Did you know that thousands of years ago the ancient Chinese were already dyeing fabric?

Or that the Maya in South America created red dye from ground insects?

Instead of buying those pre-packaged egg-dye kits this year, why not create your own natural dyes?

You have most of the ingredients in your refrigerator and pantry already. Experimenting with various vegetables and spices and turning out eggs that are one-of-a-kind is a great hands-on, multi-age project.

Here’s how:

Preparation

The items we used are pictured above. (We had to go to the store to get red cabbage to get a bluer-blue, so add that one.)  Here is a list of what we used this year and the color that each material yielded:

• yellow onion skins: dark red
• red onion skins: purplish-red
• coffee: light to dark brown
• tea: light tan/golden brown
• spinach: light green
• turmeric (spice): bright yellow
• red cabbage: bright blue
• raspberries: light pink

Gather items you can use to make dye, such as the ones above.  Try some other spices, grass, flower petals and other items you might have outside – with one crucial caveat:

 Check and make sure that nothing is poisonous, please! 

You would not want to touch or have your children touch plant parts that are poisonous, and you certainly would not want to put anything poisonous in your cookware. If you do not have a thorough field guide to your local plant life, just stick to vegetables and spices.

You will need at least four small saucepans. (Smaller pans don’t require so much dye material.)

Depending upon how many eggs you would like to dye and how much material you have  -  I recommend at least 12-18 uncooked white eggs. It seems over the years that some eggs absorb dye better than others – I am not sure why that would be; does anyone know?

IMPORTANT NOTE: Authorities say eggs are not safe to eat if they have been out of the fridge more than two hours after cooking, so keep track of this unless you aren’t going to eat them.

Method

1. Chop (veggies/skins) or mash (berries) each item that needs it and put a cup or more in each saucepan with the egg(s).  The typical four burner stove allows four saucepans/dye colors to be done at one time.
2. Measure about two cups of water  - or just enough to cover the egg(s) – add one tablespoon of white vinegar for each cup of water. Stir it.
3. Boil the eggs for 20 minutes and turn the heat off or remove pan from burner.
4. Check the color of the eggs.  Leave them in the water longer/add more dying material if you would like a deeper value.
5. You can even leave the eggs in the water overnight if you refrigerate the pan with the water and the eggs. (Cool before putting in your fridge.)

Leaving three eggs  in red cabbage/water overnight (in the fridge) resulted in the gorgeous blue pictured below!

Other Method

Another method is to use the procedure above but without cooking the eggs until you have boiled the material for an hour and strained it.

Once the dyeing material has been boiled and removed by straining, use the water to boil the raw eggs  for 20 minutes.  This probably results in a more solid, uniform color, rather than the “textural” look of our eggs.

I have never tried this.

Perhaps I was too impatient to boil it for an hour….

While You are Waiting

While you are waiting for the eggs to cook/dye to take, you might read and talk about the history of dye creation. Here are a couple of links to get you* started:

General historical info about dye: http://www.ehow.com/about_5422885_history-fabric-dyes.html (Science)

Dying silk: http://www.advantour.com/silkroad/dyeing-of-silk-fabrics.htm (Science/history)

The famous “Silk Road” trading route: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/silk-road/ (History/geography)

*Please do not let your kids loose on links without first taking a thorough look – I did not read every word on every page connected to these.

The Results

When you are done cooking the eggs and you are happy with the color, remove them from the dye water, gently pat dry and refrigerate. The egg carton they came in is a perfect place to keep them. When they have cooled, shine them up with a little vegetable oil to bring out the color.

 Here is a photo of our latest creations:

What About You?

Have you ever dyed your eggs using natural dyes?  How did they turn out? Do you have any dyeing material that you particularly like?

I would love to hear about it!

