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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

A Thought for the Day

(I started this blog post ages ago and found it today when I was going through all my unposted drafts. I love this quote too much to delete it, so I’m sharing it today.)

I was wasting time on the net, pinning on Pinterest and reading a plethora of miscellaneous articles about this and that. I followed a weaving trail of links to end at a very interesting review of the book So Much More by Anna Sofia and Elizabeth Botkin at Charity Grace. On that blog is posted this quote:

The opposite of consumption is production. It takes far more time and energy to create
something than to consume something. It takes a novelist a year to write a book that someone can read in a few days. A cast and crew of thousands spend years to create a film that will be viewed in two hours. Often our only recreational activities are actions of consumption. What an alternative it is, then, to rediscover the wonder and delight of creativity
. ~Albert Hsu

Isn’t that just lovely?

5 comments:

Angie said...

Yes it is! Thank you for sharing:)

Karen said...

Perfect.

Listen while I'm here I was wondering if you could help me with some CC questions. I live in a town in Cananda where they don't do it so I would want to do it just from home with my kiddos. What do you suggest??? Get the Cd's and cards for history, science, etc. to memorize??? And if they memorize some little song about parts of a plant cell etc. is there anything to explain that or is that left up to the teacher?? Are you using CC grammar or still Grammar Island??

thanks Heidi!

karenevoy@hotmail.com

Heidi said...

Those are great questions, Karen.

You have several options. You definitely want the Foundations Guide and the memory CD for the cycle you are working on. A new edition has just been published. The guide has all the memory work for all three cycles. CC has just published their own timeline and is going to be transitioning away from the Veritas timeline. The new Foundations Guide has all the new timeline events listed and the CDs include a timeline song. You could do the CC history timeline with or without the cards (depending on how you want to use it--the cards look wonderful and could be an excellent supplement to your own history curriculum or you could use them as a history 'spine'). OR you could purchase the Veritas timeline cards (there is a music CD available for it at Veritas Press). I did purchase the science cards, but we haven't used them much. If I were going to spend the extra money, I'd rather buy the history cards. It is the parent's job to add and integrate context however they wish. If you are doing the program at home, you could either do it as scheduled (and use it as your subject framework, or not) or you could manipulate it to fit the outline or schedule of other curricula you are using for various subjects.

Cycle 3 history sentences are U.S. History and geography is the U.S. (states, capitals, and features), so I don't know if you would want to memorize all of those. But science, Latin/Bible, and English grammar for cycle 3 would still be useful.

Does that all make sense? I'll summarize and say that you need the new Foundations Guide and the memory CD with the songs for the cycle you are working on. Everything else is optional. :)

We are working through the second level (Town) of MCT language arts. We love it. I will say that I think it should be supplemented with some other writing such as Writing With Ease (super easy to use if you get the workbooks) or IEW. Levi is registered for CC Essentials (language arts and writing) for next year, so we are going to take a break from MCT (though we may review the Town level, especially the vocab and poetry). We'll continue to do IEW, but through CC. The younger boys will use WWE, and I'll probably do some of the CC grammar at home with my 3rd grader. I don't believe you can purchase the CC grammar program (Essentials of the English Language) unless you are actually registered for a CC Essentials class, though.

Does that answer your questions? Let me know if I can clarify or add anything!

Hannah said...

I LOVE this quote, Heidi. It pricks my conscience, but it sums up what bothers me about how I do spend a lot of my "free" time. Sometimes I feel like I'd hate to see a pie graph of how much time I spend consuming (blogs, FB, the occasional TV show) vs. producing anything of beauty and creativity.

(Of course, the sentences we've been diagramming qualify as objects of beauty and creativity, I'm quite sure ...)

CC Jen said...

Lovely and inspirational quote! I'm a voracious consumer of books, but have yet to find my creative outlet for production...unless the new blog counts? LOL!