Our Focus in this e-zine is: Attentiveness.

Each Keep on Track Issue endeavours to provide the reader with practical advice and food for thought.

The layout of the E-zine is as follows:

• Greetings from Marianne
• News
• Considering our Goals
• Curriculum Application
• Organizational Tips
• Coming soon

Greetings from Marianne

In Australia, we are enjoying the second month of spring - a change in the air, sweet smelling blossoms, wonderful array of colours and the sounds of birds. It's getting a bit easier to get out of bed in the morning and it's a good time of the year! On the other side of the globe, some of you are entering autumn and cooling down for winter - for me personally, I feel that I needed to put into practice the goal of perseverance through that season.

Wherever we are, and however we are feeling, it is good to be reminded that we all need to listen closely and watch carefully and so this month, we will focus on developing the character goal of attentiveness. God wants us to pay attention to things and events around us and this takes practice.

News

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Lastly, I added descriptions of curriculum, which I hope you will add your own review. I intend to add more to this section...also...

Considering the Goal of Attentiveness

"The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both." Prov 20:12

No doubt we are eager to have children who pay attention, listen to our words (with their ears), and concentrate and give close study to the world around them (with their eyes). These are indeed senses given to us by God for these purposes.

When I hear the word "attentiveness", I am immediately drawn to the writings of Charlotte Mason, who discusses in great detail the habit of attentiveness. Habits are formed, and when habits form, they are part of our lives which we do not need to struggle over anymore, because they are a regular, consistent activity that our body is used to.

Charlotte Mason describes attention as, "the act by which the whole mental force is applied to the subject in hand." Initially it is the parent who trains a child in the habit of attentiveness, and as the child becomes older, it is he or she who makes himself/herself attend to his/her work.

Charlotte Mason writes, "It is impossible to overstate the importance of this habit of attention. It is, to quote words of weight, 'within the reach of every one, and should be made the primary object of all mental discipline'; for whatever the natural gifts of the child, it is only in so far as the habit of attention is cultivated in him that he is able to make use of them."

Therefore, knowing the importance of developing this habit of attentiveness, let's turn our 'attention' on to how we can practically work at it in our lives.

• Firstly, Charlotte Mason says we must "secure that the child never does a lesson into which he does not put his heart." We need to be watchful ourselves as parents that our children do not form the habits of inattention. When children get into the habit of dawdling through a lesson, flitting their mind between what they should do and what they want to do, the lesson becomes an annoyance and a drawn-out affair - never quite finished. It is a waste of their time and of their brain. It is better to drop the lesson, and come to it afresh the next day or later on in the day than to encourage the habit of inattention.

  The Original Home Schooling Series, 6 Volumes By Charlotte Mason / Charlotte Mason Research

• Secondly, attention needs to be cultivated from young ages. Charlotte Mason talks about training a baby to fix their eyes on a play toy for a few minutes, rather than allowing their eyes to wander and never settle on an object. When we walk with our young children in the garden, it is our job as mums to bring their attention to a flower and focus their gaze on it. In Home Education Charlotte Mason describes how a mother seizes the moment and describes the plain daisy in terms of a "bright, yellow eye with white eyelashes round it; that all the day long, it lies there in the grass and looks up at the great sun, never blinking as the child would do, but keeping its eye wide open. And that is why it is called daisy, "day's eye", because its eye is always looking at the sun which makes the day. And what does Margaret think it does at night, when there is no sun? It does what little boys and girls do; it justs shuts its eye with its big lashes tipped with pink, and toes to sleep till the sun comes again int he morning. By this time, the daisy has become interesting to Margaret; she looks at is with big eyes after her mother has finished speaking..."(p140)
  

• Thirdly, the same attentiveness which is given to 'things' needs to be given to bookwork. Charlotte Mason writes that you should never let the child dawdle over their work. "When a child grows stupid over a lesson, it is time to put it away." She also speaks of the necessity of short lessons so that the child can dutifully concentrate on the task at hand and then turn their attention to another subject. It is also important to change the type of lesson - arrange their work so that the tasks which follow one another are varied. (mental / physical/ language/ maths).

• Fourthly, Charlotte Mason speaks about definite work in a given time. This is to train the child in habits of order and of diligence. This short amount of time - is especially set apart for a particular subject. She also speaks about natural rewards - if the work is completed in less time, the remaining time belongs to the child. And, conversely, the work not completed may mean that it will be completed when the rest of the family have finished.

  This in itself, can be motivation to finish on time, especially when the child can see the benefit that the other children receive - mum reading a book, playing a game, taking a walk and so on.

• Fifthly, we can train our children to be attentive by being consistent in our expectations. If our child expects us to read a spelling word five times over - he will not need to develop the listening ear until the fifth time. If they know that we will only read a passage once and then require a narration, they will be far more attentive. This also relates to obedience. We can train our children to listen to our requests the first time, or we can train them to ignore us until our voice reaches a certain volume. We all know how easy it is to slip into bad, inconsistent habits which only train our child in inattentiveness.

• Sixthly, we need to train them not only to listen carefully and be able to narrate after one reading, but also to secure their power of attention in observation. We can do this by playing observation games - memory, take a snapshot of a scene and then describe everything you see; draw all the objects in your bedroom (without being in the room) and so on.

