Poetry In The Park

Well, I guess technically it would be Poetry in the Park at the Church since we are warm weather challenged right now.
I use the Charlotte Mason Method for homeschooling. Here is a short description from the Simply Charlotte Mason website :

Charlotte Mason Method

A method of education popular with homeschoolers in which children are taught as whole persons through a wide range of interesting living books, firsthand experiences, and good habits. Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life.

By “Atmosphere,” Charlotte meant the surroundings in which the child grows up. A child absorbs a lot from his home environment. Charlotte believed that atmosphere makes up one-third of a child’s education.

By “Discipline,” Charlotte meant the discipline of good habits — and specifically habits of character. Cultivating good habits in your child’s life make up another third of his education.

The other third of education, “Life,” applies to academics. Charlotte believed that we should give children living thoughts and ideas, not just dry facts. So all of her methods for teaching the various school subjects are built around that concept.

So our PitP at the church group is based on the principles of Charlotte.

What we study for a term

• hymn
• folk song
• poetry
• composer
• nature study
• artist study

This term our 3 hymns are O God, Our Help in Ages Past, I’ll Fly Away, and At Calvary.
We learn a little about each song and the writer.

Our folk song is Tall Men Riding. The kids really like this song. It's about cattle herders or "Cowboys". Here is a link to a video for it.

For poetry each child and adult recites a poem either by reading or from memory. Sometimes it's one of their own poems or one from a poet they are studying in their own homeschool. Today Claire wrote her own poem about ladybugs. Amber read Psalm 118.

Our composer is Vivaldi from the Baroque period. Last time we listened to Winter, and this week Spring.

Every meeting during this semester we discuss a different evergreen tree. Our last meeting was the Pine and this weeks was holly. In the rest of our gatherings we will study cedar, leyland cypress, magnolia, and hemlock.

Lastly we study an artist for an entire term. Our artist is Caravaggio. He painted many pictures for the Catholic Church to depict events in the Bible. Last meeting we studied Rest on the Flight into Egypt, and this week was Sacrifice of Isaac. Next time will be The Calling of St. Matthew, followed by The Conversion on the Way to Damascus, then Supper in Emmaus, and lastly The Adoration of the Shepherds .

Here is one last quote from Charlotte Mason to sum up what we hold true about how and why we homeschool:

“We hold that the child’s mind is no mere sac to hold ideas; but is rather…a spiritual organism, with an appetite for all knowledge. This is its proper diet…(we take) care only that all knowledge offered him is vital, that is, that facts are not presented without their informing ideas…Our business is to give children the great ideas of life, of religion, history, science; but it is the ideas we must give, clothed upon the facts as they occur, and must leave the child to deal with these as he chooses.”

Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education, 1925