Education

Visiting Madrid

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The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.

— Saint Augustine

With 2023 stretched out ahead, perhaps plan a city trip with the family and discover a few more pages of the world. Cities are great places to take children of all ages – museums, parks, food, buses to jump on and off, and new treasures around every corner. It may be a nearby city such as Exeter, Manchester or York, or somewhere further afield.

Last October half term took us on our first family foreign city trip since pre-Covid. And what an adventure! It was a 5-day trip including travel, so we had 3 full days to explore Spain’s capital city. Short but sweet. Any longer and the kids might not have been so willing to walk for miles. Continue reading →

Children’s Fiction 8+

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The children should have the joy of living in far lands, in other persons, in other times—a delightful double existence; and this joy they will find, for the most part, in their story-books”

— Charlotte Mason (Vol. 1, p. 153)

So it looks like holidays are off the cards this summer for most of us but in Charlotte Mason’s words we can still “have the joy of living in far lands, in other persons, in other times…”  So at a time when we can’t travel and see people so easily, books are a magical way of doing just that both for us adults and our children. So let’s help our children travel this summer and choose books to take them places.  They may even make some friends along the way. Continue reading →

Oxford Stories

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Excerpt from “Oxford” by Tom Lovatt-Williams

I see the coloured lilacs flame
In many an ancient Oxford lane
And bright laburnum holds its bloom
Suspended golden in the noon,
The placid lawns I often tread
Are stained and carpeted with red…

These lines from Lovatt-Williams’ poem ‘Oxford’ capture perfectly the beauty of this city over the last few weeks.  Lockdown has definitely made me far more appreciative of the  way nature is changing around us here in Oxford as we take our ‘daily exercise’. Continue reading →

Getting to Know Wild Flowers

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Open Your Eyes!

To shop, and school, to work and play,
The busy people pass all day;
They hurry, hurry, to and fro,
And hardly notice as they go
The wayside flowers, known so well,
Whose names so few of them can tell.

They never think of fairy-folk
Who may be hiding for a joke!

O, if these people understood
What’s to be found by field and wood;
What fairy secrets are made plain
By any footpath, road, or lane—
They’d go with open eyes, and look,
(As you will, when you’ve read this book)
And then at least they’d learn to see
How pretty common things can be!

— Cicely Mary Barker

 

With hardly a shop or school to go to, one of the silver linings for us during lockdown has been time to walk or run most days.  Without the rush of normal life, we have had time to appreciate the wild flowers growing along nearby pavements, paths and in meadows and woodlands. Continue reading →

Audiobooks are the Answer

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We’re in ‘Week 2 of Unexpected Homeschooling’ as I write this. Lunch is cleared away and I’m sitting in the quiet on the sofa.  This is my sanity hour and I highly recommend it! Continue reading →

Rainforest Literature for Kids

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In a squeaky voice he piped in the man’s ear: “Senhor, a ruined rain forest means ruined lives … many ruined lives. You will leave many of us homeless if you chop down this great Kapok tree.”

— Lynne Cherry, The Great Kapok Tree

Lynne Cherry writes beautifully about the plight of the rainforest through an engaging story, lively illustrations Continue reading →

Best Family Read Alouds of 2019

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I will defend the importance of bedtime stories to my last gasp.

— J.K. Rowling

Rowling talks of bedtime stories, and of course there is something special about children all ready for bed being read aloud a story about a faraway land before they drift off to the Land of Nod. Continue reading →