"When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure."
--Peter Marshall

Art credit: The Oak by Edvard Munch

Someone in the Homeschooling group was just helping someone new to WEH and said this:

"Don’t worry. It can feel overwhelming, but it’s like being trampled by rose petals. Once you find your feet again it’s magical."

That just made me smile. I hope you feel like you are being trampled by rose petals and not run over by a bull dozer!

Art credit: The Roses of Heliogabalus by Alma-Tadema

Is anyone spending time with King Arthur and his Knights in the Age of Chivalry in this month's tour of England?

"Chivalry! – why, maiden, she is the nurse of pure and high affection – the stay of the oppressed, the redresser of grievances, the curb of the power of the tyrant – Nobility were but an empty name without her, and liberty finds the best protection in her lance and her sword."

--Sir Walter Scott in Ivanhoe

Art credit: Stitching the Standard by Edmund Leighton

"Wealth is health, a cheerful heart,
An ear that hears the robin's song,
A mind content, some treasured friend,
And fragrant memories lingering long.

Living is an inward art
All lasting wealth is in the heart.

--Alfred Grant Walton

Art credit: The Daisy by Johann Sperl

This is the result we are aiming for from applying the Pattern for Learning we are exploring:

"[Children] felt their own power, and the tediousness of the ordinary school-tone vanished like a ghost from my rooms. They wished--tried,--persevered,--succeeded: and they laughed.

"Their tone was not that of learners; it was the tone of unknown powers awakened from sleep; of a heart and mind exalted with the feeling of what these powers could and would lead them to do."

(from the writings of Pestalozzi)

Art credit: Mural of Heinrich Pestalozzi in Rapperswil

"The education of heroes shall be gymnastics for the body and music for the soul. Begin the education with music."
--Plato

Art credit: Big Brother Playing by Harriet Backer

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."

--Carl Sagan

Art credit: Der Schmetterlingsjager by Carl Spitzweg

A little bedtime story for you.

Many centuries ago, a ruler of Arabia gave a celebration in honor of the birth of a son. Friends came from far and near bringing gifts of gold and fine raiment. One young sage came with a peculiar gift.

Said he, "Each day of your son's life, from the time he can understand until he reaches manhood, I shall tell him stories that will make him both wise and good."

The storyteller did as he promised, and when this baby became a man and a ruler in his father's stead, he became famous throughout the East because of his wisdom and noble deeds. Then his teacher-storyteller wrote upon a scroll (which, it is said, can be seen among a collection of manuscripts at Budapest today): "It was because of the seed sown by the tales."

"The more of heroes children know, the more like heroes they will become."

--From Storytelling by Claudia Royal

Art credit: Arabic Madonna and Child by Albert Aublet

"The value of Nature Study should not be measured by the acquisition of knowledge, but rather by the love and the profound reverence for the design and the protecting care revealed in the works and sky by an all-wise Creator."

--Anna McGovern

Art credit: The Eel Gatherers by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot

"Thank God for His free and simple gifts . . . These are life's real treasures; in them any man, however poor, is rich."

--Arthur Hopkins

Art credit: Spring by Heinrich Vogeler