This is part of “The Adoration of the Shepherds” by Giorgione

Christmas is the perfect time to be reading living books. Even those of you who are not Charlotte Mason homeschoolers,  please take time during this holiday season to read special books with your children. This is a slightly updated  post, originally written by Beth Hempton, formerly of Epi Kardia. We highly recommend all of the books listed here, so if you are looking for superlative stories for nieces, nephews or your own children, look no further!  –Dana

Some of my most precious Christmas memories revolve around books. Every year, my Mom would unpack her Reader’s Digest collection of Christmas stories and place it on the coffee table. Every year, I would pick up the heavy, hardbound anthology and read it as if I had never read it before. I also had a well worn copy of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and I don’t think a movie version was ever made that rivaled my imagination, which swirled with a combination of frightening images and tender vignettes as Scrooge learned to love and be loved. However, the hands down favorite for me was my father retelling of O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi. My father is not a great lover of literature, being much more concerned with science and facts, but for some reason O. Henry’s irony held Dad captive. To this day, it is my favorite O.Henry story and I will never forget how romantic the couple’s sacrificial love seemed to me as an adolescent girl.

Imaginatively illustrated, simply written children’s picture books can create cherished family memories as well as prized gifts. If you’re looking for some new story treasures for your family, consider some of these favorites. You can purchase them from Amazon by simply clicking the links in the titles.

• Shoemaker Martin written by Leo Tolstoy, illustrated by Bernadette Watts - This picture book actually became one of my favorites after I had my own children, even though it was originally written in the 1800s. The author, Tolstoy, also wrote the most acclaimed novel ever published, War and Peace, and yet, later in life became a Christian and wrote this beloved short story. With the focus on Christ, it’s an ideal story for Christmas although it’s not generally known as a holiday book. Tolstoy’s main point, as presented in this picture book, that Jesus reveals Himself through us in every day life isn’t overly challenging for a young child to understand and yet, it’s an excellent stepping stone for a mature discussion of how the things we do, as believers, affect everyone around us. The illustrations in this particular version are detailed and captivating while the text, translated from Russian, maintains its simplistic story telling quality.

•  The Gift of the Magi written by O. Henry – O. Henry is another one of those late 1800s story tellers, although he wrote mainly about American life. As I previously noted, this short story holds a special place in my childhood memories. We didn’t have the picture books, when I was a child, now available with their glorious original paintings. Both of the versions that I have read recently, one illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger and the other by P.J. Lynch, are very comparable in their presentations. P.J. Lynch, one of my absolute favorite illustrators (you will see the name several times in this blog alone) and his soft, but realistic paintings almost tell the story on their own. It’s no wonder that Lynch is a two time winner of the prestigious Kate Greenaway award. Yet, Zwerger’s tender illustrations in this particular book actually seem to give off the romantic gaslight qualities of the time period in which the story was written. You’ll have to make the decision or better yet, buy them both!

• We Believe in Christmas written by Karen Kingsbury and illustrated by Daniel J. Brown - This modern picture is ideally suited for younger children. The text clearly expresses one family’s reasons for celebrating Christmas, rather than “the holiday season.” The vivid illustrations with bright colors and a realistic presentation make it easy for younger children to understand. Related Christmas activity: Make a book with your children revealing why your family believes in Christmas. Focus on what your family does each holiday season and how your traditions relate to your family’s belief in Christ and celebrating His birth. It could be as simple as pages stapled together where you write main ideas on each page and your children illustrate them. For a more sophisticated project, an older child could design the book on the computer.

• The Christmas Miracle of Jonathon Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski and illustrated by P.J. Lynch – Along a similar, but less dark, story line as A Christmas Carol, this is the tale of a reclusive, yet talented, wood cutter who comes to life after being asked to create a Christmas nativity for a mom and her young son. One of my favorite qualities of this story is the flowing language that the author uses including when she describes Toomey, “He went about mumbling and grumbling, muttering and sputtering, grumping and griping.” More creative phraseology occurs when Wojciechowski expresses, “He traveled until his tears stopped.” As usual, Lynch’s illustrations bring life and feeling to the sentimental story with vibrant details including a wood tone shading to match the main character’s gifted profession.

