Madame How & Lady Why: Chapter 7 - The Chalk-Carts

Chalk-carts, like mice, and dead leaves, and most other matters in the universe are very curious and odd things in the eyes of wise and reasonable people. 

The White Cliffs of Dover

I couldn't find a definition of 'chalk-carts' anywhere although it's obvious Kingsley was referring to the carts that carried chalk from the area where it was cut. From what I've read (here, for example) it appears the carts were part of a horse-drawn industrial tramway, something that was introduced at the beginning of the nineteenth century. This chapter was fascinating once I understood the gist of what Kingsley was getting, at which wasn't obvious to me until after I'd done some digging around.

Come, let us find out something about the chalk before we talk about the caves. The chalk is here, and the caves are not; and "Learn from the thing that lies nearest you" is as good a rule as "Do the duty which lies nearest you."

Chalk, limestone and marble are all forms of calcium carbonate. Chalk and limestone are formed in marine environments while marble is metamorphosed limestone.
This page explains the difference between limestone & marble.
Marl - a mixture of clay and calcium carbonate.

Many of these (chalk) pits are located near farms and settlements where one principal use of the chalk was for the production of lime which was used to ‘fertilise’ or ‘lighten’ heavier clay soils and also to improve drainage and make it more easy to cultivate.

Chalk in the Limelight

The South Downs area of England is a series of chalk hills in the Hampshire, East Sussex, West Sussex counties. The chalk landscape acts like a giant sponge, and stores water. A huge underground reservoir provides fresh drinking water for over 1 million people living in the area.

Counties of Southern England & Wales

Karst Landscape - Kingsley didn't use this phrase probably because it wasn't in use until the late nineteenth century, but it refers to a limestone region where most or all of the drainage is by underground channels and where erosion has produced fissures, sinkholes, underground streams, and caverns. Some photos and more information here.
I've travelled across the Nullarbor Plain many times but it was only when I was reading though Madame How & Lady Why that I discovered that it is the world's largest limestone karst.

Page 126 - The 'silver Itchen' - one of the most famous chalk streams of Hampshire in England which attracts anglers from all over the world.

Page 126 - invisible chalk  in the water causes it to be 'hard.' A written narration from 10 year old Moozle:

 "Chalk is many different things. Limestone is a harder form of chalk, and marble is chalk heated up. There is lots of chalk in England, the White cliffs of Dover are made of chalk, and lots of other things are made of chalk, not just in England, but in some other countries.  The chalk runs out of caves made by the water in little streams, and thus deposits it in the rivers. If you drink water out of one of these rivers, it’ll taste kind of hard. That’s the chalk in the river that’s making it taste hard." 

Page 130 - Caves

Cave fomations (Speleothems) - some good photos here of Jenolan Caves in NSW.

How Stalactites & Stalagmites form - stalaCtites (form on the Ceiling) and stalaGmites (form on the Ground)

We've done this experiment a few times with varying degrees of success: Make stalactites & stalagmites.

Cave Formation

Page 131: Breccia (Italian) - rock consisting of angular fragments cemented together in a matrix.

Page 132: Sink hole - a basin in limestone areas down which water disappears. Other names include swallow hole, swallet or doline.

 

 Water Sinks...North Yorkshire, UK

Page 135 - the dropping-well at Knaresborough showing various articles in various stages of petrification. It will take about 3 to 5 months to petrify a teddy bear:

Pg 135 - the Proteus or cave salamander. Photos and descriptions here.

Lake Cerknisko (Cercnika, Czirknitz) - the lake that vanishes. Found on a karst landscape in Slovenia

See The Mysterious Lake Cerknica - just beautiful!
And some more photos of the lake.

Page 136 - Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, USA

Page 137 - Caripe, Venezeula.

'In Humboldt's Footsteps' - The Guacharo Cave
Another name for the Guacharo bird is the oilbird - Kingsley mentions that 'The Indians kill and eat them for their fat.'
Some more information on the birds here
Wonderful gallery of photos of these birds here.

