Blog Title Change

This is indeed the blog formerly known as "CM, Children, and Lots of Grace".  I've changed the title to "Lots of Grace" for several reasons:

1. The "CM" in the title may indicate more Charlotte Mason following than I actually do in real life. While I feel like I follow Charlotte Mason method in spirit, I'd rather not hold myself or my family up as ideal.   
2. My youngest child is fourteen.  The "Children" in my title seems to me to imply younger kids. They will always be my children, but at this point they are truly practicing adults-- or practicing-to-be-adults.
3. I want my blog title to reflect a broader focus than home schooling or a particular educational philosophy.  When I've posted lately, which hasn't been often, it's been mostly about us living and loving each other and trying to follow Jesus and making mistakes and trying again.  
4. I am keeping "Lots of Grace". I need lots of grace! I think all of us do. So the grace part remains.

Also, you may notice that I've rearranged the sidebar and added a list of links explaining our religious beliefs. I've been circumspect about sharing those beliefs in the past, as I think religion is something personal.  Also, a wise man once said the only statement of faith that matters is the one you live. But it seems to me time to put it out there. So there it is.

Thank you very much for reading this blog. I don't get many comments, but Blogger tells me I have followers and get page views.  I appreciate you, readers. As you look around, please comment if you feel led.

What On Earth are We Missing?*

Last night I ran out to Walmart to pick up some coffee and milk for the morning.  We had been watching an old 60s movie with lots of driving in it.  As I drove home in the dark, I noticed in the vehicles coming toward me the unnatural glow of cell phones reflected into downturned faces.

(Thankfully, all these people were passengers. Although driving while texting is terribly, tragically common around here.  You show me a person driving down the highway twenty miles under the speed limit, and I'll show you a person texting while driving... or maybe a farmer from the north part of the county who lives at a slower pace than we suburban- and urban-ites, and perhaps we could learn something from him...  But that is a post for another day.)

Anyway, passengers with cell phones.

(I remember the first time we took a road trip with devices.  It was such a lonely experience for the driver, namely, me.  No one to visit or sing with.  I finally rebelled.  No one is happy when Mama ain't happy.  The family was surprised, but they humored me.  The next trip, my husband read aloud from The Count of Monte Cristo as we crossed California, Arizona, New Mexico.  That was much better.)

Evidently I have many blog posts to write on this and related topics.

But back to driving with cell phones.  I noticed on the 60s movie that drivers and passengers dressed nicely, sat up straight, and paid attention to one another.  Probably the driver of one of the cars wished that his backseat passenger-- a backseat driver, really-- had some kind of device to take her mind off criticizing him!  It was a movie and obviously not reality, but it got me thinking.  What else has changed that we don't even notice now?  How much are we missing because of our devices?  (Ironically, people check for updates because they are afraid of missing something in the virtual world.)

There have always been three worlds-- the physical, the mental, the spiritual.  Now we have a fourth-- the virtual world.  It increasingly disrupts activity in the physical world, sometimes with immediate and horrible results.  Is the virtual world part of the physical, mental or spiritual?  Or is it its own place?  And what are we missing by engaging in it?  What desires are we feeding by entering it?

(Yes, I see the irony of writing this in a blog post.)

I'm not sure where I am going with this, but I will go ahead and publish now.  I hope to continue thinking out loud on this topic later.

*Title taken from this book by Philip Yancey

What Do You Want to Read Here?

I want to post more frequently this year, so I am trying to think of assignments I can use to spur myself on.  Ya'll tend to be a quiet bunch of readers, but I wonder if you will help me out by letting me know what you would like to read from me?  Here are the assignments I've come up with on my own.  This list is based on the blog's most popular posts:

1.  What I'm learning about writing and how to teach it
2.  Reading/study notes for literature-- we're doing Hamlet for co-op this year and I plan to post our lesson plans after I use them in class
3.  Picture study narrations

These are the top three topics of all time as well as for this week.  Isn't that interesting?

What do you want to read here?  Please comment.  Thanks!

Creativity, Thought and Relationship

Mariel is volunteering at a local library this summer. We love this library. I did in-home daycare the first few years of Aravis' and Mariel's life, and I have fond memories of into this grand old library with a double stroller of toddlers, flanked by preschoolers, for the weekly puppet show. At the time it was a huge undertaking to get the kids there and help them be quiet, but now all I remember is the excitement of a *real* puppet show every single week. Back then, the children's section was in one wing and the adult section in another. There was an atrium garden near the adult stacks, with a creek running through it-- the wonder of nature flourishing indoors.

