A Full Life: The Works of Charlotte Mason

Subject. Cooking.

Division: Handicrafts.    Class IV.     Age: 16 1/2.    Time. 45 minutes.

OBJECTS.

1. To teach the children to make little cakes.
2. To show them that cooking must have method in it.
3. To give them opportunity of thinking for themselves why certain things should be done.
4. To show them how they can alter a recipe to make it richer or plainer.
5. To interest them in cooking.

LESSON

Step 1. Show the girls how to manage the stove for cooking.
Step 2. Show them all the utensils to be used, and let them arrange them on the table.
Step 3. Let them write out the recipe from dictation.
Step 4. Let them grease the tins first of all with melted butter. Then let them each weigh out the ingredients on pieces of kitchen paper, and let them work independently of each other, the teacher also doing the same thing, so that the pupils may be able to see how to set to work without having their own work interfered with. During the process ask them why certain things should be done––for instance, why baking powder should be used, why the patty-pans should be greased. Tell them that if they wished to make the cakes plainer they could use milk instead of eggs, or if richer, they could add raisins and currants and spice. When the mixture is sufficiently beaten and put into the patty-pans, let the girls put them into the oven.
Step 5. While the buns are cooking (they take about ten minutes), let the children and teacher wash up the things they have been using and put them away.
Step 6. Let the children see for themselves if the cakes are done; they should be a light brown. Then let them place them on a sieve to cool, and then arrange them on plates for the table.

Subject: Leather-work (Embossed).

Group: Handicrafts.    Class IV.    Age: 16 1/2.    Time: 40 minutes.

OBJECTS.

1. To cultivate the artistic feeling in the pupils.
2. To train them in neatness and in manual dexterity.
3. To give training to the eye.
4- To introduce them to a new handicraft.
5. To work, as far as possible in the time, the top of a penwiper.

LESSON.

Step 1. Show the pupils a shaded drawing of the design, also a partly finished penwiper top, with the same design on it. When they have compared the two, they will see that the effect of light and shade is obtained in the leather by raising the light parts and pressing back the dark ones.
Step 2. Let the pupils trace the design on the leather with a pointer. Remove the tracing-paper and accentuate the lines with a pointer. (This is best done with a wheel in a large design.)
Step 3. Damp the leather and with a moulder press the background away from the outline of the design, also the dark parts under the folds at the top of the petals and round the centre. From behind, raise up the light parts with a moulder, and fill the holes thus made with a mixture of sawdust and meal, wet enough to make a kind of rough thick paste. Press away the dark parts again, and make any ornamental lines, etc., while the stuffing is wet, as it soon dries very hard. For this reason a very little must be stuffed at once; in this design, about one petal at a time.
Step 4. Let the pupils punch their background or not as they prefer.
Work on my own half-finished piece of leather to avoid touching the pupils’ work.

Subject: Design.

Division: Art.    Class IV.   Average age: 16 1/2.    Time: 40 minutes.

OBJECTS.

1. To give the girls an idea of how to fill a space decoratively, basing the design on a given plant.
2. To show them that good ornament is taken from nature, but a mere copy of nature to decorate an object is not necessarily ornamental.
3. To give them an appreciation of good ornament and help them to see what is bad.
4. To draw out their originality by letting them make designs for themselves.
5. If possible, to give them a taste for designing by giving them some ideas as to its use.LESSON.

Step 1. Ask the girls what is meant by a design.
Step 2. After getting from them as much as possible, explain to them that a design is not a mere copy from nature, although it should be true to nature; make them see this by simply copying a plant in a required space to be designed (let this space be for a book cover). It will look meaningless and uninteresting, and does not fill the space, therefore it will not be ornamental. Then show the girls that a design requires thought and invention in arranging it to ornament the object. In the case of the book cover the flower must be designed to fill the space in some orderly pattern, and should be massed in good proportion. Give a few examples of this by illustrations on the board, and show them a book with a design upon it.
Step 3. Point out to them that the most beautiful designs and those that have had the most thought spent upon them are the most simple. Show examples of this in Greek Ornament––Greek Honeysuckle, Egg and Dart Moulding.
Step 4. Tell the pupils that you wish them to make a design for a linen book cover, 7 in. by 5 in., and if they have not time to finish to go on with it at home; if they like to carry the design out practically, to transfer it to linen and work it.
Step 5. Show the girls the flower from which they are to take their design, and point out its characteristics––the general growth of the plant, the curves which it makes, the form of the flower and leaves, and the way the leaves are joined to the central stem; these characteristics should not be lost sight of, but be made use of in giving character to the design, and treated as simply as possible.
Step 6. Let them begin their designs first of all by construction lines, and then clothe them with flowers and leaves, seeing that the masses are in good proportion. If time permits the design could be tinted in two colours, one for the background representing the linen, and the other for the pattern upon it.
Step 7. Suggest to them different ways in which they can make use of design in making simple patterns for their handicrafts, such as leather-work, wood-carving, and brass-work.

Subject: Fra Angelico.

Group: Art.    Class IV.    Average age: 16 1/2.     Time: 30 minutes.

OBJECTS.

1. To show reproductions of some of Fra Angelico’s pictures.
2. By means of them, to point out such distinguishing features as will enable my pupils to recognise Fra Angelico’s work wherever they may see it.
3. To show in what degree his work holds a place in high art.

LESSON.

