I'd never heard of blackboard mottoes (also known as "Memory Gems"), which were once commonplace in schools, until reading Primary Work: A Manual for Young Teachers (c. 1907). Some quick research led me to this: "The use of good mottoes serves many good purposes, not the least of which is that a sentiment or injunction on which a child's eye rests every time he raises it from his book, is pretty sure to be indelibly fixed in his memory, and to give rise to thoughts whose pondering may be of great profit." How wonderful! (A brief "how to" can be found here.)

Here's more:

One other method of direct moral teaching calls for mention. It is the use made of mottoes and memory gems both by teachers and children. Here again the blackboard is brought into play. It is the common thing to see a motto, frequently illuminated with coloured chalks, or an extract from the prose or poetry read in the class, written up on one part of the blackboard.

An art room may contain a Browning quotation, an ordinary class room a nature piece, a moral sentiment, sometimes a verse of Scripture. There it is before the children, side by side with a picture of the boy Christ or one of the Madonnas, as a sort of reminder by the way, helping to make the class-room, even to its "almighty wall," a home of the child's higher thought. Mottoes are sometimes chosen and written up by the children, and in almost every lower grade each week brings with it a new "memory gem," most likely selected by the teacher from those brought by the pupils, which the whole class learns.

1. Each thing in its place is best. — Longfellow
2. A thing of beauty is a joy forever. — Keats
3. Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well.
4. In seeking the pleasure of others we fill to the full our own measure.
5. There's a beautiful spirit breathing now Its mellowed richness on clustered trees. —Longfellow
6. It is not with success we build our lives, but with noble endeavors.
7. Bad habits gather by unseen degrees. —Longfellow
8. Let us do our work as well, Both the unseen and the seen. —Longfellow
9. Politeness is to do and say The kindest thing in the kindest way.
10. Be prompt in everything.
11. Kind hearts are more than coronets. —Tennyson
12. Hearts like doors, can open with ease / To very, very little keys, / And don't forget that they are these — / "Thank you, sir" and "If you please."
13. People are great only as they are kind. —The Philistine
14. Speak well of everyone if you speak of them at all. —The Philistine
15. Things done by halves are never done right.
16. A laugh is worth a hundred groans in any market. —Lamb
17. One cannot always be a hero, but one can always be a man. —Goethe
18. Do the head work before the hand work.
19. Am I helping or hindering?
20. Let us be faithful in little things.
21. If at first you don't succeed, Try again!
22. Self-control is the foundation of all knowledge.
23. Quiet people are welcome everywhere.
24. All one's life is music if we touch the notes right and in right tune. —Ruskin
25. Courtesy costs nothing and gains everything. —Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
26. God's in His Heaven, All's right with the world. —Browning
27. Slow and sure wins the race.
28. Be gentle.
29. Patience opens all doors.
30. Do to others as you'd have them do to you.
31. Live up to your promises.
32. He is strong who won't do wrong.
33. Cloud and sun together make the year: Without some storm no rainbow could appear.
34. Kind words are little sunbeams, That sparkle as they fall.
35. Do your best, your very best.
36. Live for the good that you can do.
37. A loving heart is the great requirement. —The Philistine
38. Denying a fault doubles it.
39. Not how much, but how well.
40. Good manners are a part of every little girl's and boy's education.
41. It is what you do for yourself that educates you.
42. There is nothing so kingly as kindness And nothing so royal as truth. —Alice Gary
43. A man is known by the company he keeps.
44. Life is not so short but there is always time for courtesy. —Emerson
45. It is joy to think the best of humankind. —Wordsworth
46. The art of memory is the art of paying attention.
47. Be friendly and you will never want friends.
48. Not what I have, but what I do, is my kingdom.
49. Habitually doing what you believe to be right exercises conscience.
50. Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.
51. Doing doubles capability.
52. The love of truth exalts and ennobles.
53. Good words and gentle manners are the highest forms of beauty.
54. Resisting temptation strengthens the will.
55. Evil acts show evil minds.