Guacharo (Oilbirds)

Church History for Children

We've used these books to introduce some Church History to our children when they were about 8  years old and up. Some of them I read aloud but they are all suitable for children to read on their own. Moozle (10 years old) has just finished going through all the Louise Vernon titles again recently. Vernon's books are fictional but they are mostly set in the time of the Reformation and introduce the great events and people of Church History in a way children can understand and relate to. There are twelve books that I know of, illustrated every now and then with black ink, and they are on average about 125 pages in length. Here are a few that have been well read in our home:

Ink on His Fingers


An exciting story centred around the printing of the first Bible after Johann Gutenberg's invention of moveable type in the 1450's.

The Man Who Laid the Egg

The story of Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) who has been called the intellectual father of the Reformation, seen through the eyes of a young apprentice.

'Erasmus laid the egg, and Luther hatched it.'

Thunderstorm in the Church

Martin Luther seen through the eyes of his son. 'Through Han's eyes you will learn to know Martin Luther - not only as the great Reformer-preacher, but also as a father with a sense of humor and as a friend.'

A Heart Strangely Warmed

Young Robert Upton was peddling his father's goods when he meets John Wesley, a fiery little man who is preaching on the streets of London. Heend Wesley's meetings and gradually Robert begins to understand Wesley's message and feels like Wesley described in his Journal below, that his heart is strangely warmed.'

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

Other books by Louise Vernon which are all good and cover some lesser known aspects of Church History are:

The Beggar's Bible (JohnWycliffe)

The Bible Smuggler (William Tyndale)

 Key to the Prison (George Fox & the Quakers)

The King's Book ( The King James Bible translation)

Peter & the Pilgrims (English Separatists & Pilgrims)

Night Preacher (Menno Simons)

The Secret Church (Anabaptists)

Strangers in the Land (Huguenots)

And one which we haven't read, and don't have - Doctor in Rags (Paracelsus & the Hutterites) 

The River of Grace by Joyce McPherson 

Published by Greenleaf Press and 171 pages, this is one of the rare biographies of John Calvin written for young people. I've read a couple of the author's other books and thought they were very well written and I appreciate that McPherson brings history alive but also illustrates how Western Civilization has been influenced by the Christian worldview. I also like the quotes at the beginning of each chapter:

'Ambition deludes men so much that by its sweetness it not only intoxicates but drives them mad.'

John Calvin

Augustine: The Farmer Boy of Tagaste by P. De Zeeuw 

A short, engaging biography of Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 354-430) this little book (93 pages) would be interesting for anyone, adult or child, to learn about the wonderful story of Augustine's conversion to Christianity and the faithfulness of a mother who never gave up praying for her reprobate son. 

In the farthest corner under a fig tree he fell to his face, and panting, full of hesitation, Augustine uttered his first real prayer: "How long? Oh, how long? Tomorrow? Always tomorrow, why not right away? Why can I not put a stop to this sinful life right away?"

But listen-what was that? The garden next door was separated from him by a wall, and from behind that wall came the voice of a girl singing, "Tolle, lege," which meant "Take, read!'

...He jumped up from the ground and went to the bench...There were the Epistles of Paul, which Alypius had taken with him into the garden. Augustine picked them up, and the first words he read hit him like lightning.

 

Australian Natural History: Monarch of the Western Skies by C.K.Thompson (1946)

Monarch of the Western Skies was the first book written by C.K. Thompson that we owned. I came across it at a secondhand shop more than ten years ago and picked it up not knowing anything about the author but as it cost less than a dollar, I thought it was worth trying. It became my eight year old boy's favourite book for a long time and was also enjoyed by all the other children. Since then we've had the pleasure of reading some of his other books and I don't hesitate to snap up any books by this author when I come across them.

C.K. Thompson wrote most of his Natural History books for children around 1940's to 1950's and unfortunately they are now out of print. He wrote without sentimentality but with an intimate knowledge of the Australian landscape and its fauna. I've just finished reading aloud this wonderful story of a wedge-tailed eagle to Moozle as part of our Australian version of Ambleside Online Year 4 and I think that this book and Warrigal the Warrior (the story of a dingo I wrote about here) are the two best books by C.K. Thompson that we've read so far.