Curriculum Application

Characters from History
Helen Keller
Miss Annie Sullivan (Helen Keller's Teacher)
- Movie: The Miracle Worker;
Alexander Graham Bell
Thomas Alva Edison
Louis Braille
Samuel Morse- attention to detail

Science
The Senses
The Ear - learn the parts; label the parts;
Make a huge ear to crawl through using chairs, blankets, boxes, balloon (over a cylinder for the drum), hammer, extension cord and so on.
(an idea we have used from KONOS) Discuss pitch, loudness measured in bels and decibels (after Alexander Graham Bell). Find out the differences in loudness between various sounds. Plot it on a graph
Play an identification game in which the child needs to identify various sounds.
Play Chinese whispers

The Eye
Learn and draw parts of an eye
Compare the eye to a camera;
Place a patch over one eye and test how this alters your vision. Try playing table tennis or catching a ball;

Literature
Read the life story of Alexander Graham Bell and the invention of the telephone;
Read the story of Helen Keller and her teacher
Read the lives of famous composers
Stories where characters do not listen and the consequences of this:

• Pinnochio - not attentive to instruction;
  
• Mr Toad in The Wind in the Willows
• Various characters in fairy tales
• Beatrix Potter's tales

Writing
The Tale of Jemima Puddle Duck - Beatrix Potter;
In which the Gentleman Fox tries to eat Jemima, the duck.
(This model can be used on any tale or fable.)
- Outline the tale; Make your own tale of the necessity of being attentive and careful by changing the characters
-Copy a paragraph from the tale. Reduce the tale to a key word outline; Now, re-write the paragraph and dress it up with adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases and so on.
-Make a drawing of the tale - draw a map;

Copybook -
Copy the famous words of Alexander Graham Bell when the telephone was tested.
Copy, "The Spider and the Fly" by Mary Howitt; The fly needs to be careful not to be flattered by the spider and eaten.
Copy Scripture passages which speak about attentiveness and listening. (or the opposite) (Proverbs and passages above).

Famous Speeches
Use these for copywork:
Alexander Graham Bell's speech when the telephone was tested. Speaking through the instrument to his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, in the next room, Bell utters these famous first words, "Mr. Watson -- come here -- I want to see you."
The first words of Helen Keller
Morse Code - first words: Samuel Morse sent the first telegraphic message (from Washington D.C. to Baltimore) on May 24, 1844; the message was: "What hath God wrought?"

Maths
Graph the loudness of variety of sounds;
Pay attention to detail: Children mark their own maths work - and find the problem; Locate errors in addition/ subtraction/ multiplication/ division problems.
Research what sounds animals and humans can hear.
Research and graph differing distances which animals and humans can hear;

Arts and Crafts
Train your eyes to observe; Draw a scene from your window
Draw exactly what you see without looking at your paper;
Enlarge an object by copying a picture using a grid; Be very particular with detail;
Practice mixing colours to copy a flower as accurately as possible; Then paint it;
Build models of an eye or ear with varied objects;
Carefully sketch a face - notice the distance between the eyes and the ears in relation to the oval face.
Draw caricatures by exaggerating the ears and eyes.
Origami - attention to detail;

Music
Make musical instruments using bottles with differing water levels; Stringed instruments with elastic bands; kazoos with a comb; Chimes with nails of different weights off a coat hanger; Jingle sticks with bottle tops onto wood or ping pong bats; Be creative!
List musical instruments in the orchestra; Listen to different music which highlights different instruments;
Ear Training: clap patterns to your child, and have them repeat it back to you; play notes on a recorder/keyboard/piano and have them repeat them back to you - or sing it back to you;
Sing a melody and ask your child to repeat it;
Ask your child to locate which key you play on a keyboard while they look in the opposite direction;
Identify rhythm - clap the beat or rhythm;
Learn an instrument; Learn to read music, beats etc; Play the recorder;
Make a song together as a family - using percussion and whatever instruments you can make or play.
Listen to Classical Kids CDs - an Introduction to Classical Composers

Excursions
Visit an optometrist - have an eye test;
Walk through the bush looking for animal clues - could you track an animal; Look for footprints; Cast tracks with plaster of paris
Go to a musical performance;
Visit a music shop and identify the instruments; Ask how the sound is made in each instrument.

Practical Living
Try to complete chores around the home blindfolded;
Practice first-time obedience;
Have a day of whispering to eachother;
Have a star chart for a week of the one who listens the best;
Discuss the healthy way to look after eyes and ears;
Read the Bible daily and listen carefully to what God is saying to you through His Word; Write a Bible journal of your quiet times;

Organizational Tips

The checklists remain similar each week, so that I don't need to create a brand new list each week. I change the data on the computer - as far as pages which need to be done; Spelling list numbers; Bible verse to be memorized, Personal Reading which needs to be completed and so on. The checklist is divided into three columns. "Time", "Assignment" "Check Box" in which the children place a tick when completed. Lately, we've been having a "Friday Shop" at the end of the week in which they add up all their ticks, double it and then buy certain items from our home-shop. I buy goodies for this - lollies, pencils, note pads, drinks, fruit, muesli bars, icy poles and so on which they can 'buy' with their points. In a sense, they earn their special Friday afternoon tea and this becomes a treat for them.

October Special!

The Homeschool Planner, in the month of October will be sold at the special price of $100.00Au. Get organized and Order Yours Now! Find out more about the Homeschool Planner!

Coming soon...