Nature Notebook - July

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus funereus)

Our yearly visitor arrived with the usual unmistakable screeching and weird wailing. This is the first time we've had any success getting a photo and unfortunately we haven't been able to take one when in flight. Their wingspan is about 2 feet (63-68cm) and they look quite spectacular with their yellow tail feathers.

A portion of the tail feathers can be seen here

Here is one of them glowering at us with the air of a pirate. He is feeding on a banksia (named after Sir Joseph Banks, a naturalist who travelled with Captain Cook). Our very first encounter with these birds came one wet day when we went to see what was causing a regular thud overhead. We found a couple of them eating the banksias from an overhanging tree and the leftover heavy, woody cones were falling on our roof.

 If you leave me, can I come too?

Some More Thoughts on 'Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child' by Anthony Esolen

Anthony Esolen suggests (in Screwtape style) that you Keep Children Away from Machines and Machinists if you want to destroy their imaginations.

I've been teaching my eight year old how to use the sewing machine. My general rule has been that as soon as they can reach the pedal and concentrate enough so they don't sew their fingers together they can start learning but one day, years ago, I'd been sewing and left the room briefly and came back to find my two year old son kneeling on the chair in front of the sewing machine. He'd put a piece of material under the needle and was waiting there, mesmerised - fortunately, I'd automatically turned off the power before I'd left the room. The look he had on his little face as he sat waiting for something to happen was priceless. He had the same look a few years later when he walked in front of his dad while they pushed the lawn mower together, and again when he lit a fire and used an axe for first time, and later when he was finally entrusted with the chainsaw.

'Or think of the mischief a good shovel, an axe or chainsaw, and a mattock can do. If you teach your kids how to use them, they might – use them………….That would show the dangerous virtue of initiative.’

'We can stress to such an extraordinary degree the safeguarding of Johnny's knee or pate, that we can leave his imagination wholly undeveloped.'

My husband's uncle is a toolmaker by background and wherever he goes, he fixes things or invents stuff. He keeps me supplied with good sharp little scissors and other handy gadgets, and it was his influence, encouragement and projects that triggered my husband’s interest in pursuing a career in electrical engineering.

'The quickest way to prevent children from developing their ingenuity is to keep them away from adults who know how to do things. We can do this the more readily by repeating to ourselves the truism that Safety Kills. Michelangelo did not sculpt the David in a padded cell. In fact, he had to hang around with the rough stone quarriers in Carrara to learn what marble was really like, from inside, so to speak, when men cut it out of the mountain. Had he been told to wear a helmet all his life, he would never have gone to Carrara in the first place.'

Reading this section of the book reminded me of an article another uncle sent us a couple of years ago To All the Kids Who Survived the 1940's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!

Linking this to Wednesday with Words  

Why Study Latin?

I've read some good arguments for learning Latin - Brandy wrote an apology for Latin at Afterthoughts and I found another here but last week I watched this video of an interview with a computer programmer who relates how Latin and Maths intertwined in his work.
This was interesting to me partly because I hadn't heard an argument from this point of view and partly because my husband took Latin in highschool, studied electrical engineering at university and has worked with computer systems for many years and I've often wondered if his Latin study helped him acquire the analytical, thinking and creative skills he has.
It's interesting that the creative aspect of the work of people involved in areas such as computer science, mathematics and engineering isn't always recognised and I admit that I used to think it was all technical and rigid and the arts was where the creative people were to be found, but I've been learning that creativity takes many forms, that an engineer's eye for detail is also a creative gift.



Why Study Latin? from Rob Baddorf on Vimeo.
Math and Latin educator Bill Carey gives some surprising answers to why students should study Latin. Two of his answers to the question are given...in Latin.

In Memorial

In honour of my Dad who died on the 4th July 2013, ending his eight year struggle with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. 'My chains are gone; I've been set free.'

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far
And grace will lead me home.

'We twa hae paidl'd i' the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine ;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin auld lang syne.'