After a lovely Christmas break, this week has been one of easing back into our school routine and trying out new curriculum, yet again. And what a week it's been! Let me just say now that I am totally and completely wiped out!
Last month I spent a fair amount of time researching the Classical Liberal Arts Academy and found myself deeply impressed with the school on many different levels. Realizing that it would be quite a *challenge* for us (especially in its demands for structure and discipline, two areas in which we're rather lacking), I enrolled the kids in the three core classes: Classic Catechism I, Classical Arithmetic and Classical Grammar I, while also enrolling myself in the Praeceptor Training. I naively anticipated that the addition of a few online classes would simplify my life somehow, because it seems I've struggled a lot with homeschooling this past year.
However, this week has been nothing short of a *total* nightmare, made worse by the fact that I've been dealing with an increasingly nasty migraine for the past three days. Every single day has been a battle, replete with hours of whining/crying/arguing over the work and how hard it is to do. Essentially, there's a lot of memorization (it's ALL memorization), and while I knew it wouldn't be easy, I certainly wasn't expecting this. How on earth do you force a child to memorize pages (and pages) of material? It's overwhelming, I do understand that, yet not completely impossible if they'd avoid working themselves into such a frenzy over it! At any rate, we're committed, and I do believe the classes are valuable, so I'm not prepared to let them win this battle. I firmly believe that once we get past this hurdle (if I survive it), we'll all have benefitted. I can only hope that next week I'm headache-free and in a better position to deal with this, um, challenge. This weekend I'm going to begin praying this Novena for Homeschooling Mothers (Day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), which certainly can't hurt.


Aside from our online coursework, the kids each completed a lesson in their Singapore Math books daily. In History, we continued to read from St. Benedict: Hero of the Hills by Mary Fabyan Windeatt (perhaps the emphasis on the obedience of the monks will rub off on them?!) and Life in a Medieval Abbey by Tony McAleavy. In particular, we began to study the art of illumination; we read Marguerite Makes a Book by Bruce Robertson and started on Bibles and Bestiaries: A Guide to Illuminated Manuscripts by Elizabeth B. Wilson. We'll continue this study next week using some of the resources listed below. I am deliberately keeping history quite light right now until we get more settled with our other classes. Given my tendency to over plan everything, I'm trying to do as little planning as possible ~ not an easy feat.
Online Resources:

• The Making of a Medieval Book from The Getty
• Digital Library of Illuminated Manuscripts from Lehigh University
• Leaves of Gold from the Philadelphia Museum of Art ~ a wonderful site that was recently taken down, but thankfully still available via the Internet Archive

Lesson Plans / Hands-On Activities:

• Understanding Medieval Manuscripts (PowerPoint Presentation)
• Looking at Illuminated Manuscripts: Lesson Plans & Ideas for Discussion from The Getty
• Illuminations: A Lesson in the Art of Illuminated Letters
• Create an Illuminated Alphabet Book from The Getty
• Make a Medieval Book from the V&A
• Make Your Own Medieval Manuscript 8-page codex templates from the Philadelphia Museum of Art
• Tools of the Trade & How They Were Used: Printable worksheet from Leaves of Gold
• Find the Tools in the Margins: Printable worksheet from Leaves of Gold
• The Scribe in His Workshop: Printable worksheet from Leaves of Gold
• Crayon Resist Illumination
• Medieval Letters Set
• The Illuminated Lettering Kit
• Make Your Own Manuscripts! Templates Suppliers

In other news...I've been doggedly pursuing my own self-education this week. In addition to my Praeceptor Training class, I read A World Lit Only By Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age by William Manchester ~ a lousy book riddled with inaccuracies! The only thing I gained from the book was a renewed interest in Henry VIII and a desire to learn more about Europe's primevil forests. So to that end, I'm currently reading the excellent and exceedingly well-researched The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Sommers by Margaret George and have ordered The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, which mentions Poland's ancient Bialowieza Forest.
Speaking of books, it's worth mentioning that Amazon is currently offering another trial of Amazon Prime, this time for 3 months (!), with the purchase of any textbook (through 2/5/2010). Their definition of a textbook appears to be a bit loose, but to qualify I ordered The Book of Margery Kempe and The Age of the Cloister: The Story of Monastic Life in the Middle Ages by Christopher Nugent Lawrence Brooke (which does not qualify). I had a trial of Amazon Prime right before Christmas and have been dearly missing out, so I was thrilled to discover this offer (thanks to Jessica at Shower of Roses!).

I'm aiming for the "Basic" challenge, but plan to read a few extra books. After hours of agonizing over my choices on Amazon, here's the list I came up with:

• Deep Jungle by Fred Pearce ~ This is a book I already own, but have not yet read.
• One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest by Wade Davis
• Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind by David Quammen ~ For whatever reason, this book looks fascinating to me!
• Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators by William Stolzenburg ~ Rather similar to the above title, but instead focuses on predation's vital role in the preservation of ecological diversity.
• Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds by Bernd Heinrich
• Demons in Eden: The Paradox of Plant Diversity by Jonathan Silvertown
• The Hidden Forest: The Biography of an Ecosystem by Jon R. Luoma

This morning, while browsing Susan Wise Bauer's blog, I found the perfect reading challenge: A Tournament of Reading. Since I'd already made up my mind to spend much of the year reading about the Middle Ages, this will be a piece of cake. My goal is to reach the "King" level, which means I'll need to read nine books, at least two books in each category (history, medieval literature and historic fiction).