• The Gift of the Christmas Cookie: Sharing the True Meaning of Jesus’ Birth written by Dandi Mackall and illustrated by Deborah Chabrian – In this story, a depression era mother shares a family tradition with her son, Jack. The tradition involves baking cookies and giving them to others to share the story of Christ. When Jack receives an angel cookie as his only Christmas gift, he decides to give it to a stranger and share what he believes. Illustrations of warm watercolors appropriately accompany this simple, but essential story and the author even includes a Christmas cookie recipe. Related Christmas activity: Make Christmas cookies of angels and other Christian symbols to take to a homeless shelter, children’s hospital, orphanage or other institution where children can enjoy them while you and your family share this sweet book. You could also leave your copy of the book for the children to read repeatedly.

• A Christmas Carol written by Charles Dickens and illustrated by P.J. Lynch – Yes, another book illustrated by Lynch!  I would recommend this book for older children due to the seriousness of some of the illustrations. Although the illustrations are darker in places than his other books, this particular story requires them at certain points to maintain the integrity of the original plot.

• Christmas Day in the Morning written by Pearl S. Buck and illustrated by Mark Buehner – Pearl S. Buck is best known as the author of the classic novel, The Good Earth. This is the first time this story has been published in picture book version since its original conception in 1055 as a short story. Its realistic human qualities feature a teenage boy suddenly discovering how much his father loves him. With that realization, the son works to come up with a gift that his father will truly appreciate. A tie in with the nativity moves this story from a simple feel good plot to the real reason behind Christmas. With sincere expression and homey illustrations, this book is sure to become an inspiration for many children to honor their parents in practical and helpful ways.

I hope that my reviews of these favorites provide you with a tool for choosing some new Christmas books for your family and save you some shopping time this holiday season.

Happy reading and many blessings,

Beth

Welcome to the March 20th edition of the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival!

If you are new here, you will want to carve a little time out of your day, grab a cup of coffee or tea and spend some time perusing the articles  from homeschooling moms who use Charlotte Mason’s methodology in their home schools. Expect to learn, be inspired and encouraged!

This edition’s theme is “Education is a Discipline,” but there are always posts that relate to other areas of Miss Mason’s philosophy included in the carnival. And we usually squeeze in a few posts on the last edition’s topic as well.

I hope those of you who are in ‘cold country’ especially, will enjoy the photos! Your flowers will come soon, I promise.

Parenting = Teaching and Training

The parent who believes that the possibilities of virtuous training are unlimited will set to work with cheerful confidence, will forego the twaddle about ‘Nature,’ whether as lovely in itself or as an irresistible force, and will perceive that the first function of the parent is that function of discipline … — Volume 2, p. 65

Nancy, from Sage Parnassus, posts Parents as Rulers, Inspirers, and Revealers – Charlotte Mason on Thoughtful Parenting, wherein she suggests that Miss Mason had much to offer not only the educator, but also the parent.  Melissa also shares her thoughts and ruminations on our topic from her blog, Educating Mother: Education is a Discipline {chewing on a couple of things}.  Barb at Harmony Art Mom offers us food for thought with her post entitled Homeschooling for Life and Not a Lifestyle. I agree that Charlotte would have wanted to see her charges develop a lifelong love for learning.

Editor’s Note:  Due to a technical problem, this is a post that is being added a few hours after the publishing of this issue:

Here is Erin’s post, Education is a Discipline, from her blog, Seven Little Australians and Counting.

A very clear presentation of how Sarah instills morning habits in her children, Discipline and the Two R’s,  is posted on her blog, All That’s Good. I love these concrete examples, don’t you?  Another beneficial post along these lines is by Tammy, who chronicles her experience Curing the Habit of Frustration, presented on her blog, Aut-2B-Homeincarolina.