A Sentimental Journey

Over the past year I've been slowly working my way through Anthony Esolen's book, Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child. In a similar style to C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, he points out the current trends in child rearing and education which snuff out the imaginations of our children.

I was about twenty-six pages into the book when I came to the section, Keep Your Children Indoors as Much as Possible, where the author reminisces about growing up in a small mining town in Pennsylvania. It sounded so similar to my own childhood growing up in Whyalla, a mining town in South Australia. My dad, his brother and a few of my cousins still live there but my sisters, brother and I moved away many years ago and we all have joked at times about what a dump it was - it's fairly isolated and it's not a place you just pass through on the way to somewhere else. 

Then I came to the next section of his book, Never Leave Children to Themselves, and I thought back to the hours and days we spent as children roaming around the outskirts of the town with no adult watching us. They knew where we were and the place is so flat that all an adult had to do was scan the horizon or look up at the 'mount' where we used to have our adventures to reassure themselves if necessary. Hunger would always bring us home at some point anyhow.

I'd always suspected that my time in this town had given me room to develop in ways life in a well appointed city would never have afforded me, but it took a visit back there to cement this idea. I had an opportunity recently to revisit my old playground and share some of my memories with my three youngest children. My dad has been unwell and I felt I needed to see him sooner rather than later so I made plans to drive the 1625 kilometres interstate and give my 16 year old son, Nougat, an opportunity to clock up some driving hours.
In our family my cool, calm, rational husband does the driving lessons and I don't go anywhere with them until they've done at least 50 hours or preferrably, when they've actually passed their driving test. Nougat only had 12 hours of driving experience but BB insisted that I shared the driving with him so I wouldn't get tired (and had a little talk to him about looking after mum & the younger kids on the trip as he gave him a few emergency tools just in case we had a breakdown). I wasn't keen but acquiesced and was pleasantly surprised at his driving skill. So it was a little adventure for the four of us - a journey of two days to get there and an overnight stop at a caravan park on the way.

Saltbush, barely a tree, miles between toilet stops!! and no decent size tree nearby for cover.....

Four emus, a superb wedge-tailed eagle (one of the largest eagles in the world), hawks and the ever present crow were some of the wildlife we saw on our trip. No live kangaroos, which was unusual but a few of their carcassas were to be seen on the edges of the roads.

Long drop dunnies were another experience - they didn't have these out in the sticks when we were kids!

An unexpected oasis - quite a large lake in the middle of a vast plain. There had been a fair bit of rain in previous months

A stop for a cup of tea

At the closing of day in our drive westward

Lovely blue skies decorated with cumulostratus & cirrus formations

Here we are at my old town lookout near the ship building area where my dad used to work

Looking out near the Spencer Gulf - the nicer part of town where we didn't live

And up they go to explore Mount Laura where I used to play for hours on end

Red dirt that permanently stains your clothes 

Looking down at our van; beyond is the railway line - unfenced, but I don't remember any accidents - it was used to carry the iron ore which was mined when I lived here

'One way to neutralize this fascination with the natural world is to cordon it off in parks and zoos, and then to act as if only the parks and zoos were worth seeing. Persuade a child that a giraffe he sees once every couple of years is really impressive, but the wren on the fencepost is only a drab little bird....' (Pg. 37)

'We talk a great deal about independence, but we loathe it as much as we loathe the blessed freedom of nothing to do. Children no longer play because we have taken from them the opportunity and, I'll insist, even the capacity to play. And this, if we want to kill the imagination, is an altogether healthy thing.' (Pg. 49)

How do you help your child develop his imagination?

How can we prevent our children's imaginations from being destroyed?

What do you do to fight the current trends of raising children?

Do your children ever get the opportunity to be bored or have nothing to do?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

The Knowledge of God - Imparting Faith to our Children

Some Thoughts and Ideas

'By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months…..for they were not afraid of the King's edict.'

Hebrews 11

Whenever I read the story of Moses and his parents' faith I'm inspired by their actions and by the influence they had on their son over a brief time span that enabled him to later live surrounded by idolatry without compromising his faith, but I also wonder why no other mother or father (that we know of) trusted the Lord and took action to deliver their sons from death.

