfully they know where to return to finally claim this treasure. A young man, still a school boy, is passing and perks up at the hearing of these tales. Known to be the local bully, though with good intentions, he is a strong and stout hearted boy. He asks to see a relic, a map carved in a bone, being passed around as evidence of the veracity of these sailors' claims. He pledges that his heart yearns for the sea and he wants to travel with the sailors, Mr. Oxenham and Salvation Yeo, on their next voyage, and asks to buy this relic. Mr. Oxenham happens to know the boy's father and invites himself to dine with the family, as well as the honorable Sir Richard Grenville.

The young man, Amyas Leigh, has never told his parents about his longing for the sea, but he goes home and does so now. Mr. Oxenham arrives and spins his tales, asking for young Amyas to be allowed to travel with him to sea. He does not succeed in obtaining his request, however, as Mr. Leigh replies that Amyas needs to learn to be a gentleman first, and then be trained properly as a sailor. Mr. Oxenham is disappointed and as he is getting ready to leave, he sees a white bird that is invisible to everyone else, which is a bad omen for his upcoming journey.

Life goes on for young Amyas. His father trains his further in the ways of a true gentleman, in hunting and riding and sport. His brother Frank moves out of the home and is travelling abroad to study. Mr. Leigh dies and Amyas asks Sir Richard Grenville to act as his father. He continues to go to school and bully his classmates, including the teacher's son. After a brawl with the teacher himself, in which Amyas cracked a slate over his head, Amyas is soon sent on a sailing expedition with Sir Francis Drake himself.

He returns five years later much respected and honored as he reunites with his family and friends in his hometown of Bideford. The town throws a great welcome celebration and pageant for Amyas and the four other sailors who are returning. Amyas is disappointed that one person whom he would particularly like to see is not there - Rose Salterne, the mayor's daughter and the girl that he could not get out of his thoughts during those years away at sea. She is the desire of all the men in the county, and has more suitors than she knows what to do with. Her father has kept her away from the celebration to keep her from falling for Amyas, for a merchant's daughter like herself ought not to throw herself at the son of a gentleman.

Worst blogger ever

I truly am the least consistent blogger ever!

But for my own sake, and following the lead of other mommas out there, I am changing the purpose of this little haven for at least a short while. I am learning the skill of narrating, which I have been teaching to my children for the past couple years, but am now realizing I need to better hone myself!

A working definition of narration for now: the act of telling back, for the purpose of doing the difficult mental work of organizing ideas and thoughts and cementing them in the mind and soul, preparing for many future connections with other ideas that are to come.

I require my children to "tell back" each lesson that we learn during our homeschooling day, and I would like to require the same of myself. We'll see how this goes...

Wise Words: January 16, 2016

"A hundred years hence, absolute monarchy will probably be rendered necessary in our country by the corruption of our people."  ~ Benjamin Rush

"For, let us not make a mistake, all sin, even all crime, is accomplished in thought. Word and act are but the fruit of which the received and permitted thought is the seed. The battle of life for each of us lies in the continual repetition of what seems a most trifling act - the rejection of certain thoughts when they come. This is how we shall keep our soul as a fortress."  ~ Charlotte Mason (Ourselves, Book II, Ch. 18)