It’s here!

Epi Kardia’s brand new British Literature course is now available! This seismic 113 page high school curriculum incorporates the best of British Literature, with a special emphasis on the Victorian Age.  The classic works utilized in this curriculum include:

–Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney (epic poetry)

–Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare (historical play)

–A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (short story)

–The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (short stories)

–Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (novel)

–Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (novel)

–Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (novel)

–Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (novel)

–The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (play)

–Selected poetry printed in the curriculum appendices.

As well as many of the traditional elements of literature such as theme, characterization, plot, irony, symbolism and poetic style, this course emphasizes excellent essay writing skills, literature analysis and the discovery of the unique characteristics of British writing through the study of exceptional models, allowing British Literature: a Study of British Writers to serve as an excellent precursor to further college level studies.  Written assignments and projects employing non-traditional learning modes engage students and help them encounter these works and their authors, as well as the time period during which they lived.

Features of Epi Kardia’s High School Courses

As is true of all Epi Kardia high school courses:

• Assignments are written directly to students, with special sections and appendices written for the benefit of the teacher.

• Evaluation tips and individual grading rubrics for all major assignments are included, allowing you to have full confidence both in communicating to your student what is expected and in fairly evaluating course work.

• This course may be utilized at either college preparatory or honors level.

We recommend that your student be familiar with the common essays encountered in high school writing before taking this course.  If your student has never taken a high school composition class, we recommend Epi Kardia’s Essay Styles for High School, which may be taken concurrently with this course.

Special Price on all Orders Containing British Lit!

We are so excited about British Literature: a Study of British Writers, we would like to offer you 20% off your ENTIRE order if it includes the purchase of British Literature.  For one week only, from 9/24/09 to 10/1/09, you may take advantage of this special offer when ordering from Epi Kardia’s online catalog. Remember, British Literature has to be included in your purchase.  Note: After you place the order and BEFORE your credit card is charged, we will manually reduce your order by 20%.

Please feel free to share this with anyone you feel would benefit.

Coming soon:  a pre-announcement of two more Epi Kardia literature based high school classes:  American History I (from Early Colonies through the Civil War) and American History II (Immigration through Modern).

In His Service,

Using Habits in Personal Training

The importance of good habits is an often repeated refrain with Charlotte Mason, who believed whole-heartedly that parents were  to instill good habits in their children from early childhood.

“the habits of the child produce the character of the man . . .every day, every hour, the parents are either passively or actively forming those habits in their children upon which, more than upon anything else, future character and conduct depend.”

First of all, Ms. Mason thought children were to be raised with the idea that they are not their own.  In other words, children, just as their

parents, hold their lives in a sacred trust from the Creator.  They were created for God’s purposes, and it is their job to develop  healthy bodies and minds in order to be ready to fulfill that special purpose for which they were created.  In other words, children are to be taught from the beginning that they are living under a greater Authority than themselves. What a contrast to the child-centered culture in which we live!

One of the many byproducts of good habits is that they make behavior automatic.  If you regularly perform a certain task, such as getting up and immediately making your bed, over and over again, it becomes automatic.  If you get up and do it ten times, you probably still are thinking about it every morning. But if you do it one hundred times, or a thousand times, you do it ‘on automatic pilot’  without thinking about it at all.  It is a simple task that takes absolutely no thought and not much more effort.  However, if it is not a habit, one has to decide every day to do it. Thoughts like this creep in: Do I feel like doing it?  Do I have time to do it?  If I don’t do it, maybe my mom will do it for me.  Or, my personal favorite, I will come back later and do it, I promise.  

Carrying one’s own dishes to the kitchen counter, putting away ones’ own clothes, shoes, toys, etc., brushing one’s teeth after eating, feeding a pet, and making a bed can all be accomplished by the youngest of children with loving, consistent training beginning well before they are ’school-aged.’

Without this training,  we would be constantly struggling with our children and there would be no time left to get anything done, let alone schoolwork, with us fussing and/or following our children around all the time enforcing the completion of these relentless tasks. A harmonious household was Charlotte Mason’s goal for families, and this can not be the case without constant, reliable training of good habits.

