Meet Our Young Explorers!

They spent a few afternoons reenacting the early explorers, and had great fun!

Quite lively! I bet they won't forget their explorer!

 

These boys were the Bartholomew Dias explorers:

Nature Journaling

Today was Group Two's first day of Nature Journaling!

We went outside to draw what we could see around us.

We drew bamboo, oak and fig leaves, seed pods, and ants.

Some did rubbings of the leaves or bark.

We looked through frames made of  heavy paper to see things differently, to help us focus.

After moving to a few different places around the school,

we returned to the cool of the classroom to color in our pictures,

adding describing words to complete

our time of nature journaling.

This is a great activity for all. Try to get outside atleast once a week. Simply take your pencil and a pad of paper that has a stiff binding so it is easy to hold while drawing. Look around you. Look at the small things. Begin to draw. Fill up a whole page with all sorts of things that you see each time you venture out. We had bamboo, fig leaves, seed pods and rubbings on the same page. If you have a child that is reluctant to draw, this is a great activity, for when you are out there sitting on the ground with them drawing, they are more likely to join in and find they can actually do it. Show him that the leaf is sort of a triangle, or an oval shape with squiggly edges as you are drawing it in your own journal. He will learn to see things in simple shapes, too.

Another helpful hint is to have them draw lightly so they can erase more easily. The young child has a tendency to draw with a heavy hand making erasing difficult, therefore becoming discouraged at their messy page.

After a good amount of time has been spent freely drawing, begin to talk about your surroundings, putting down notations in your journal. What is the temperature? Today it was hot and muggy. Is it quiet? We could hear alot of traffic. What color are the leaves? Some were brown and crunchy. Some were deep green and leathery. What color are the veins? Is it soft? Where are you? Today we were at school, but you can take them for a walk in your neighborhood as well as your back yard or the beach. Are you with any particular friends? We had alot of friends today. And adjectives! Think of strong words together to describe the world around them putting them in their nature journal.

These books will inspire.

Any of Clare Walker Leslie's books are great.

Have fun exploring and drawing together!

Hamlet Helps

Here are a couple of sites to help with your study of Hamlet.

This is a cartoon/caption overview of the whole play. Reading this will help you understand and remember the important events of this story.

Here is the BBC's 60 Second overview of Hamlet.

Enjoy the Bard!!

Genghis Khan Field Trip

School is officially in! A parent's meeting last night, and our first field trip this morning!

At the Tech Museum in San Jose we saw some interesting things. Some of us were particularly fascinated with the fact that since they fought in their summer, and mostly stayed in their gers (tents) during their winter months, they spent hours upon hours putting great detail and artistic handwork into the many things they made:

And some of our everyday things originated from Genghis Khan.

And we had fun, of course:

See you soon!

Saying Yes Means Saying No

by Mary Anne Lutz

It is something that we all intuitively know, but we often refuse to accept. We want it all, but we can’t have it all. If we choose to live in a certain house, we say no to all the others. If we marry a certain person, we say no to everyone else. Maybe that is why making a decision is hard for many people. It is what made it hard to take the step of beginning to homeschool. It would have been easy if the kids were not happy in school, if they were not learning, if they had no friends. For us, none of those things were true.

We had been in a good Christian school, and after that, a good public school. In fact, while it was not all I would have wanted, in many ways I loved it. Even spiritually, there were many good things. We were able to start release time religious education. We picked up the enrolled students and they had an hour Bible class during school hours. I was invited to give the full Christian Easter and Christmas story to the class. And we have friends that we still love from those days. So it was hard to realize that if I said yes to investing more in my children’s lives, I would have to say no to these things. Saying yes to homeschooling meant saying no to all of those things, good and bad, that come with school. My involvement with those people and events would be altered or ended.

It is not just about how we educate. It is a choice that determines our social circle in many ways. We live on a different schedule, and we will associate with those who live similarly. For me, this came at a time when all my friends were cheering their new freedom. Let’s do lunch! Come over and sew! Let’s go to the gym…..These are things that I was saying no to. It was an adjustment , but one that I embraced wholeheartedly. It was an exciting time, and in saying yes to this new way of life, God was, and still is, faithful to direct and provide. He is like that! We don’t need to fear. But we do need encouragement!

In your choice to homeschool, you have said no to many other things. Maybe you even grieve some of that loss. We have all been there. If not in homeschooling, in some other life choice. Every person needs to learn that yes means no. But, we also need to understand that teaching our children is a wonderful, blessed thing to do with our lives. God brings new people, new opportunities to learn and serve. Embrace what you are doing passionately! Don’t look with envy at others who have chosen a different path. They have their own trials, just as we do. Nothing is perfect, but it is good!

Hello. My name is Mary Anne and I am a Homeschooler.

To those of you who know me, this may seem obvious. Sometimes we don’t see ourselves as clearly as others may see us. I have homeschooled for 27 years. But, hey, don’t expect too much of me-I was NOT homeschooled and I never finished college. You see, I finally realized that this was not just a task that I do, it is something that I am. My identity and commitment are tied up in this whole thing. I never intended this to be the case. When I started this journey, I just wanted to enjoy my children, learn with them and give them a good education. I never stopped. After about 5 years, I did stop reevaluating whether they should go back to school, whether they were being short-changed, would they turn out o.k. I loved what I was doing, and they were happy, growing and thriving.

