16 September 2011

The Twenty One Balloons, and, The Mysterious Island

A very C.M title would have been "Education is the Science of Relations"

A few years back Bobs and Dn read aloud together The Twenty-One Balloons during our journey through Sonlight's Core 1 /B ..... Daisy and I read something else.


Dn said he just could not seem to get into that book, at the time, and Bobs say he couldn't actually remember 'exactly' what happened (I think from memory they put it aside unfinished).

There is an audio down load for those that just can not seem to find their stride with this read aloud and yet really want to cover that book.

Fast forward 2 years. Bobs loves to listen to audio books while he 'constructs' things so elected to listen to The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. Which he assures me has a much better story line than 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (same author).

Side Comment now.. ...... since we began home educating we've continued to casually listen, or read, our way through Ambleside Online's book list and for those interested 20,000 Leagues is free reading for year 6.

Now please, just indulge me while I have a C.M moment. Listening to Bobs recount the connections his brain was making - zapping backwards and forwards - between The Twenty-one Balloons, a book he had said he can't really remember from a good 2 years prior, and to a more current audio book, The Mysterious Island , was encouraging to hear. He could recall more from Twenty-one Balloons than he thought he could.

He then proceeded to tell me - at regular intervals {small laugh} - a host of tidbits about hot air balloons, volcanic islands, and survival techniques along with relaying good chunks of information from one of his favourite, younger years, audio books: The Swiss Family Robinson .... I was tempted to set him loose on his older cousin with all that information (waving - hi Jaz).

Charlotte Mason would have just nodded sagely and referred me back to the short sypnosis in her book Philosophy of Education Vol.6

12. "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, for we
know that our business is not to teach him all about anything,
but to help him to make valid as many as may be of -
"Those first-born affinities
That fit our new existence to existing things."

In a nut shell (my own): a childs mind is very capable of making their own connections with the literature and experiences they have, or are given, joining up connections from past to present information.

My bibliovores heart just ♥loves♥ the portion... upon many living books.

I enjoy the narrations Bobs and Daisy give back during those science of relations moments .... it reconfirms that the information being processed is factual, or assumed.

So take heart, even when it doesn't seem like all, or any, of the read aloud information is going in to your young listeners - at some level it is. In our home it appears that the science of relations is happening rather well. Which is encouraging for me, after all those hours of reading aloud together, that the read aloud, readers and audio book information is all in there waiting for later connections (-:

If anyone else has a post along the lines of "Education is the Science of Relations" that they have read or written and you'd be willing to share it, please add a link in the comments section.

1 comment:

Chareen said...

I can't really recall the details of 21 Balloons but I do recall that as a family we did enjoy it around 10 years ago and I am looking forward to re reading it with Sir N.
I am learning slowly to see the possibilities that exsist in a "Science of Relations"

Here is a post I did on a Science of Relations: http://everybedofroses.blogspot.com/2011/08/prime-mover.html