They remodeled the library several years ago. The puppet show theater is gone, as is the atrium garden. But we still love it. So many memories. Now they have moved the children's and adult's sections closer together, so it is simpler for mommies to peruse big-person books while their children read at tables in the kids' section. And it is very, very quiet. I don't know how they do it with the two sections so close together. But it is like a monastery in there.

The children's section of the other library we visit is definitely not quiet.

You might wonder why we ever go to a different library when we are so happy with ours. Well, we no longer live within the city limits, and our favorite library requires that nonresidents pay a yearly fee to check out books. I don't blame them. We don't pay taxes in that city. But it makes me sad. I have even contemplated paying the fee. We haven't done it yet, so we find ourselves owning the experience of one library and checking out books at another.

Anyway, Mariel is volunteering at our library and having a great time. One of us drives her into town a couple times per week, and, if we don't have any errands, we stay and absorb the atmosphere. Without library cards, we cannot check anything out, nor can we avail ourselves of the computers or video games. This places us in the unusual position of having nothing to do but sit in the beautiful, blessed quiet and read books. I don't even hear the psychic noise of chores crying out to be done or bills to be paid: we aren't at home. I love that library. :)

Right now, Cornflower and I have a game going. For the first hour or so at the library, we each do our own thing. Then one of us finds Sister Wendy's Story of Painting and brings it to the other. Using the two-page spreads that are all-over detail from this or that painting (how we love those pages), we try to guess the painter and painting. (At first I thought Cornflower was just humoring me, but then she started bringing me the book and I knew the game belonged to both of us.)

This week I found a book called Hamlet's Blackberry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age. It is appropriate that I first read this book in the quiet of our library. William Powers gently argues that more is not necessarily better; perhaps we need space between digital encounters in order to obtain a satisfying depth of creativity, thought and relationship. He goes back to philosophers like Plato and Thoreau and, obviously, Shakespeare, in search of fit principles for our digital age.

I have only read a third of the book, but next week, in between rounds of the painting game, I will have more time to read. I've found a quiet space and I am taking advantage of it.

The Shallows: Ch. 2 Part A

The Vital Paths

In chapter 1, Carr gave his personal experience. In this chapter, he reaches into history to show how new tools (technologies) changed different individuals. Technology gives us new metaphors for description, new ways of defining time and space. Does it also influence us physiologically?

In 1895, a very young Sigmund Freud hypothesized the existence and purpose of cells in the brain. (Then he needed money, so he went into psychoanalysis. But other scientists eventually discovered the neuron thing.)

All of our thoughts, emotions and memories are turned into electrical impulses in our brains. These are transmitted along paths of neurons, controlled by endings called synapses (what Freud called ‘contact barriers’). There are billions of these neurons, each with many branching dendrites, which in turn have their own synaptic terminals. The synapses control whether an electrical impulse is stimulated or suppressed. (The electrical impulse is the thought, emotion or memory. I’m reminding myself, lol.) All the neurons are connected to one another in what seems to me to be the craziest, most intricate web ever. Scientists still don’t understand how it all works.

But they now know that the adult brain is malleable. Yes. Our adult brains can change like kids’ brains do— not as much, but still quite a bit. This makes me very, very happy. It means you can teach an old dog new tricks. When a child OR adult experiences a sensation or perform a task, a chemical reaction takes place in the neurons. This is communicated across synapses. Certain neurons’ connections become either stronger or weaker. We can strengthen or weaken the connection by repetition of the activity or sensation.

Can you say habit training? Charlotte Mason was really onto something. I wonder if she knew about Freud’s unpublished research? What’s really interesting is that the false idea of the unchangeable adult brain was scientific dogma until the late 20th Century. Carr calls it “neurological nihilism”. Ha. One scientist did experiments proving adult neuroplasticity for thirty years before anyone paid any attention!

There is much more-- think of the implications where using the Internet is concerned. But I am writing short narrations. I will continue this chapter next time.