Monarch of the Western Skies follows the life of 'Wedge-tail' from the eyrie on the fringe of the western plains whilst under the care of his dutiful parents and continues to follow him over the course of his life as an adult bird of prey - the world's second largest eagle.
We not only learnt about the wedge-tailed eagle in this book but also about a number of other animals native to Australia and others, such as rabbits and sheep, which are not.  Rabbits were first brought here by Governor Phillip in the First Fleet, mostly to be kept as pets, but in 1859 a ship arrived from Europe with 24 wild rabbits for a Victorian land owner who let them loose on his property so he could chase them and shoot them for sport. 
Six years after the rabbits were let loose, the owner had killed over 20,000 but he thought that there were still about 10,000 more running around.
In our story, Wedge-tail was singled out as being responsible for killing a lamb and measures are taken to try to shoot him. But he has an ally who had witnessed the destruction inflicted by rabbits and understood the role the eagle played in keeping down their numbers.

None of them the sheep were over-burdened with brains, and as long as the Eagles made no attempt to interfere with them, the woolly animals were content not to initiate any moves. Not for a single moment would any of them have considered attacking these visitors f on the clouds. Being sheep, they were not built that way. But one or two of them did vaguely associate these Eagles with something unpleasant, though they did not know what caused the mistrust. Deep thinking is not a characteristic of one of nature's stupidest animals. 

Wedge-tail did not like crows. He regarded them as so many parasites that hung around an eagle after he had caught his dinner, hoping to collect the scraps, and so win a meal without having to work for it.

Another bird that annoyed him, for a different reason, was the magpie...
They were pests but he could understand their and appreciate their urge to protect their heir homes - not that he would ever gave despoiled one. He had no desire to attack a magpie. That bird was a gentleman compared with a crow.
Fierce bird that he was, arrogant and intolerant where his own rights were concerned, Wedge-tail did not in the least mind when a couple of tiny yellow-tailed thornbills attached their pretty little nests to the bottom of his eyrie. He knew that they did this to escape the attention of prowling butcher birds and other predatory slayers.

I highly recommend this living book. It makes a great read aloud and would interest a wide range of ages. I appreciate the author's knowledge, his literary style and the realistic but endearing portrayal of the animals he wrote about. I just wish someone would reprint them.

Education is the Science of Relations...Connections

We started learning the hymn St. Patrick's Breastplate last week. I usually make up my own schedule for hymns & folksongs but the hymn suggestion on the Ambleside Online rotation for September contains these beautiful words taken from a prayer of St. Patrick and I decided it was too good to miss:

I bind unto myself today

The strong Name of the Trinity

By invocation of the same

The three in one and one in three

 I bind unto myself today

the power of God to hold and lead,

God’s eye to watch, God’s might to stay,

God’s ear to hearken to my need,

the wisdom of my God to teach,

God’s hand to guide, God’s shield to ward,

the word of God to give me speech,

God’s heavenly host to be my guard.

The version I've posted here is different to the traditional tune and is used by the Celtic monks.
The complete words of this hymn and some explanations of its meaning are on this site also.
The hymn starts properly at about the 2 minute mark.

The words to this hymn have been running through my mind all week. I've been using Dawn's free study of Charlotte Mason's motto with Moozle - I am a child of God, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me...and it ties in beautifully with this prayer of St Patrick's.





Recently I've seen more and more eidence that a child naturally connects with many things. Charlotte Mason called it the 'Science of Relations.' I looked up the definiton of 'relations' and found some words that I could substitute in its place which helps to make sense of her idea. Words such as: connections, links, bonds, associations.
I always feel quite excited when these connections or relations happen without me having anticipated  or planned them.
We were reading Age of Fable the other day and came to the story of Hero & Leander. This was Moozle's short synopsis of the story:

 'There lived in the town of Abydos, a youth by the name of Leander, who loved a maiden who lived across the other side of the Hellespont (Dardanelles), in the town of Sestos. Her name was Hero and he used to swim across to visit her. One day he was swimming across, when a storm arose, and it was so violent that he drowned. When Hero heard about it she threw herself into the sea.
Swimming across the Hellespont was thought impossible, until Lord Byron did it.'

The Hellespont had come up somewhere else and immediately she was able to associate some previously separate ideas and learn also that Lord Byron, the writer of The Destruction of Sennacherib, a poem we have used for memory work, was a pretty good swimmer as well as a famous poet.

In fact, on the 30th August each year, a traditional swim is held to commemorate Lord Byron's swim from Europe to Asia in 1810 which he did in honour of Leander. He wrote a poem about it afterwards.