Step 1. Give a short sketch of the life of Fra Angelico.
Step 2. Allow time for my pupils to look at the pictures provided, namely, various reproductions of ‘Christ in Glory,’ ‘Saints in Paradise,’ ‘Angels,’ ‘Christ as Pilgrim,’ ‘Annunciation,’ ‘Crucifixion,’ ‘Noli me tangere,’ ‘Descent from the Cross,’ ‘Transfiguration.’Step 3. To notice what strikes us most in Fra Angelico’s work––the exquisite jewel-like finish; the pure open skies and unpretending clouds; the winding and abundant landscapes; the angels; the touches of white light; the delicacy and grace of form; the colouring; the peace.

Step 4. If high art is to be seen ‘in the selection of a subject and its treatment, and the expression of the thoughts of the persons represented,’ how far does Fra Angelico come up to this standard?
He unites perfect unison of expression with full exertion of pictorial power. This will be illustrated by further reference to the pictures, and by reading some passages from Modern Painters.

Step 5. Allow my pupils time to look again at the pictures, summarising meanwhile by a few questions.

A PICTURE TALK.

Group: Art.   Class III.   Age: 13.    Time: 25 minutes.

  OBJECTS.

1. To give the girls some idea of composition, based on the work of the artist Jean Francois Millet.
2. To inspire them with a desire to study the works of other artists, with a similar object in view.
3. To help them with their original illustrations, by giving them ideas, carried out in Millet’s work, as to simplicity of treatment, breadth of tone, and use of lines.

MATERIALS NEEDED.

See that the girls are provided with paint-boxes, brushes, water, pencils, rulers, india-rubber, and paper.
Photographs of some of Millet’s pictures.
A picture-book by R. Caldecott.

LESSON.

Step 1. Introduce the subject by talking with the children about their original illustrations. Tell them how our great artists have drawn ideas and inspiration from the work of other artists; have studied their pictures, copied them, and tried to get at the spirit of them.Tell them that to-day we are going to study some of the pictures of the great French artist, Millet, some of whose works Mr Yates has drawn for us on the walls of our Millet Room, considering them to be models of true art.

Step 2. Tell the children a little about the life of Millet (giving them one or two pictures to look at meanwhile); give only a brief sketch, so that they will feel that he is not a stranger to them. Just talk to them a little about his early childhood, how he worked in the fields; how he had two great books––the Book of Nature and the Bible, from which he drew much inspiration; how later on he went to Paris and studied the pictures of great artists, Michael Angelo among them.

Step 3. Show the pictures to the girls, let them look well at them, and then draw from them their ideas as to the beauty and simplicity of the composition; call attention to the breadth of tone, and the dignity of the lines. Help them, sketching when necessary. to reduce a picture to its most simple form; half-closing their eyes to shut out detail, help them to get an idea of the masses of tone, etc.

Step 4. Let the children reproduce a detail of one of the pictures, working in water-colour with monochrome and making their washes simple and flat, reducing the tones to two or three.

Slep 5. Suggest to them to study the works of other artists in a similar way, and show them how the books of R. Caldecott will help them in making their figures look as if they were moving.

Subject: Astronomy.

Group: Science.    Class IV.   Age: 16     Time: 30 minutes.

OBJECTS.

1. To interest the pupils in studying the heavens for themselves.
2. To show where the planets may be looked for and how they may be recognised.
3. To help the pupils to apply their theoretical knowledge of the planets to explain the movements they can observe with the naked eye.
4. To exercise the reasoning powers.

LESSON.

Step 1. Get the pupils to describe the changes to be seen in the sky at night, and, excluding the apparent motion caused by the earth’s rotation, find out whether they have noticed and contrasted the constellations of fixt:d stars and the planets (wanderers).Let the pupils tell which of the planets are visible to the naked eye, and ask whether they have noticed when and where are to be seen, at the present date, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars, which are in Capricorn us, Sagittarius, and Leo, respectively.

Step 2. Draw from the pupils, if possible, the marks by which planets can be distinguished from stars .
     (a) Their steady light.
     (b) Size (in the case of Venus and Jupiter).
     (c) Colour (in the case of Mars).
     (d) Position (relatively to known constellations).
     (e) Motion (noticeable after successive observations).

Step 3. To enlarge on Point (d), let the pupils name the planets whose orbits are within that of the earth and those whose orbits are outside ours. By the help of a diagram (blackboard) of the solar system, get them to infer, from the nearness to the sun of Venus and Mercury, that these planets are never visible at midnight, but only just before sunrise and after sunset.

Step 4. To appreciate Points (d) and (e), get the pupils to recognise the advantage of knowing the constellations by sight. Show Philip’s Planisphere, and refer to the Zodiac, showing that, besides being the sun’s apparent path, this is the region in which to seek the planets.

Let the pupils find the portion of the heavens visible at 6 p.m. to-day, and indicate, both in the heavens and with respect to our landscape, the positions of Jupiter and Saturn. Also show how Mars may be looked for in the south, too, about 6 o’clock in the morning.

Step 5. To enlarge on Point (e), show a diagram of the path of Venus among the constellations in 1868 (Lockyer’s Elementary Lessons in Astronomy, p. 183), and get the pupils to notice how large a distance she travelled in one month, in order to induce them to make personal observations. Prepare them to see the planets sometimes move backwards and sometimes remain stationary. Explain this by letting one of the girls move round the table, while the other watches how, with respect to her background, she appears to move first from left to right, then to remain stationary, then to move from right to left, and again to remain stationary. The moving girl, observing the other with respect to her background, notices the same phenomena.

Then show the diagram in Lockyer, which illustrates these facts, p. 178, and also another in Reid’s Elements of Astronomy, p. 137, which shows the apparent motion of one planet viewed from another in motion.