Dear parent of a non-homeschooled child,
So, you have been reading about Charlotte Mason and are very interested, but don't feel prepared or ready at this time to make the plunge into homeschooling. Perhaps homeschooling seems impossible-- unreachable. Or perhaps homeschooling is not something you truly desire to do. Perhaps something in those Charlotte Mason quotes that keep popping up here and there on your twitter feed is calling to you and you want to do something about it, and yet you are happy to send your kids to school!
Friends, don't give up on her yet-- there is plenty of wisdom here to go around, and almost all of it can be used to give your children a successful start in life if you just begin to
think like a home educator.
You see, homeschoolers, especially Charlotte Mason families, cannot really compartmentalize "school" and "home"-- for us they are one. Remember the first thing you read about her philosophy that resonated with you?
"Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life."
So if you begin to think in these terms, you can provide your child with a beautiful Charlotte Mason-style education, and still retain those elements which you feel constrained to (or which work for your family- I'm certainly not one to say that homeschool is the only way!) This realization gave me so much hope, because my husband and I believe strongly that our "right" to homeschool our children is already under attack in this quickly disintegrating "free" country. As American politics progress, education usually comes under the lens, and it used to cause a terrible dread in me. Having thought out over and over which actions I might be inclined to take should public schooling become mandatory, I have a CMish plan of attack, and so I would like to share it with you today in the hopes that it might create in you a sense of peace that this educational idea is available to you, even if your kids are not schooled at home. Certainly, some of the methods will fall by the wayside, but the vision can continue, and with a plan and some purpose--- all will be well.
First: understand the vision. Charlotte hoped to obtain a rich liberal education for ALL. As parents, especially as Catholic parents, we understand that it is our duty as married persons both to welcome children as they come to us and to educate those children-- ALL children-- who come under our care. Sit on that for a while and the implications of it will shed fresh light in your daily struggles, it did mine. It should also show you the duty you have in your neighborhoods and community-- a duty to open up pathways towards the liberal arts for all people... even the little people who come to your door or who run through your lawn on the way to the school bus. Big people too. Who can you help educate today? How can you make an education available to the people you encounter?
Next, begin in infancy. During pregnancy, even. Buy yourself a good copy of Charlotte Mason's works on education and sit down every day to peruse them, highlighter in hand. Become familiar with Charlotte-- as with an old friend. Then, you will be ready to start home educating your child.
Begin with a foundation of good habits. Never, never, never stray from these habits.
Give your child plenty of fresh air and good, healthy food. Give your child good habits and teach him especially, in the beginning, to pay attention, to obey, and to tell the truth at all times.
When your child is still an infant, give him clean, breathable, cotton clothing and bedding. Air out his room. Take him often outdoors. (You might want to take a tip from the Scandinavians, here, who let their well-covered babies
nap outdoors.)
Redecorate his room and make it clean and simple... give him a few beautiful things and teach him to take care of them.
Give him good food. Breastmilk, at first, if you can, and then pureed vegetables and fruits.
Create a culture of prayer, Bible reading, and Sabbath keeping in your home. Become accustomed to order and neatness and politeness. Give your child jobs, and expect him to learn them. Patiently enlist his will to do right.
Teach your child, even your infant, to play with a toy a little longer than he is inclined. Cultivate the habit of attention. Read, read, read to your child, but only when he is interested. Let him play, freely and with no direction from you. Give him ample time with his imagination.
Teach him to help you around the house, using real objects rather than plastic toys. Speak to your child, using no form of baby talk, but only polite and kind and carefully chosen words.
Unclutter your home, and get rid of everything but THE BEST -- nourish his mind with only the most beautiful books... the ones with the best pictures and the most literary quality. Nourish his imagination and sense of history and geography. Put beautiful paintings on the walls. Teach him to become friends with the animals around your home and the plants and insects in the garden.
Nourish his body with healthy, good food and water.
Bring your child to church, and cultivate devotion and duty in him. Do not put him in the nursery.
Love your child, and respect his person. Enlist his will, and train it, rather than smashing it. Do not nag him, but help him to remind himself. Use gentle words with him unless the situation calls for something stronger. Express disappointment, not anger. Allow natural consequences to take hold and point them out gently.
As your child nears school-age, and begins to show an interest in letters, words, and numbers, teach them these three things as if it were a game-- sing songy alphabets, fingers tracing letters in the sand, abacus counting games.
Laugh often.
At six, and not before, tell your child he is ready for formal lessons now. Teach him the alphabet, and then phonics and sight words simultaneously (more on that in other posts or scout the web for info about how CM taught reading.) Create in him the habit of perfect execution--- give him short lessons but ensure that he completes what he can complete perfectly.
If you must at this point send him to school, do so knowing you have provided a wonderful foundation for him.
Continue these habits throughout his education. Turn off the TV and video games. Read him excellent books. Since his "school education" will be taken care of for you, focus on the rich array of things he won't receive in school. Make sure that he is weekly exposed to picture study, music study, and shakespeare and plutarch.
Take him on nature study walks. Daily.
Read him poetry every day.
Make him a copybook and teach him to do beautiful copywork. Give him dictations. Make him a book of Centuries and together place entries in it as his schooling progresses. Read him living books relating to the course content of his history lessons, and science lessons. Give him a nature journal and set him loose in beautiful places. Take hikes together and learn the names of birds and stars.
Read him the Bible, and together, memorize scripture and the catechism.
Help him to find truth and beauty in all that is around him-- to be good, and to do good. At every opportunity remove dry facts from him and allow him instead to immerse himself in a subject, especially through hands-on experience or through excellent reading.
Keep him busy with good, hard work but give him ample free time as well. Teach him important lifeskills and model good citizenship.
Make sure he learns to use his voice, to play an instrument, and to paint or sculpt.
Make sure he learns to recite poetry, to read beautifully, to speak and understand French, Latin and Greek.
Give him a strong character building program (scouting style programs are wonderful for this!) and a moral foundation. Place before him heroes he can imitate who have done well before him.
These things are accessible to you as a non-homeschooling parent and will make all the difference in the life of your child.
As you begin to implement these changes, one at a time, notice how the atmosphere in the home begins to change. Notice how disciplined you are becoming. And yet-- notice how much more alive everything feels.
Now you're there-- that place between ideas and activities, between thinking and doing-- suspended, and ready for anything.
"Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life."
Now you, you also, are a home educator.
I'm praying for you,
Barbie