This was Lord Byron's account, although I think the modern swim is more like 3 km and contestants are given one and a half hours to complete it:

 This morning I swam from Sestos to Abydos. The immediate distance is not above a mile, but the
current renders it hazardous...I attempted it a week ago, and failed, - owing to the north wind, and the wonderful rapidity of the tide, - though I have been from my childhood a strong swimmer. But, this morning being calmer, I succeeded, and crossed the 'broad Hellespont' in an hour and ten minutes. 

And another neat little connection for us was finding that the current artist we're studing (J.M.W. Turner) painted The Parting of Hero and Leander in 1837:

A highlight from Macbeth:

We've probably enjoyed Shakespeare's comedies more than his tragedies but this week we hit some fun when we read from Act 5: Scene 3. Some good insults were stored up for future use...

'Thou cream-faced loon!'

'Where got'st thou that goose-look?

'Thou lily-livered boy!'

A Philosophy of Education, Pg xxx:

"Education is the Science of Relations"; that is, that a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books...

Family lunch extravaganza ie. everyone turns up so there's quite a crowd. Benj & Moozle cooked & prepared all the food with help from their Aunty D & Donna Hay...

Nothing fancy yet, but Moozle can cast on & off by herself & knows the basic stitches...

Connecting maths with science...

Nature lore...

Linking up with Weekly Wrap-up.

The Spartan by Caroline Dale Snedeker

The historian Herodotus (c. 485-425 BC) in his narrative history, which records the wars between the Greeks and the Persians, gives an account of a young man named Aristodemos. Caroline Dale Snedeker has taken this brief description, fleshed it out and brought this period of ancient history vibrantly to life.

The son of Lykos, a cultured Athenian and his Spartan wife, Makaria, Aristdemos grew up in Athens, inbibing the culture, the love of beauty, the songs of Homer and his father's ideas of freedom. When he was 10 years old his father was killed in an accident and he and his mother returned to her hometown in Sparta. Here he was thrust into the rigours of a Spartan training camp, which appalled and disgusted him.

Aristodemos was placed under Leonidas, his 'ilarch,' who trained him but also offered him his friendship. As the young boy gradually learnt the ways of the Spartans, he became a respected warrior and Leonidas's closest companion.

"Thy mother loveth and honoureth the thee," remarked Leonidas. They were throwing the disk in the Dromos, where Aristodemos's skill was gradually creeping up to the record of his friend. Aristodemos paused, thoughtful, with bowed head, disk in hand.

"She loved me not when I was poor and unheeded. I think it is my victory she love the more than me."

Leonidas eventually became King of Sparta and when King Xerxes and his Persian host threatened the countries of Greece, Aristodemos went with Leonidas to defend the Pass of Thermopylae.

Originally published as The Coward of Thermopylae in 1911, the book was republished as The Spartan in 1912, and in the preface to the 1912 edition the author wrote:

The new title of the book will be found a little less misleading than the former. One must perhaps know our hero well before the "Coward of Thermopylae" can become an affectionate paradox.

Getting to know our hero Aristodemos, the only survivor of The Battle of Thermopylae, well, is the substance of this book.

 Thermopylae

Some thoughts:

The Spartan is scheduled in Year 12 of Ambleside Online and at first glance it might appear out of place at that level. Caroline Dale Snedeker wrote a number of historically accurate novels for children but this book is more than just a story set in Ancient Greece. The differences culturally and philosophically between the people of Athens and those of Sparta is skilfully shown; the splendour of the Persians and the hubris of Xerxes; the realities of Spartan training, their embracing of death and the fatalistic fear inspired by their gods are interwoven in the story.

...something in the brightness of the face, the joyous nod of the golden head, struck Leonidas with that shrewd ancient fear of the Greeks.

"Be not so openly glad, Aristodemos," he said. "Remember the signet ring of Polycrates the fortunate one, which the gods returned to him from the sea before they came to destroy him. Some things the gods will not brook, and for the too-happy man there is no escape, turn he this way or that!"