The Israelites were slaves in Egypt and had a slave mentality. Sometimes we can pick up a slave mentality as a consequence of living in a faithless environment but it is impossible to please God without faith and we have to fight against unbelief and the prevailing culture of child raising when it comes to bringing up our own children.

'We have made the Word of Truth conform to our experience and accepted this low plane as the very pasture of the blessed.'

'Faith is not in itself a meritorious act; the merit is in the one toward whom it is directed. Faith is a redirecting of our sight, a getting out of the focus of our own vision and getting God into focus.' (A.W. Tozer)

'It is as the mother gets wisdom liberally from above, that she will be enabled for this divine task.' (Charlotte Mason)

I always asked God for wisdom and then doubted that I had any. If you ask for wisdom, you need to believe He will give it and that He will help you to discern what is best and make wise choices regarding your children's influences, activities and direction. (James 1:5, Philippians 1:10)

'...the keys even of this innermost chamber are placed in the hands of parents, and it is a great deal in their power to enthroned the King...' (Charlotte Mason)

There are many keys that can help unlock a child's heart and mind. The Divine Spirit can communicate with them through the avenues of their minds, their wills and their emotion, and for each family it will look different.

Some of the keys for us have been:

• Scripture - Implanting a love of God's Word - our children see that the Word of God is the foundation and the common 'rule of life' in the home that applies to everyone in it.

• Principles - we teach our children principles of behaviour as they mature rather than give them rules. My upbringing started with rules at an early age (and little children need rules) but as I got older the rules didn't get replaced with principles; my parents just let go completely and I was left to form my own principles with the result that I was never really sure how I should act in certain situations.

'I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.' 3 John 1:4

• Humility - being willing to admit that we were wrong about something or asking forgiveness when we've lost it or over-reacted. If our children see the process of sanctification in our lives it encourages them and gives them a sense of security that we are being led by the Spirit of God and not our own whims.

• Teaching our children to serve - this is so important because serving is close to the heart of God - Jesus took the very nature of a servant (Philippians 2:7). In a large family everyone needs to pull their weight or chaos results and we notice very quickly if someone has neglected their responsibilities.

• Grace - we encourage excellence and doing everything to the best of their ability but allow grace to cover their mistakes.

• Faithfulness - little things matter and we've made an effort to teach them that faithfulness in the small things, things hidden from the general view, is important because it really is a heart issue.

Teach me, my God and King,

In all things thee to see,

And what I do in anything

To do it as for thee. 

(George Herbert)

• Honouring God - It's pretty basic: If we honour Him, He will honour us. We've told the children our stories of His faithfulness in our lives, His provision and blessings. Praying about decisions we need to make or for God's guidance shows them that we honour Him and want Him to direct our paths. Good books can inspire our children to honour the Lord as they read about others who honoured Him in their lives: missionaries, godly leaders and heroes of the faith.

• Teaching them to be worshippers - If children know from an early age that He has formed us for himself and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Him, and we model this ourselves, they will understand that nothing else will satisfy them or fill the space that only the living God can fill.

'The very essence of Christianity is personal loyalty, passionate loyalty to our adorable Chief.' (C.M.)

• Prayer - we pray for our children and with our children. We pray for others with them and then believe that God will answer our prayers.We pray over them when they are sick. We pray when they need to make choices.We've prayed regularly for each of them, from an early age, that God would set apart a godly spouse for each of them and bring them together at the right time. We've prayed for each of them that they would come to know Jesus at an early age and walk with Him all the days of their lives.We try to prayerfully choose what they should be involved in so we're not reacting to outside pressure that says if you don't do this, that, or the next thing your children will be deprived. 

'Child raising is not a competitive sport and it's not project management. It's about bringing some balance back into the home because it seems that this virus of hurry has infected our approach to childhood.' (Carl Honore)

• A ministry - our children are our ministry and mission field, our primary responsibility. Our children.....

 'are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody.....a result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God...'  2 Corinthians 3:2-3