Narration: The Shallows: Chapter 1

Hal* and Me

In this chapter, Mr. Carr briefly fills us in on his gradual adaptation to digital technology. He actually does start with his birth (1959) and what he calls his “Analogue Youth”. Ha.

Since you really ought to read the book yourself, I’m not going to narrate his history. Instead, here is my own.

I had a partial analog childhood (rotary phone and all) but we got our first home computer in the early 1980s, when I was in junior high. It was a Commodore 64. The only thing I remember about it is “Radar Rat Race”, a simple and silly game similar to Pac-Man.

We used computers in high school. We analyzed our personalities in order to discover which careers would best suit us. We took exams on Scantron test forms that could then be fed into a machine for scoring. (My first class on Proper Bubbling was in high school.) We wrote reports on home computers.

My parents gave me a word processor when I went to college. It was more like a glorified typewriter than a computer. It did have a memory, though.

My second year of college, the administration did something new and different. Instead of requiring us to stand in line all over campus to register for classes, they assigned us each a time to call the registration line. We registered by punching in class codes with our touchtone phones. For the first time, I conducted business in my pajamas.

I married the Warrior Poet in the early 90s. Within four years we had a daughter and a computer. We used the computer like a word processor. Eventually we had another daughter and another computer. This one connected to a new thing called the Internet.

I am not a techie. All this electronic stuff mystifies me. What I remember about our first Internet connection is that the computer was in a windowless room ‘way in the back of the house where none of the babies liked to play. I did not use it very often. I did occasionally order groceries online to be delivered to our home. That was a real blessing for a mom with three small children. :)

In 2004, we moved. We fitted up a schoolroom just off the kitchen and put our computer in this lovely, bright room. I began using the Internet daily. Within a year, I had joined several Yahoo discussion groups and started my own blog.

Eventually we acquired all the rest of it—- laptops, Wi-Fi, smartphones, social networking, etc. And here we sit.

The Internet has enabled us to homeschool on a shoestring. We use the Ambleside Online free curriculum. Many books we read are available online for free. We use free online current events resources. We search for the lowest prices on homeschooling materials. We use the Internet to compare explanations of difficult concepts in math or science. We cross-reference timelines and biographical information. We network and connect with other homeschoolers.

What would we have done without it? I'm sure we would have done something. But what?

We didn't realize the Internet was going to be such a boon when we made the decision to homeschool in 1998. We certainly didn't realize we would come to rely on it.

(How about you? I'd love to hear about your family's journey from analog to digital.)

Mr. Carr says we give up “our old linear thought process” in exchange for the use of the Internet. Our old way of thinking is calmer and more in-depth, but the new way is very stimulating. Some of his friends have even given up reading books!

That has not happened at our house. But we do feel the pull of the Internet even when we are not online. The literary mind has been at the forefront since Gutenberg’s printing press made books common. Is it becoming obsolete?

*The title of the chapter refers to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Narration: The Shallows: Prologue

"The Watchdog and the Thief"

“The medium is the message.” I have heard that many times, but never thought about what it meant until now. We usually debate content when a new medium arises— for instance, did the Internet usher in a “golden age of access” or a “dark age of mediocrity and narcissism”? Each of us has our side in that discussion.

Content does matter, but what we get out of a new technology has more to do with the technology itself than with the content. Media—and the Internet is no exception—tend to affect us at a basic physiological level. Mr. Carr will work with this assertion for the rest of the book.

Book Review: The Shallows by Nicholas Carr

Neil Postman warned us about TV’s influence on public discourse in 1985; Jane Healy explained the effect of modern media on children’s brains in 1991; now, using recent scientific studies as well as anecdotes, Nicholas Carr contemplates how we win as well as lose with the new technology of the Internet.

The Shallows is an important book. I think everyone should read it. We now have more than ten years of experience with this new medium. My own household has gone from one Internet-linked computer anchored in a lonely back office to five laptops and a Wi-Fi connection. This past school year, two of my three kids used online interactive math curriculum. I want to know how the Internet is likely to influence us.

Besides being relevant, the book was a joy to read. Carr seamlessly weaves history, analogy, personal stories and scientific studies into a pleasing whole. More than once, I was overtaken by the depth of his insights.

I plan to narrate the book chapter-by-chapter. I’m going to try something new, too-- *short* narrations. Ha. We’ll see how that goes.