Why Homeschool? Retaining Sibling Relationships, is a thoughtful post by Kelly at The Homeschool Co-op. You will not only enjoy the post – the photos of her kids are too cute!  Nadene also talks about her children, and transparently shares a current struggle  implementing the ‘perfect’ Charlotte Mason home school.  Read her post, Stresses and Struggles, on her blog, Practical Pages.

Poetry Study

Here are a few posts that either didn’t make it into the last edition of the carnival or were included after it was initially published: Laura shares her first experiences sharing poetry with her son at her blog, Windy Hill Home School in her post entitled Poetry.  At the other end of the homeschooling spectrum, here is an inspiring poem with suggestions for middle and high school lesson plans included on the Epi Kardia Blog, Poetry Study: Anne Bradstreet: Puritan Poet.  Additionally, Amy from Fisher Academy International shares her very useful post on how to analyze poetry For Novel Poetry Analysts…Like Me!.

Nature Study & the Arts

The Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival would not be complete without celebrating nature and all we may learn there, especially during the delightful Spring season! Barb at her Handbook of Nature Study blog shares her informative and visually cheerful post, Early Spring Flowers – Nature Study and Art Project. After Barb’s post, head over to Hodgepodge where Trish offers us 10 Easter and Spring Arts and Crafts activities to enjoy.   Jimmie at Jimmies Collage then features her Georgia O’Keeffe  Artist Study (along with the display of her daughter’s beautiful work!) Thanks to all three ladies for the lesson plans and photos of gorgeous art work to inspire us.

Even if you are not quite ready for the art studies, Melissa’s post Snippets from Charlotte on Being Outdoors will encourage you to carve out the time to regularly leave your four walls and go outside (with your children!) on her blog, Bugs, Knights, and Turkeys in the Yard.

Living Math

In her post at Jimmie’s Collage, Jimmie describes how she incorporates principles of “living” math along with a textbook curriculum in Using Teaching Textbooks in a Living Math Approach.

Scripture Prayer Calendar

And, finally, a lovely gift to us of a downloadable Scripture Prayer Calendar from Nadene of Practical Pages. Thank you, Nadene, for the helpful photos and clear directions for creating our own calendars, as well as for the reminder of the need to be lifting up our children in prayer.

Thank you to all of the authors for their useful entries and to our readers for taking the time to read and comment on our posts!

The next Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival on April 3rd will be hosted by Jimmie at Jimmie’s Collage. The theme will be Living Books –  (definition of, why we use them, our favorites, choosing books, etc.)
* PR article to read for background: Schoolbooks and How They Make for Education.

Editor’s Note: if you would like to have one of your posts included in the next edition of the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival, please send the following to charlottemasonblogs@gmail.com instead of using the blog carnival form:

• the name of and link to your blog
• the title of and link to your post
• any remarks you would like to make about your post

Blessings~

P.S. Reminder to those interested in entering a no-strings-attached give-away of a year of Charlotte Mason curricula : click here to see how to enter. The random drawing will tomorrow, March 21st.

The dark, damp days of winter often bring depression; or at least, boredom. As the temperature plummets, so do attitudes…  and the kids have a difficult time, too.

Time to liven up your days a bit!

Here are are several strategies to help you beat the winter blahs and inject some energy to your homeschooling:

 1.  Spend time with others

Beat cabin fever by resisting the urge to stay inside during these dreary days.   Get a group together and go to an inside skating rink or bowling alley, or even better, take a field trip. Have your students ever been behind the scenes at:

• the post office?
• your favorite grocery store?
• a bakery?
• a local manufacturing plant?
• a dairy farm?
• a local museum?
• a fire station?

Arrange a tour with your support group or a few other homeschooling families, then have a bag lunch or play time afterwards. If the weather doesn’t permit playing outdoors, perhaps a gym in a local church or recreation center would allow some indoor playtime  during the morning or early afternoon hours when they are usually empty.

After reading #3, grab a few other families, get together and plan a winter event or holiday. It could even become an annual event!

