Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Keeping Company :: May 2017

Happy May!  Last month I promised a round-up of nature study shares in honor of spring, and I will get to that just as soon as I share some favorite blog posts from April.


From This Month
You are in for a treat: Melanie wrote a poem about Keeping this month!  It rings so true in its acknowledgement of what happens when the "busy" of life takes over, both to our practices and to our mindset-- and how our practices then shape our mindset and perpetuate the cycle.  It's such a thoughtful exposition.  Melanie, thank you for sharing your heart with us.

Melissa at Drywood Creek just finished blogging through her study of Consider This and is now getting started on Volume 1, Home Education. I know so many people reading that volume right now! If you'd like to read along with Melissa, check out what she has to say about the preface.

We did a wonderful nature exchange with Lisa's family a couple years ago, and now she shares her latest exchange with a Charlotte Mason family and the journaling that resulted from it. Such a fun addition to homeschool days!

Carol always makes such rich connections among the books she has going. This month is no exception.

More bits and pieces from A Feast of Books, including fiction, educational philosophy, religion, history, audiobooks and more!  It has been an exciting month of reading in their home.

One last favorite from this month: Amy on Gladys Taber on clotheslines.

On to some tips to inspire your spring nature journaling from the Instagram community:

a family round-up after an exciting outing -- from sarah_jonna

Having trouble fitting it into your day? How about popping the journals into your Morning Basket?

jenbrownsnow

Or taking them out to the yard for a fresh (or not so fresh, as the case may be! LOL) perspective:

brc_mackenzie

Maybe summer is the perfect time to take on the entry-a-week challenge?

raisinglittleshoots
Or work your sights into a monthly spread...

amyofhearthridge
Scared of the blank page? Tape your drawing or painting in!

hazelnuthatch
 Or grab some spring blooms from the garden as your inspiration!

msjschole

Have you begun a Calendar of Firsts yet?

erinnadolski

Grab your favorite supplies and do some sketching!

angelaboord

h5manriquez

Or just make a list -- one of my favorite ways to get something down on the page.

tillberrytales

Practice your color matching on something bright and beautiful.

greenmangomama

Or vary your format and do some pressing-and-mounting!

alanahomeschool

Starting the Discussion
What I'd really like to talk about this month is our family Keeping over the course of this past year and some thoughts on which formats were most successful for my students in each Form.  But considering that I am knee-deep in sorting, culling, and filing our accumulated school paperwork, I haven't had time to do my end-of-year scanning quite yet. So I'm planning to share those next month.  If you also would like to share examples of your assigned notebooking as you finish up the school year, please do, and then we can chat about that next time!  I think a great set of examples and ideas from a variety of moms goes a long way in brainstorming for the coming year's school plans.

For this month, I'll chat a bit about my own practices from these past few weeks...

My friend Dawn invited me to share about nature journaling over at Pam Barnhill's blog. I got the chance to chat about how I got started and also the postures most important to beginning a nature journal from the Charlotte Mason perspective.  Head over to read more.


And this, which I shared on Instagram a couple weeks ago from my commonplace:

Was wondering as I came downstairs this morning why the whole front room was tinted orange. Turned around and saw this out the windows.
And then sat down and opened up The Cloud of Witness to this: "Arise! This day shall shine for evermore, To thee a star divine on Time's dark shore! Till now thy Soul has been all glad and gay; Bid it awake and look at Grief today!"
Darkness in light. Light in darkness. Thinking.
Now it's your turn...

The Link-Up

Instructions:
:: For bloggers: Click on the "Add my link" button below, and it will prompt you to include the information for your post.  Once you submit it, your link will be added to the list, and others will be able to click over and read what you have shared.
:: For Instagrammers: Tag related photos with #KeepingCompanyCM.

Guidelines:
:: Remember to link to a specific post and not to your blog's homepage. 
:: Any posts about CM-style Keeping are welcome!  The prompt is optional.  Your post can be as simple as a photo of your commonplace book or your kids drawing.
:: Feel free to add more than one post.  The link-up will be open for a month, so you can come back and add more if you are so inclined.
:: You can grab the button over there on the sidebar if you'd like to add it to your post or site.



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