FREE Watercolor Prints (and the CM Method Intravenously)

Fall is just around the corner and I am just as unmotivated this year as I was last year about homeschooling. True confession.

I am not sure if it is my lack of energy from having pneumonia three weeks ago, or if I am just in a rut of some sort, but I knew that I needed to take some drastic measures.

So, I pulled out my copy of “Lessons At Blackberry Inn” by Karen Andreola. This book is like getting the CM method intravenously–quick and painless. Except this story is quaint and inspiring for a weary mind like mine. (I also love her blog, Moments With Mother Culture)

I am also re-reading Charlotte Mason’s Home Education for inspiration. It always helps to reorient my wandering focus when I get caught up in “education for productivity’s sake.”

Yes, we want to be productive, but I want something more than just getting through these math and history lessons.

I want to ignite a fire of learning in my children and kindle a love of learning that lasts a lifetime. I also want to instill a love of virtue in my children, and to inspire them by giving them noble heros to emulate and lofty ideas to mull over.  I realize that sometimes I wander from my own ideals and I appreciate Charlotte Mason’s insight and wisdom.

The mind is a terrible thing to waste, they say, and it is true. I am convinced that many children are shuffled along through 12 years of education and are never inspired to think for themselves.

I will probably be posting some tidbits from Home Education in the next few weeks.*

Some thoughts from today’s reading of Home Education:

We have a great responsibility to care for our children with tenderness as our Heavenly Father would care for them. Children are on loan to us from God.

        “And first, let us consider where and what the little being is who is entrusted to the care of human parents. A tablet to be written upon? A twig to be bent? Wax to be moulded? Very likely; but he is much more––a being belonging to an altogether higher estate than ours; as it were, a prince committed to the fostering care of peasants.”

The Bible is NOT silent on the treatment of children:

“It may surprise parents who have not given much attention to the subject to discover also a code of education in the Gospels, expressly laid down by Christ. It is summed up in three commandments, and all three have a negative character, as if the chief thing required of grown-up people is that they should do no sort of injury to the children: Take heed that ye OFFEND not––DESPISE not––HINDER not––one of these little ones.”

I often think of the “hinder them not” part of this. Would children be more apt to come to Christ, but parents often hinder them? Are we such a poor testimony of God’s grace as to hinder children from what would be their natural desire? Theologically, we are all sinful and dead in our sins, but it seems to indicate that children are more apt to believe when unhindered by adults. Something I am mulling over.

And last but not least, as I promised, the summer watercolor prints.

These were inspired by vintage school books which I love. I worked on these and added a sand castle because my little girls love making sandcastles to this day. Matthew, when young, preferred boats. We love taking the kids to the sea shore and have happy memories of our yearly trips to Rye Beach with our extended family.

Feel free to use these for your own enjoyment. Prints for a nursery would be sweet and make an inexpensive gift when framed in a white beachy frame.

You could also use these for card making. Please feel free to use as you will, and share as you will, but if you are online, could I please ask that you provide a link back to this site? If you are a scrapbooker or crafting blogger, would you provide a link back and show me how you used them? I love to see your creativity!

Enjoy your last few days of summer!

* (I do not wholeheartedly agree with CM on all points. She seems to believe that we are not born with original sin, but with a propensity towards good or evil equally. Although I understand what she means, this view is contrary to scripture. So, as with all books, care must be given to test them against scripture. That said, I agree with most of what she writes.)