Quaint Cottage Homemaking Music and Musings with Video Clip ~ Beatrix Potter Series

"There's nothing like open air for soothing present anxiety

and memories of past sadness."

~ Beatrix Potter in Letter to Mrs. Wight (her friend & neighbor) June 1942

As the modern world has its set of challenges (though we can't forget the blessings too!), often we crave a bit of nostalgia and quaint charm. The following video will take you away to the old world of Beatrix Potter for just a few minutes...

Perhaps it will inspire you to take a moment outside and breathe in the "open air" where spring is a promise of renewal... The dreamy (and yet somewhat haunting) theme song is called "Perfect Day" and is sung by the talented Miriam Stockley.

The video "clip" is an excerpt from the closing credits of BBC's The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends. It was so charming that I felt the need to include it in our Beatrix Potter Spring Series. I thought it would be a whimsical way to start your morning! There was a sweet soundtrack that used to be sold from the DVD set but it is no longer being produced and unfortunately seems quite rare.

Included today are also some lovely photographs of the Lake District cottages and land which were owned (over 4,00 acres!) by Beatrix Potter and later donated to the National Trust.

Imagine walking through this countryside in a long Edwardian gown. Breathe in the fresh air and listen to the melody of the birds... Perhaps you will find some of the same creatures that enchanted Ms. Potter.

One way to transport you back to this world is by planting lavender bushes, roses and an abundance of cottage flowers. Imagine an assortment of delphiniums, hollyhocks and foxgloves. Include some beautiful cottage style stones in your landscaping. I am dreaming of the possibilities as I type this.

For those without garden space, you can still display a few potted herbs in your kitchen which gives your home that same old fashioned feel. The bonus is the fresh garnishes you will have for foods and teas!

For me, the playing of quaint cottage music can always transport you to the "Old World" while performing your daily duties. 

I have included some ideas (per the request of a kind reader). These would be fine choices for some peaceful homemaking moments or to enjoy with our free Beatrix Potter printable coloring book. Do you have any suggestions to add?

Note: All Photos are of Beatrix Potter's Lake District where she herself stands in the above photograph. 

Well, it is time to go... I hope this little post has refreshed you like a cheery pot of tea! 

 Happy Fun Friday to you and have a wonderful weekend!

All the fine print. This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays,  Coffee and Conversation, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Our Simple Homestead, Awesome Life Friday Link Up and Create, Bake, Grow & Gather. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these. This post may contain affiliate links (which are merchant links that help to support this site at no additional cost to you if you purchase an item through them).

Children's Gardening Resources for Your Homeschool

When I first saw this series of unit studies (Lessons From the Homestead by Carol J. Alexander) , I was in love as they are just the style we use in our classroom. Because I appreciate this kind of real life learning, I am going to do a giveaway on my favorite unit study from her set (giveaway has ended and has been removed from this post).

Lessons from the Homestead by Carol J. Alexander

"Lessons from the Homestead is a series of unit studies written for homeschooling or involved parents who want something that turns everyday life into learning lessons. Each unit study includes lessons for math, language, science, geography, home economics, art and more for each grade level. Each study includes a reading list for further study, literature suggestions and vocabulary words."

These are all wonderful unit studies based on farm life but my favorite is "Lessons from the Seed Catalog". I can imagine the fun of cutting and pasting up those cute catalogs for a fun crafting hour too! The lessons are arranged according to age—elementary, middle, or high school. They are grouped according to subject and there is much room for flexibility with more than 50 lesson plans using your seed catalogs... for math, language, science and more (how economical is that)! The best part is that it is a SIMPLE study to do that will not overwhelm mother.

Along the same lines, I have prepared some additional goodies to supplement these homestead-like studies (or use alone for fun). First of all, there is this "Children in the Garden ~ Coloring and Activity Book" that might be helpful to inspire your children to dig in the dirt this spring!  ~ Find your free printable HERE! They are featuring the old-fashioned regency images that I adore! 

I am also sharing a vintage "seed envelope" template that can be used in many ways to inspire a love for gardening. You will find the free printable HERE! Start crafting some envelopes now to use in the summer! 

-- Other posts we shared which also compliment these studies is our Garden Unit Study, Pumpkin Seed Packet Printables, Peter Rabbit Seed Packets and this Gardening with Peter Rabbit round up. Happy homeschooling! Love, JES

All the fine print. This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Make Your Home Sing Monday, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, The Homesteader Hop, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays,  Coffee and Conversation, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Our Simple Homestead, Awesome Life Friday Link Up, Five Star Frou Frou Friday, and Shabbilicious Friday. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these. This post may contain affiliate links (which are merchant links that help to support this site at no additional cost to you if you purchase an item through them). 

