Day 29 By the Way

Illustration by Marina Pavlikovskaya

“…(mother/teacher) will find a hundred opportunities to teach geography by the way: a duck-pond is a lake or an inland sea; any brooklet will serve to illustrate the great rivers of the world; a hillock grows into a mountain––an Alpine system; a hazel-copse suggests the mighty forests of the Amazon; a reedy swamp, the rice-fields of China; a meadow, the boundless prairies of the West; the pretty purple flowers of the common mallow is a text whereon to hang the cotton fields of the Southern States: indeed, the whole field of pictorial geography––maps may wait until by-and-by––may be covered in this way.”
                                                     
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“Field of Knowledge too circumscribed.––But it is possible that the child's marvelous power of obtaining knowledge by means of his senses may be undervalued; that the field may be too circumscribed; and that, during the first six or seven years in which he might have become intimately acquainted with the properties and history of every natural object within his reach, he has obtained, exact ideas, it is true––can distinguish a rhomboid from a pentagon, a primary from a secondary colour, has learned to see so truly that he can copy what he sees in folded paper or woven straw,––but this at the expense of much of that real knowledge of the external world which at no time of his life will he be so fitted to acquire. Therefore, while the exact nicely graduated training of the Kindergarten may be of value, the mother will endeavour to give it by the way, and will by no means let it stand for that wider training of the senses, to secure which for her children is a primary duty.”

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“Where there is avidity for any sort of knowledge, it comes from chance sources.”
 
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“Again, the taste for parties of pleasure, for what may be called organised amusement, is an ever-growing taste, and dislodges the habit of taking pleasure in the evening reading, the fireside games with the children, the home music, the chat with friendly neighbours, the thousand delights that home should afford. For

     ‘Pleasure is spread through the earth
     In stray gifts, to be claimed by whoever shall find;’

and not the least evil of incessant party-going and pleasure-seeking is, that it blinds people to the nature and and pleasure; pure and true pleasure is of impromptu occurrence, a stray gift, to be found not sought; it is just a thing to happen upon by the way.”
                 
                                                   *

                      “Expect nothing. Live frugally
                        On surprise.”  ~ Alice Walker
 
 
Examen:  How can I be more awake to the “thousand delights” of an ordinary day and lessons “by the way?”  How does it feel to rely on this education by gift?

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 ...(mother/teacher) will find: Charlotte Mason, Home Education, 1:72.
 Field of Knowledge: 1:179.
Where there is avidity:  Charlotte Mason, Formation of Character, 5:309.
 Again, the taste for: 5:252.
Expect nothing. Live: “Expect Nothing - Expect Nothing Poem by Alice Walker,”   Poem Hunter, January 13, 2003, 

​ Day 29 By the Way meditation/100 Days Copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025

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