"St Augustine defines virtue as ordo amoris, the ordinate condition of the affections in which every object is accorded that kind of degree of love which is appropriate to it.11 Aristotle says that the aim of education is to make the pupil like and dislike what he ought.12 When the age for reflective thought comes, the pupil who has been thus trained in 'ordinate affections' or 'just sentiments' will easily find the first principles in Ethics; but to the corrupt man they will never be visible at all and he can make no progress in that science.13 Plato before him had said the same. The little human animal will not at first have the right responses. It must be trained to feel pleasure, liking, disgust, and hatred at those things which really are pleasant, likeable, disgusting and hateful."

CS Lewis The Abolition of Man

Friday, January 25, 2013

Encouraging One Another to Press On

I have 45 minutes to get this post up before I start MT. For the record, that puts MT at 11:00 A.M. We are doing this today because the boys can work on their own until then so it really doesn't affect them and Andrew does not have baseball practice today due to light wind....JK....I do see a bit of ice on the road.  Sing Hey for ice.

We had a very good MT yesterday and when that happens it reminds me why I press on with MT because sometimes it seems to be a very difficult thing to pull off. It means stopping everything I am already doing like blogging or listening to 6 Months That Changed the World ( Modern Scholar) or looking at European travel guides (just in case.)

One of the most helpful things that MT provides is a chance to fill in the gaps of common knowledge in my children. I often find myself shocked at what my children do not know (yesterday Alex said he had never heard of George Washington cutting down the cherry tree) and surprised at what they do know (he did know quite a bit about Copernicus.)

(NOTE: I don't suppose it really matters that Alex didn't know something that probably isn't true but still....quite shocking.)

As much as I preach about certain things, MT and nature study, I constantly need to be reminded myself to keep on track.  This year our monthly CM moms meeting is concentrating on nature study and we have taken quite a few excellent hikes as a group but then the holidays rolled in and bad weather. Our meeting this week was so helpful to me to get me back on track in making nature hikes and nature notebooks a priority. Even when we can't hike we can draw in our nature notebooks. Nature is everywhere.  Now if I could only get it together on making a decent dry brush watercolor painting!!



We all need to encourage one anther to press on. I am so thankful for Jeannette Tulis and our local girls who always inspire me.

Yesterday, while waiting for Andrew, I read two delightful chapters in The Mind of the Maker. I hope to blog about them both before tomorrow.

And I still have to call the refrigerator repairman.....


Posted by Cindy Rollins at 1/25/2013 10:34:00 AM
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5 comments:

  1. Cindy, this is one of the reasons I hope you don't hang up your blogging shoes. Your are a steady source of encouragement to keep on keepin' on. Thank you.

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    Replies

    1. In conquer with Trisha!

      It seems homeschooling is a lot like Scripture where we don't need to hear new things as much as we need to be reminded of old things over and over again. :)

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  2. Hello,
    I recently found your blog through Circe. Will you, please, give me a list of the best posts to describe what MT is? I am homeschooling kids 6, 5, 4, and 1..... Morning times can get a little wonky around here!
    Thanks for blogging! I recently bought all the books you listed for little boys and what a blessing they have been!
    Thank you,
    Karrie Ann

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  3. just want to say that i follow and get your posts in my e-mail and thereby benefit greatly...
    and i AM encouraged to press on, particularly by posts just like these. so, thank you ;)

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  4. Hi to the young moms reading this...since I only have slightly more than 50% of the number of kids Cindy has, this might only be half as encouraging, but here goes.... (and since I love the way she's opened this up for conversation....)
    I still have a lot of books on my shelf, books I will not part with. They have happy memories associated with them. I look at them and get warm fuzzy feelings about the times we spent reading or talking about them. I don't have the same fuzzy feelings about workbooks. Come to think of it, I don't have any of them saved either. That's point 1.
    Here's point 2: My daughter blogged today about all the wonderful memories she has about Christmas. Really? I had no idea all the holiday craziness was making a difference, but I guess some of it stuck.
    The memories get made in spite of us I suppose.
    Blessings to y'all!

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