At the Back of the North Wind

Wow! It has been 2 years since I ventured here. Maybe I will be able to recapture some of the memories as I blog anew. I will share what prompted me to start again. We heard that Focus on the Family was coming out with a new radio drama, At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald. I found a rather tattered copy on one of my bookshelves and we decided to read it as a family this summer.

I just finished reading it today (I say "I" as the rest of the family lost interest) and I cried over the ending. It causes me to think of my dear friend, Jacque, who passed away just 7 short months ago. What a wonderful analogy about death George MacDonald gives in this book. He makes it somehow sweeter.

I have read several of MacDonald's Christian fiction but this was only the second of his "fairy tales" that I have read. I really enjoy his allegories and analogies to Christianity and living throughout his books. I dog-ear many pages and underline many lines as I find words that speak to me. Here is a passage from At the Back of the North Wind ...

The main character, Diamond, was ill and when he realized that he had been a burden to his parents who had also lost their comfortable situation in life while he was sick, sets to trying to cheer them and help them in anyway possible. Here is an excerpt from the book: "(His mother) was looking gloomy, and his father silent; and indeed except Diamond had done all he possibly could to keep out the misery that was trying to get in at doors and windows, he too would have grown miserable, and then they would have been all miserable together. But to try to make others comfortable is the only way to get right comfortable ourselves, and that comes partly of not being able to think so much about ourselves when we are helping other people. For our Selves will always do pretty well if we don't pay them too much attention."

After finishing this book, I decided to find a list of MacDonald's works and try to begin to read through them. I will be using the "Partial List of Works" that I found on Wikipedia, unless I find something better. My next literary stop will be "Within and Without" which I found on Google eBooks.

The Year of Miss Agnes

I have not had the freedom to write anything lately. Today it is 60 here in IA; I have one boy napping and I just sent my other four outside. Glorious quiet!

I want to share with you one of my favorite books, The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill. We just finished reading it as a read-aloud from Sonlight Core 1. It is my second time reading it and was reminded again why I liked it so much!

The story is told by Fred, a 10 year old Alaskan girl. She lives in a small village near the Koyukuk River. Their village has a one-room school and they have had trouble keeping a teacher. Most teachers didn't want to put up with the village "ways": smelly, dried fish for lunches, large amounts of time off for fish camp, and slow, backward pupils. Concerned that they were losing the village children, the local pilot "kidnaps" a teacher on her way back home to England. Sam, the pilot knows that Miss Agnes is an exceptional educator and is just what this school needs. It is Miss Agnes' teaching methods that endear her to me...

Taping a time line made of adding machine paper to the side of their classroom. She would add pictures as they read about different times in history.
Reading aloud to them as they practiced their printing or cursive...books like Robin Hood, Greek Myths, and Fairy Tales
Posting a large map on the wall and encouraging them to find Alaska and then learn all the other countries throughout the year
Popping questions at any time of the day like, "How may continents are there?" and "What do you call animals without backbones?"
Because "writing is reading backwards" encouraging them to write by giving them little books stapled together in which they could write stories about themselves
Teaching spelling by making personal lists of the words they needed help to write in their books
Making a game of speaking with proper English by allowing students to catch each other speaking improperly

Perhaps this lends itself so well to homeschooling because we are truly a "one-room schoolhouse". I do incorporate some of these methods already but it was a good reminder of others I could use to make our schooling richer. AND the book has a wonderful warm, fuzzy ending. If you haven't read it yet, I would encourage you to find a copy.

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up." Deuteronomy 6:6-7

P.S. There is one more book that comes to mind that also uses similar techniques of learning and that is Cheaper By the Dozen by the Gilbreths. Don't let the more recent movie turn you off. This book is also an excellent tool to help you be creative about teaching your children without making it feel like "school".