It all happened gradually….but somewhere along the way I became committed to children outside my family, to good education in general, to encouraging others. I knew what I was, when I was at a homeschool day at Monterey Bay Aquarium. All around me were all manner of homeschoolers-hippie looking, uniformed and disciplined, long-skirted, cool and geeky, rich and poor. And I identified with all of them. Sometimes, I have “epiphanies”, and this was just that. I thought “these are my people”. I’m not kidding! I cared about them, I knew them, I felt at home with them. I knew that my life was tied up with homeschoolers, and all that concerns them, for good or bad.

So what does that mean to me in regards to CFT? It means that I really want to help you and your children in any way I can, whether it is just this year, or for many years. We have all chosen to be in this endeavor together for our particular reasons and purposes. Over the next few blog entries, I hope to share with you why I am committed to the work of CFT, and the kind of education and environment that it helps to provide for our children. I hope that as I share my thoughts on this, it will help you to know me better, and in some way encourage you in this journey.
So while some may not want to do so, and may denigrate those who do, I am happy to call myself a homeschooler!

What is CFT?

Covenant Family Tutorial is a Christ-centered classical educational support program established to enhance, augment and encourage the work of Christian homeschooling families. We understand well that there are many different educational routes that your family can take, and we believe that our distinctives as an organization: being consciously Christ-centered, decidedly classical, and home-education oriented, warrant careful consideration as you make educational decisions for your family.

CFT began in 2001 with a small group of homeschool students, grades 1-8, and a team of several teachers. Out founding director, Leah Lutz, left full-time day school teaching to start this program focused on the needs of the local home schooling community. In an effort to meet the needs of the families God brought us, we started with our weekly full day class program, offering group learning experiences, curriculum planning and weekly subject guidance in several key subjects. This weekly class remains the heart of our organization today.

All that CFT does is first and foremost defined by our commitment to being Christ-centered in all we do. We aim to equip students to know, love, and practice that which is true, good and beautiful as they live purposefully and intelligently in the service of God and man. Without a doubt, this aim is the center of our calling to work with families and students. We work and pray to provide a clear model of Biblical Christian discipleship through our tutorial staff, who themselves are committed to our purposes and statement of faith. Our statement of faith is deliberately limited to the broad arena of Biblical Christian doctrine, which is considered to be central to all orthodox Christian churches, and which sets Christianity apart from all other faiths. Therefore, we subscribe to the great historic creeds and confessions---including the Nicene, the Apostles, and the Athanasian- as they have been elaborated through the ages by the synods of the church. To carefully establish the parameters of doctrinal teaching in CFT classes and to maintain our nondenominational status, we will adhere to the standards of historic orthodoxy in all essentials but to Biblical diversity in all peripherals. As the staff plans, prepares, and presents each class, we strives to teach all subjects in the curriculum as parts of an integrated whole with Jesus Christ, as portrayed in the Christian Scriptures, at the center.

With our commitment to Christian education, we are also committed to the methodology of the Classical educational model, known as the liberal arts education. A liberal arts education includes the trivium and quadrivium. Our current efforts and focus are on the application of the trivium- grammar, logic, and rhetoric in all subjects. Throughout each year of our kindergarten to high school classes, we incorporate grammar as we teach the fundamental rules and parts of each subject. These fundamentals are important in every stage of learning as they provide the necessary pieces for all future knowledge. Each class also moves to carefully consider and contemplate the ordered relationship of the rules and parts of each subject, and this is the logic arm of the trivium. We see the importance of logic in every stage of learning, when we understand logic to be an emphasis on sound reasoning. The final arm of the trivium is rhetoric,the “art of the fitting expression.” This is what brings the grammar and logic of each subject together as students learn to effectively and clearly communicate the things they have learned and considered.

The third important element that defines our organization is our commitment to home education. While it is very important for our communities to have strong Christian and classical schools, we are not a school, and we do not intend to develop into one. We are decidedly a resource and aid for parents who choose to take on the primary responsibility to teach their children. Even in our weekly classes, it is neither our intent nor desire to assume the primary teaching role of the parent. Our desire is to support and encourage parents in their role as the educators of their children. We believe that home education provides unique benefits, and in combination with this, our organization provides, among many things, a place for Christian fellowship and friendship, a venue for community discussion and study, an extra measure of accountability, and motivation to stay the course. With this underlying philosophy of education, we seek to provide parents with tools to more effectively fulfill their role as educators. Our goal is to support, not supplant, the role of the parents.

We have no doubt of the great need for supporting families in their pursuit of a Christian, classical, home education. Over almost ten years of service to the Santa Cruz community, some of the specific offerings have varied, but our core focus remains the same- we prayerfully continue in our calling to enhance, augment and encourage the work of Christian, classical homeschooling families.