One of the strongest pictures for me was the absolute rejection of Aristodemos by his mother after the Battle of Thermopylae. Following the natural progression of a philosophical outlook to its end - in this case a mother who would curse and spurn her son who returned from battle, without knowing the circumstances, and wish him dead - was a powerful way to portray and bring the Spartan philosophy to life.
Our philosophy of life is reflected in how we live and act, and bears fruit in keeping with itself.

A Spartan Woman Giving a Shield to Her Son

I really like historically based books like this to have a map but fortunately, it doesn't have any, so here's one from Wikipedia.

Weekly Review: A Fly on the Wall

This year has been a very different one to previous years. Up until last year I had five children who were all home at different times throughout the week, studying or working part time and for the few years before that there were seven filling up the house. It's been a very a different dynamic this year with only the two youngest at home during the day.
I've always had a flexible approach to home schooling and whilst I can't see myself getting rigid, I think I do need to be more structured. When I had lots of kids to teach, I naturally fell into a routine. I had to or I never would have got anything done. Now that I don't have the same pressure of circumstances, it's easier to let the time leak.

Sometimes I find it helpful to write down what we're doing as we go, to get a better idea of where the leaks are occurring and to see where I need to be more intentional.

This is a fly on the wall's view of a couple of days of this past week.

Wednesday

Got up at 7am.

Zana (22) first year of teaching (Year 6); Nougat (18) apprentice plumber, have already left for work

Benj, Moozle & I do our individual Bible reading 

8am - Dad leaves for work 

Benj (15)- Maths & Science; Jensen's Format Writing

Hoggy (20) goes for a run, and then heads off to TAFE - he's in his 3rd year of a 4 year cadetship & studying electrical engineering technology.

Moozle (10) - Cello practice. I do some patchwork and keep an eye on her practice to make sure she's doing what she should. She has an exam in about three weeks.

Copy work; listens to times tables & does her drawing practice using Mark Kistler's Draw Squad:

Singapore maths with me

Age of Fable - I've been reading this aloud to her; oral narration

Drawing pactice while listening to Dvorak's Largo:

Benj - piano practice

Moozle - Dictation, Grammar using the dictation passage (colour the proper nouns blue, underline nouns in purple, circle the verbs green.

'Europe was at peace, and Napoleons in exile on the Isle of Elba. Matthew hardly knew of this, for he had been in bed sixteen weeks, steadily becoming weaker.'

Maths speed drill

Poetry review while continuing with drawing 

Lunch - free reading 

Together time

Devotions: Bible, memory work, prayer time

Poetry - William Wordsworth. I've used The Harp & Laurel Wreath by Laura Berquist to delve a little deeper with poetry with the older children. She has some commentary on various poems & a good selection.
Read aloud: A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey - an Australia classic set in the outback of Western Australia. It's good.

Hoggy comes home - takes Benj to work at 3.30pm

Moozle and I go to Orchestra rehearsal

Home around 5.30pm

I pick up Benj from work. He's doing some training for the part-time job he's starting which has thrown a spanner in the works a few days this week.

Dinner

Zana and I have a quick trip to the Library

Come home and spend some time with that man of mine.

Thursday

6am - Dad has a conference call at home for work

7am - I head off to the markets on my own to do a quick shop

8am - I get home; cook breakfast & dh and I have some time together before he goes to work

Benj - Maths, Reading, oral narration, piano practice

Moozle - Maths, Cello practice, Latin 

I read aloud Old Man River and Monarch of the Western Skies to Moozle while she 

does her drawing practice (she likes drawing, in case you didn't realise)

French & copy work

We take Benj to work at 12pm

Lunch

Listen to Folksong:

Washing & other domestics

We leave home around 3pm to pick Benj up from work and go to swimming lessons.

5.30pm - I head home with Moozle & make dinner.
Thursday evenings are generally erratic at our place with swimming, soccer, and everyone arriving home at all different times.
Usually I go back to the pool to get Benj but not tonight. Dad is running late so he goes straight to the pool so I can start:

7pm - Book Club at my place. We're working through Start Here by Brandy at Afterthoughts.
I've really enjoyed reading through For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay yet again. Brandy's study links the chapters in Schaeffer's book to Charlotte Mason's Philosophy of Education:

The rest of the family go to bed before we finish our study...

11.30pm - winding down & off  to bed at midnight.

Some things are worth losing a bit of sleep over...now & again.



Linking up with Weekly Wrap-up