2. Evaluate and plan for next year

Often we resist the urge to think ahead in favor of just plugging along, nose to the grindstone, trying to get this year’s school work finished, but this is actually an excellent time to evaluate what you are doing and how you are doing it, as well as to identify specific areas needing attention next year for each of your children.

• Considering each child at a time, ask yourself, what progress has s/he made this year spiritually, academically, etc.? Are there new interests developing that should be explored next year? How does s/he learn best? Do we need plan to focus more on improving writing, arithmetic skills, working more independently or strengthening character in certain areas?  What habits would we like to be instilling in this child?

• How will your family change next year? Will you have more or fewer children to teach? Children spread out between kindergarten and high school for the first time? Do you need to prepare to teach middle school or high school?  Consider your method of teaching and curricula you are using (or not using, if you are more of an unschooler).   Is it working for you now?  Will it continue working for you? Is it working for your children? Are they engaged, learning, enjoying what they are doing for the most part? (Or are they bored, unchallenged, unmotivated or loosing interest?) Put your thoughts in writing.

• Are there new areas you would like to build into your homeschooling, such as family devotions, nature study (plan a spring garden!), lap-booking, notebooking, journaling, hymn study, picture study, or music lessons? Make notes about what you would like to add into your school day.

3.  Change things up – unexpectedly

Are you having difficulty just wading through the three R’s, let alone getting in any fun stuff? Amazingly, with something to look forward to, the non-negotiable stuff goes much faster.  Often livening things up can be as simple as assigning each Friday in February or March as a pajama day, build-a-tent-out-of-the-furniture-and-read-in-it day, make an edible map* day, or get together with others for lunch day (see #1). *Be looking for a peanut butter edible map recipe to be posted soon for this. Yum.

After spending time evaluating in #2, did you identify some new areas you would like to include in your studies next year?  Why don’t you consider starting one or more of them now, perhaps on a smaller scale, so you can see how it works and be better prepared to start in earnest in the Fall?  Here are some how-to posts that might help:

• Lapbooking/notebooking
• Hymn Study
• Picture Study for younger or
• Picture study for older students

As a family or with a few other families (see #1), research and cook a meal or plan an event that pertains to your history, geography or religious studies. How about:

• African or Egyptian night, researching and cooking traditional foods from the culture or period you are studying and eating them like they were eaten in the past or today (especially if no utensils were used – always popular).

• an Olympic Games Day, complete with costumes and patterned after the Olympics of Ancient Greece. (But you might draw the line at the way athletes competed in Ancient Greece – without clothes.  Brrr.)

• In March, celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim. Read the book of Esther and yell Boo! at any mention of Haman and cheer with abandon when Mordecai is mentioned.  You may also plan a feast, give to the poor and eat Hamantaschen or Haman’s Ears!

• Have a Renaissance Fair. Create appropriate costumes, research music, games, food and more that might have been appropriate for that event.  Make sure to take pictures!

Choose a secular holiday, research it, and celebrate it as a family or with others. This could be holiday on the calendar, such as these celebrated here in the U.S.:

• Black History Month (the month of February)
• American Heart Month (also, February)
• Valentines Day (Feb. 14^th) See some across-the-curricula ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day in your or with other families.
• President’s Day (Feb. 20^th)

Or, it could be a wacky holiday that you make up, or that someone else has  made up, such as:

• Random Acts of Kindness Day (Feb. 17^th)
• National Pistachio Day (Feb. 26^th)
• Johnny Appleseed Day (Mar. 11^th)

Maybe each of your children should have the option of making up his or her own holiday this month and (of course) writing down  why s/he chose the holiday and how it should be celebrated!

May patience, flexibility and creativity help you not just ‘get through’ the winter, but enjoy every day of it. And remember – time moves quickly – spring will be here before you know it.

What ideas do you have to make the days more enjoyable in the winter? We would love to hear them!