40 Journal Entry Ideas for Nature Study Notebooks ~ Free Printable

"There are two books laid before us to study, to prevent our falling into error. First, the volume of the Scriptures, which reveal the will of God; then the volume of creation, which expresses His power."

~ Frances Bacon (1561-1626)

If you haven't tried doing nature study journals because you weren't sure on where to start and how to do them, I wanted to share 40 journal entry ideas with you. There really are no rules to a nature study and yet your children will learn so much from just a little observation and a few moments of time!

What is neat about nature study is that it also encompasses many of the school subjects during one sitting! If you spent an entire day outside with God's creation, you need not have the "homeschooling-mother-blues" (though 20 minutes a day is quite beneficial)! You have art covered as your children sketch and/or color in their entries. You have covered science and nature as they observe God's creation and learn more about the plant or animal life they come across. You have included language arts as you do copy work of nature inspired poetry or favorite quotes from nature books.  You can spend time with the Scriptures when you include Bible verses pertaining to the objects of nature you are studying. And if you have taken a vigorous nature walk, you have included physical education into your nature study time as well! I think you can see how nature study is more than nature. It is a lifestyle of learning through various subjects that the Almighty has prepared for us to enjoy and learn from (remember "Go to the Ant"?)!



You needn't be outside to do a nature study (though you should definitely make time to do so when convenient). Rainy days, chilly days and the hottest of days could still provide nature study time! There are always indoor plants to draw, identify and learn about, the occasional insect and/or spider you may find indoors to study, you can grow your own butterfly kits, maintain ant farms, study any indoor pets you may have, sketch still life such as pinecones and leafs, read books on nature that can be studied and used for copying drawings and recording information. The possibilities are endless.

And in the end, as your children begin to observe nature, our prayer is that they will be intrigued by the One who created it, the Master Artist. "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse..." (Romans 1:20).

You can view and/or print our 40 Journal Entry Ideas for a Nature Study HERE. Should you like further ideas on how to conduct a nature study, visit HERE. To view a sample of our nature notebook pages, visit HERE.

                       

For books to inspire mother in the art of nature study, I recommend a Pocketful of Pinecones by Karen Andreola (written in a sweet novel form that gently teaches), Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Comstock (an old fashioned thick volume of interesting nature information and concepts), the Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden (a romantic look at the natural world) and Nature Study the Easy Way (a casual conversational how-to-guide) by Cindy Rushton. For it is often that the teacher's love must first be ignited in order to pass the flame down to the student!

"With nature study in this easy way, there is a completely different focus. There is no undue focus on facts, trivia, and a sampling of information to learn off for a test. Rather, the focus is on recognition of nature ALL throughout the year and in every season, learning the life cycles of plants and animals informally as they go along, and growing in appreciation and attentiveness to the tiny details of God's creation! Amazingly, the children come to KNOW and UNDERSTAND God's Creation!"

~ Cindy Rushton, A Charlotte Mason Primer

This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Make Your Home Sing Monday, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Titus 2sdays, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Roses of Inspiration, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays,  Coffee and Conversation, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Our Simple Homestead, From the Farm Blog Hop, Front Porch Friday Blog Hop, Awesome Life Friday Link Up, Five Star Frou Frou Friday, Simply Natural Saturdays and Clever Chicks Blog Hop. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these.

The Tower of Babel and The Ice Age ~ History of the World Study

"And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech."

~ Genesis 11:1

In the last post of our "History of the World" homeschool study series, we left off on Noah and the World Wide Flood.  What major events comes next? Unfortunately, that is quite controversial. However, we believe that the earth is young and follow a literal account of Genesis in our home. Therefore, the next major event in history would be the Tower of Babel, followed by the infamous Ice Age. It is actually very fascinating to study this and put the pieces together in history which bring light to science and the Scriptures. Also keep in mind that studying this early in history makes for some guess work in timeline dates but we did our best.

To begin, we placed all our paperwork for this unit behind the "Tower of Babel/Ice Age" tab in our History of the World Student Work Binder (which is the divider section behind "Noah and the World Wide Flood"). We are making our own set of encyclopedias this way!

                            

{Here is some clip art to copy and paste into your "Timeline Binder".}

We also pasted down two entries into our timeline notebook at approx. 3500-3000 B.C. for the Tower of Babel and 3500-2500 B.C. for the Ice Age (you will find more information on our timeline notebooks here) (world history, Bible).  You could either type in a description of the Tower of Babel and the Ice Age and paste it underneath your timeline picture or simply write in "Tower of Babel"  and "The Ice Age" underneath each illustration. We chose to place a small summary (typing practice) underneath each one of our timeline entry clip arts so that we could go back in time and remember each event more vividly by our descriptions.

"All humans are descendants of Noah's three sons. After the flood, God commanded Noah's family to spread out and fill the Earth. Some of Noah's descendants disobeyed God's command. Under the leadership of a man named Nimrod, they banded together and built a tower that reached into the sky. God responded by causing groups of people to speak a different language. This was the beginning of many different nations."

