Ambitious April

20 reasons to Homeschool

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Seven is Heaven!

Kaleb turned 7 this month!

“There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million.”

~Walt Streightiff

Suday Citar: Tomorrow

Sunset Majesty oils on mahogany board by Eric Tore

"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Welcome to Sunday Citar! This blog quote meme was created by Tabitha @ FreshMommy. You can stop by her blog to see the quotes and photos that she and everyone else is loving right now.

Rumpelstiltskin Narration

These illustrations were generously provided by Grandma's Graphics

and came from the following sources. See the notes at the bottom of each illustration page

for more information.Anne Anderson, illustrator. Anne Anderson's

Old, Old Fairy Tales. Racine, Wisconsin: Whitman Publishing Company, 1935.

Rumpelstiltskin Narration
Ian age 9

There was a poor man and the king, one day, arrived at his house. The man said his daughter could spin straw into gold.
Then the king put the daughter in a room and said, " Spin this straw into gold. "
The daughter was sad because she didn't know how to.
Then a little man went into the room and said " What will you give me if I spin this straw into gold?
She said, " My necklace."
The little man took the necklace and started spinning the spinning wheel. When the king woke up it was done

The king put her in an even bigger room with more straw. The little man showed up again. He said " What will you give me if I spin this straw into gold? "
She said, "The ring off my finger.
He grabbed the ring and started spinning. The king woke up and saw the room was full of gold again.

The king put her in an even bigger room and said, " Spin this straw into gold."
The little man came again and said, " What will you give me if I spin this straw into gold?" She said, " I have nothing to give. "
"Give me your first Child." She agreed.
He spun all the straw into gold. Then the king woke up and married her.

A year later she had a baby and he came for it.
He said, "You can keep your child if you can guess my name."
He gave her three days to guess. She sent a messenger to get all the names in the village. Then the little man came again, she tried to guess.
He always said, "That is not it."
She sent the messenger out again and collected even the most strange names. She still did not guess it. She sent the messenger out again. He did not find any new names. The messenger told how he stumbled upon a cliff edge and down below he saw a little hut with a fire lit inside. He saw a little man dancing and singing a little song about how his name was Rumpelstiltskin. She guessed again and then guessed Rumpelstiltskin
The little man yelled and said "You can keep your baby!"
He stomped his foot so hard he fell into the ground.

Book Notes: When Children Love to Learn; Baden- Powell and Charlotte

Photo from Christ Church City Libraries website. Cheerful boy scouts acting as messengers to distribute food and medicine to patients at their houses during the influenza epidemic [1918] Pictured are: on the left John Neville Westgarth (d. 1981) and in the centre William Patrick (Bill) Sweeney (1908-1983).

I would not say I am a scout fanatic, but I do think the Boy Scouts of America have come up with some extremely amazing programs for youth. I do not know of a boy who would not benefit from the things learned and character gained from scouting. We have been involved in Cub Scouts since Josef was 8 years old. I have been a Den Leader for the Wolves, Bears, and Webelos and also served as Advancement Chairman and Cub Master over the last 5 years. Now Ian is a Cub and Josef has moved up to Boy Scouting-which is a whole thing for us. When the programs are run appropriately by trained leaders they can be so helpful to the development of these young boys.

I was thrilled to learn that Baden-Powell and Charlotte were changing the world at the same time.

Some quotes by Baden Powell:

"An individual step in character training is to put responsibility on the individual. "

"We never fail when we try to do our duty, we always fail when we neglect to do it. "

“The most important object in Boy Scout training is to educate, not instruct.”

“The boy is not governed by don't ,but is led by do.”

“Scoutmasters need the capacity to enjoy the out-of-doors.”

Did you catch the bits of truth shared between them? Many of their thoughts and philosophies were parallel and even Charlotte recognized Baden-Powell's potential to change the lives of children.

Quotes from When Children Love to Learn by Elaine Cooper page 30-

" It was typical of her open search for the best ideas to develop a full life that she pounced on Baden-Powell's Scout Handbook designed to train soldiers. I doubt that any other Victorian educators saw the potential in that book even for boys, let alone for the demure little girls with their governesses."

" Charlotte not only saw potential in it, but she immediately purchased quantities of the handbooks and included them in the PUS (Parens Union School) curriculum."

" Thus while other children were kept indoors to have endless facts crammed into them, these fortunate children had every afternoon outside. One afternoon a week was for "scouting": tracking, noticing wind directions, learning to set up camp, and enjoying a truly hands-on education that thrilled and energized them. These children took part in the beginnings of the great scouting movement!"