Last summer I put together the following Medieval book list for myself; the Medieval Europe group at LibraryThing always has excellent recommendations as well. Here are the titles that have captured my interest thus far:

*Historic fiction is denoted by italics; titles read in 2009 are in navy.

• Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset


• At Day's Close: Night in Times Past by A. Roger Ekirch


• A History of the Church in the Middle Ages by F. Donald Logan


• Life in the Medieval Cloister by Julie Kerr


• The Age of the Cloister: The Story of Monastic Life in the Middle Ages by Christopher Nugent Lawrence Brooke


• Charlemagne by Derek Wilson


• Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne by Pierre Riche


• The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman by Nancy Marie Brown


• Mysteries of the Middle Ages And the Beginning of the Modern World by Thomas Cahill
• A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age by William Manchester


• King Arthur: Myth Making and History by Nicholas Higham


• Malory: The Knight Who Became King Arthur's Chronicler by Christina Hardyment


• The Medieval Calendar Year by Briget Ann Henisch


• A Medieval Book of Seasons by Marie Collins


• Lost Country Life by Dorothy Hartley


• The Ties That Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England by Barbara A. Hanawalt


• The Good Wife's Guide (Le Menagier de Paris): A Medieval Household Book by Gina L. Greco & Christine Rose


• Medieval Children by Mr. Nicholas Orme


• Growing Up in Medieval London: The Experience of Childhood in History by Barbara A. Hanawalt


• A History of Private Life, Volume II, Revelations of the Medieval World by Phillippe Ariès


• Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women by Caroline Walker Bynum


• Down the Common: A Year in the Life of a Medieval Woman by Ann Baer


• The Book of Margery Kempe by Margery Kempe


• Robin Hood by James Clarke Holt


• Imagining Robin Hood: The Late Medieval Stories in Historical Context by A.J. Pollard


• The Last Apocalypse: Europe at the Year 1,000 A.D. by James Reston


• The Year 1,000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millenium by Robert Lacey


• The Needle in the Blood by Sarah Bower


• A Needle in the Right Hand of God: The Norman Conquest of 1066 and the Making and Meaning of the Bayeux Tapestry by R. Howard Bloch


• The First Crusade: A New History: The Roots of Conflict Between Christianity and Islam by Thomas Asbridge


• God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades by Rodney Stark


• The Book of Saladin: A Novel by Tariq Ali


• The Knight in History by Frances Gies


• Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age by Fiona Maddocks
• Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life by Alison Weir


• Power of a Woman: Memoirs of a Turbulent Life [Eleanor of Aquitane] by Robert Fripp


• Eleanor of Aquitane: Queen of the Troubadours by Jean Markdale


• The Troubadour's Song: The Capture and Ransom of Richard the Lionheart by David Boyle


• Thomas Becket by Frank Barlow


• Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone


• Lark in the Morning: The Verses of the Troubadours by Robert Kehew


• The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time by John Kelly


• Reluctant Saint: The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi by Donald Spoto


• Spiritual Franciscans: From Protest to Persecution in the Century After Saint Francis by David Burr


• Katherine by Anya Seton


• Chaucer: His Life, His Works, His World by Donald R. Howard


• Joan of Arc: Her Story by Régine Pernoud


• The Friar and the Cipher: Roger Bacon and the Unsolved Mystery of the Most Unusual Manuscript in the World by Lawrence Goldstone


• Out of the Flames: The Remarkable Story of a Fearless Scholar, a Fatal Heresy, and One of the Rarest Books in the World by Lawrence Goldstone


• The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages:Their Religious, Institutional and Intellectual Contexts by Edward Grant


• Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine: An Introduction to Knowledge and Practice by Nancy G. Siraisi


• The Beginnings of Western Science by David C. Lindberg


• Magic in the Middle Ages by Richard Kieckhefer


• Strange Histories: The Trial of the Pig, the Walking Dead, and other Matters of Fact from the Medieval and Renaissance Worlds by D.J. Oldridge


• The Medieval Flower Book by Celia Fisher


• Marking the Hours: English People and Their Prayers, 1240-1570 by Dr. Eamon Duffy