~ Draw and Write through History Book (Creation Through Jonah)

The first item on the list was to link the last two time periods together in the mind of the student. We commenced with copy work found in the Draw and Write through History Book (Creation Through Jonah) and followed it by the drawing assignment of the Tower of Babel (Bible, art, language arts, world history).

Once that was established, we read the account of the Tower of Babel in Genesis (Bible, history). We also watched this short video clip about Babel from the Creation Museum DVD series (warning: it might scare toddlers). Doing a picture study on a painting of the Tower of Babel is also a nice addition. Here we show Pieter Bruegel the Elder - The Tower of Babel (art history).

This is also an excellent opportunity to share how the different people groups came to be. The Tower of Babel plays an important role in this. I recommend watching Only One Race by Answers in Genesis. Note: This movie is geared toward a more older audience.

We didn't have much resources on the Tower of Babel so once these activities were completed, we spent the remaining time on the major historical event that followed next, "The Ice Age".

"The flood was not just a local flood. It covered the whole earth... causing a dramatic climate change all over the world. In some areas there was an ice age. Wooly mammoths may have lived at this time. Scientists have found frozen wooly mammoths so well preserved that they could even tell what they had eaten!"

~ Draw and Write through History Book (Creation Through Jonah)

To begin the Ice Age Study, we drew pictures of the woolly mammoth for our notebooks and included the copy work shared above (art, language arts, world history, science).

Life in the Great Ice Age by Micheal and Beverly Oard was an excellent resource for this study and we used it as our read aloud title. I am not scientific minded so this book really simplified the Ice Age through a beautifully illustrated story (language arts, Bible, science, world history) and with a biblical perspective. Something we do splurge on is purchasing these types of books for our home library because this isn't something you will find in your local library.

We made a list of ice-age animals. You could also have your older students alphabetize this list when they are finished (science, basic skills).

We created a map based from the information from Life in the Great Ice Age which indicated where Ice Age fossils were found (geography).

Next we drew "cave men and women", using the Draw and Write Through History Series. We also did the corresponding copywork that these books provide (art, Bible, language arts). Cave men and women or the "Stone Age" people we learn about can simply be the malnourished people who lacked sunlight and fresh food during the challenging Ice Age.  Life in the Great Ice Age by Micheal and Beverly Oard goes into more detail on this. Very interesting topic!

"There are more references to cold, snow, ice, and frost in the Book of Job than any other book in the Bible. Is is possible that Job and his friends had heard tales of the glacial sheets bounding the northern lands even though they had not seen them."

~ Dr Henry Morris, The Remarkable Record of Job

We did some bible verse copy work from the Book of Job that corresponded with Ice Age weather. We used Job 37:9-10 and  Job 38:29-30 (Bible, language arts, science).

For a picture study concerning the Ice Age, you can study the Columbian Mammoth by the Victorian Era artist, Charles R. Knight (fine art).

We also made up poems about the Ice Age for some language arts fun.

Lastly, we found this song about the Tower of Babel and this song about being One Blood that your children may enjoy by Buddy Davis (from Answers in Genesis). You can download it and incorporate it into your study (Bible, history, music). It would be fun to play while the children are drawing or coloring. We enjoy learning through songs in our homeschool. Songs stick!

One field trip we recommend when studying Genesis topics is the Creation Museum. Jonathan Park Audio Adventures are also a fun way to learn Creation Science in general. And if you would like more scientific information which is tied to the Scriptures, then I recommend visiting the Answers in Genesis website.

Though on the shorter side, this was a very fascinating study and opened up a lot of ideas of how history could have taken place with scientifically sound information and a Biblical worldview.  Ah, the joys of home education!

History of the World Notebook Study/Part 1 (Introduction)

History of the World Notebook Study/Part 2 (Recommended Ages and Such)

History of the World Notebook Study/Part 3 (How to Conduct One)

History of the World Notebook Study/Part 4 (Practical Ideas)

History of the World Notebook Study/Part 5 (Preparation and Binder Printable)

Creation Study ~ History of the World (Study 1)

Noah's Ark & The World Wide Flood ~ History of the World (Study 2)
The Tower of Babel and The Ice Age ~ History of the World (Study 3)

Next in our "History of the World Timeline/Notebook" Series:

Ancient Egypt

This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Make Your Home Sing Monday, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Titus 2sdays, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Roses of Inspiration, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays,  Coffee and Conversation, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Our Simple Homestead, From the Farm Blog Hop, Front Porch Friday Blog Hop, Awesome Life Friday Link Up, Five Star Frou Frou Friday, Simply Natural Saturdays and Clever Chicks Blog Hop. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these. This post contains affiliate links.