Morning Books & Wide Interests

I speak often of The Cloud of Witness, Charlotte Mason's gift to graduates of her school, resurrected in reprint by Nancy Kelly. I delight daily in its Scripture, verses, and other words of wisdom.

Recently I was leisurely walking the aisles of a local antique shop and discovered a little volume similar to The Cloud entitled The Optimist's Good Morning. This 1907 devotional by Florence Hobart Perin contains a poem and prayer for each day. I badly wanted it, but the price tag deterred me. Once home, I was able to find it on eBay for pennies compared to the price of the one I had seen. 

This edition from 1929 is in pristine condition, and makes a nice companion for The Cloud. I highly recommend quiet mornings lingering over both!

Selections from The Cloud of Witness

Selections from The Optimist's Good Morning

Part of a Charlotte Mason education is handicrafts: weaving, origami, sewing, knitting, woodworking, etc. I confess I have been weak in incorporating handicrafts in our school, as I don't enjoy doing them myself. I've often had the conversation with other CM moms who feel the same way, and we joke that Legos count. Imagine the thrill that went through my heart the other day when my girls spent several days creating houses for their Calico Critters. This is what our kitchen looked like: 

The beauty of imagination and a feast of ideas is that I did nothing to prompt this; they came up with it all on their own, and all I had to do was cheer them on. This project is still in progress, so my handicraft "worries" are over for now! I love that we have time in our day to do this, for my children to be kids, using their own creativity without me imposing my own ideas, telling them how it should be done.

I delight in the fact that my girls can be dangerous on a tennis court, yet still set up scenes like this: 

Little girls are growing up too fast these days. It gives me great pleasure that mine love their babies, dolls as well as stuffed animals, and take care of them. I love their wide interests, from Laura Ingalls to Serena Williams, from American Girl to Toby Mac. It's important to me that they have plenty of time for what's important: running in the open air, making "fairy houses" outside out of stones and dirt, swinging light sabres with our neighbor friends, hitting the tennis ball on the side of the house alone as well as with other kids at clinics, curling up with good books, building with Legos, doing chores like folding clothes, and so many other activities, some planned, some not. 

Speaking of a variety of interests, here is a recent photo I snapped of my favorite hockey player, Sidney Crosby: 

Hockey is a tremendous interest in our family, and we look forward several times a week to seeing how our Pittsburgh Penguins will perform. My girls love to follow the statistics, and are becoming experts on the game as well as the players, not just of the Pens, but of all teams. It has opened the door for learning about Canada as well as many US states, and has been a good way to teach the girls the national anthems of both countries!

Our most recent game was when I took the photo above, when the Pens slaughtered the Carolina Hurricanes, 7-1. We enjoy traveling to games, and look forward to making many trips in the future. It  enables us not only to cheer on our team in away locations, but to learn about these places that boast professional hockey teams. We hope to see our Pens play in Canada, too. 

My girl asked me if I'd play Clue with them this morning before school. As I hesitated (because we normally launch straight into school before games), she looked up at me and said, "But Mom, how can you resist this face?" I had to commend her negotiating skills; you can guess what I'll be doing before school...

Until next time!