• The Medieval Garden by Sylvia Landsberg


• Sweet Herbs and Sundry Flowers: Medieval Gardens and the Gardens of the Cloisters by Tania Bayard


• Hildegard's Healing Plants: From Her Medieval Classic Physica by Hildegard Von Bingen


• Monastic Gardens by Mick Hales


• Brother Cadfael's Herb Garden: An Illustrated Companion to Medieval Plants and Their Uses by Robin Whiteman


• A Tale of Two Monasteries: Westminster and Saint-Denis in the Thirteenth Century by William J. Chester


• The Age of Pilgrimage: The Medieval Journey to God by Jonathan Sumption


• A Stolen Tongue by Sheri Holman


• The Last Divine Office: Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Geoffrey Moorhouse

This afternoon we held a little drawing to determine who would receive our extra copy of Per and the Dala Horse by Rebecca Hickox. The twins selected a random name from a vase and the winner was Julie from Our Westmoreland School. :-)

Baking Day is a Christmas tradition in our household ~ the one tradition I've faithfully maintained since the children were wee babes. Unfortunately this year, as with virtually everything else I've tried to plan lately, it did not go quite right.

Our first recipe was for salt caramels. Elon took over this recipe at the last minute, neglected to watch the temperature carefully, and we ended up with hard butterscotch candy. Fortunately, the kids *love* butterscotch so this wasn't a total loss!

The next few recipes we attempted were all from Martha Stewart Cookies: Cocoa Shortbread Diamonds, Cranberry Noels and Cream Cheese Walnut Cookies. All three resulted in extremely dry crumbly dough - so crumbly that it was virtually unworkable. This is a problem that I've never experienced before and I'm still puzzled by it! I added a bit of milk to each and stuck them in the fridge to chill, though I'm nervous to see what will happen when I try to roll them out and/or bake them.

Next, we mixed up some Nice 'n Soft Sugar Cookie dough and had the same stupidly dry dough issue. At this point I was feeling pretty frustrated, but luckily we had some success with another recipe: Cranberry and White Chocolate cookies. We also mixed up some gingerbread dough, which is currently chilling.

So...our baking day evolved into two days of very little actual baking. I still have a counter piled high with cookie and candy making supplies, so I'll have to find some additional recipes to try after work today, hopefully with better luck. We still have truffles to make and, of course, a fridge full of dough that I'll need to deal with sooner or later.
We did take a break on Saturday afternoon to assemble the gingerbread house we'd purchased:

However, we never managed to get to any of the other Christmas craft projects I'd planned. I have a basket full of new craft supplies, just waiting for some attention. Sigh. I suppose there's always tomorrow...

This week went nothing like I'd planned! I realized halfway through the week that I'd forgotten to post our Week Three Advent plans (for this week). In the end, that's probably a good thing, because we didn't get much accomplished. The feasts of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Santa Lucia kept me very busy last weekend, so by Monday I was ready for a more relaxed schedule.

On Monday, we read Per and the Dala Horse and The Tomten. I had planned that we would make tomten ornaments, bake cookies in traditional Swedish shapes and paint Dala horses, but we only managed to start painting the Dalas because *I* got terribly sidetracked and had Elon cut out a bunch of little gnomes/tomtes with the scroll saw to paint.
On Wednesday, the kids studied their CLAA material and we read The Night of Los Posadas by Tomie dePaola. I had to finalize my Christmas Day menu, since we'll be having family at our house this year, and we also planned our Christmas baking.
On Thursday, the twins helped out at the Salvation Army toy distribution all day and had a blast (they're hoping to help out at a soup kitchen next week). An added bonus was that they made the evening news. :-)

And that brings us to today, which is our annual Christmas baking day. Honestly this week has gone by so quickly, I hardly feel prepared, but here's what we'll be making today (and probably tomorrow as well):

• Chocolate-Mint Truffle Cups
• Salted Caramels and Salted Chocolate Caramels
• Chocolate Thumbprints
• Buttery Pecan Rounds
• Cranberry Noels
• Cream Cheese Walnut Cookies
• Coffee Toffee
• Gingerbread Men
• Sugar Cookies

Suffice it to say, I think we're on Christmas break since very little school work got done this week! This weekend we've got tons of craft projects to get done as well, things that we didn't get to previously, so I'll be posting those as we get through them.
One last note ~ we ended up with two copies of Per and the Dala Horse by Rebecca Hickox, because I forgot that I'd ordered a used copy on Amazon, and purchased a copy while in Lindsborg. If anyone would like the extra (new) copy, please leave a comment & on Monday we'll randomly pick someone to send it to. It's really a very beautiful little book!