Charlotte Mason’s Suggested Physical Habits

• Self-Restraint:  using one’s time wisely and  productively rather than being lazy or self-indulgent

• Self-Control: Staying focused and on task, rather than being upset by minor annoyances.  Cultivating a tolerant, pleasant, patient attitude rather than being quick to whine or complain when conditions aren’t exactly as we would like them.

• Self-Discipline:  Teaching children to be consistently clean, neat and orderly, no matter where they are—at home, at a friend’s or at Grandma’s.

• Alertness: Teaching children to actively seek ways to serve others.  Opening doors, carrying something for mother or a younger sibling, completing a task that needs to be done rather than waiting for someone else to do it, or helping Dad with something without being asked are all benefits of teaching your child to be alert.

• Fortitude:  Given the right inspiration, most children’s natural heroic tendencies become activated and can produce an astounding amount of perseverance and tenacity.  Reading about the physical heroism of the Spartans or the knight’s Code of Chivalry can help promote this idea in your young ones.

• Service:  This is another habit that is promoted by delightful examples of selfless service in excellent children’s literature such as The Box-Car Children. Boxcar. series for younger elementary or Amos Fortune, Free Man (Newbery Library, Puffin), for older elementary children.

• Courage: Again, by reading fine literature as well as emulating examples around them, children learn courage, as opposed to recklessness.

• Caution:  Another word for discernment, Ms. Mason describes caution as preserving our health and ability to serve God and others by acting thoughtfully rather than hastily and possibly harming ourselves or perhaps our siblings or friends.
  

• Purity: The last of the physical habits, the need for purity is best summed up by  1 Corinthians 6:19: Do you not know that your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit, Whom you have received from God?  Ms. Mason believed that if children are raised with this concept when they are young, they will have a reverence for their body that will be supported by their actions.

As parents, we are wise when we realize the value of instilling these habits into our children beginning at an early age.  Our daily, often hour by hour training using inspiring examples from our literature and stories as well as gentle, loving correction will produce children who are ready and able to manage their own bodies and accept the responsibilities laid upon them by their parents as they continue to grow and mature.

Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.  Galatians 6:9

Let us encourage one another in our high calling,

Next:  Forming Intellectual Habits

Dana and I had the privilege of speaking with a wonderful group of women last night in Summerville, South Carolina. The Summerville LCHEA group invited us to visit and allowed me to speak about our curriculum and graphic organizers, primarily lapbooks. They were so encouraging and excited about Epi Kardia. It really makes all of the hard work seem worthwhile when you get to spend time with homeschool moms who are truly encouraging and love the Lord! Congratulations to Wendy Graham, who won our children’s book drawing. A very special thanks to Debra and Elaine, the leaders of the group, for doing an awesome job. You can tell that there’s a lot going on there and God is in the midst of all of it.

As I was working on gathering materials to bring with us to share with the other homeschool moms, I began exploring the idea of a digital graphic organizer. With a 15 year old son, traditional lapbooks seem childish even though they are still a great way to help him get his thoughts organized, demonstrate what he’s learned and provide me with an assignment for assessment. As well, I love to scrapbook but find less and less time to do so in the traditional way, so I have recently been exploring the idea of using digital scrapbooking. While exploring these options online, I came across a free software that you can download or they will send you a CD if you have downloading issues. This is complete software, not a trial or limited use version. After playing with it for about 15 minutes (it’s very user friendly), I realized that you could actually use this type of software with your kids to create lapbooks and other graphic organizers. I quickly created a vocabulary page and even with looking up definitions online, it only took me about 15 minutes. The only drawback I could find was that the pages are not 8.5 x 11 so printing them is awkward. I moved all of the material up to one section of the page (top right corner if you try this yourself) and I was able to print it. This type of software would be wonderful for creating a lapbook and mailing to grandparents, other family members and friends. You could also upload it on your family’s blog or website. If you’d like to try out the software yourself, simply go to www.scrapbookflair.com to download it. Let us know how you like it and if you come up with any creative ways to use it, be sure to share your ideas! If you know any other free or reasonably priced software out there that might be helpful when creating graphic organizers, please comment and share that information with our community of readers.

To all of those sweet families in Summerville and to your family, too, may God’s blessings shower over your household this school year!

In Him,