There are no breaks from education.

In keeping with AO's idea of "terms," I try to set up our year so that we break for a month during Advent, a month during Lent, and a month for Summer. Breaks are hard on me... mostly because my kids need some kind of routine. By the time break rolls around we are usually ready to stop formal schooling for a while and to focus on the things that matter in these seasons, but my biggest challenge is to keep my kids from going squirrely.... they just seem to thrive on routine.

Yesterday, I resolved to watch them closely to see what kinds of things I could have them focus on that weren't "academic," persay, but involved in their overall character building-- things like good habits. I was surprised by what I saw.

Even though we are "on Advent break" from schooling, and although I have placed zero academic pressure on them during this season, here are just a few things I noticed that the children did either on their own or by asking me to help them.

My oldest (7): Read Act I of Shakespeare's Macbeth with a commentary, wrote a page in her journal about it, recited last month's memory work in science, poetry, math, latin, and catechism, made up math word problems, sang a memorized hymn, named two birds she saw in our yard accurately and looked up a new one, and studied for, took, and passed a classical latin pronunciation exam. With absolutely no pushing from me other than encouragement to "finish what she had started doing" before she moved on. (habits training)

My second oldest (6): Read and copied the names of candy bars from Willy Wonka, regularly spoke to me in French, looked up two science questions about the nature of matter, did math word problems my oldest made up for him, and narrated a Bible story he had just read to me perfectly.

My second youngest (4): Begged to learn Latin, traced and copied letters and correctly pronounced them, identified the letters in her name in various places throughout the house, spoke French to me, correctly identified a bird in the backyard, told me a story she invented that was quite good, used vocabulary that shocked even me, and and used proper math and logic to get out of eating her lentils.

My youngest (1.5): Spoke French and English to me, sometimes in full sentences. Demonstrated an uncanny awareness of her surroundings. Counted to three on her fingers.(!) Laughed hysterically at a line from Macbeth when it was read to her, and then repeated it over and over again. ("By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes...")

My only conclusion can be this: "Education is a discipline, an atmosphere, and a life."
I never cease to be amazed at the depth of wisdom in Charlotte Mason.
If you keep this maxim in mind as you build family culture, not only does education become a lifestyle but your children grow to delight in learning... to thrive in, and create for themselves, an environment that challenges them to learn more and to think better.

Family integrated worship

I often hear mothers complain that it is impossible to get children to be quiet in church, or conversely, who believe it is possible but cry out in desperation when time and again they suffer through mass. I also hear many different solutions offered from well-meaning parents that include deep pressure massage, hugs, patiently waiting for childhood to pass, snacks, coloring books, a bag of quiet toys, and other distractions. I have even heard some people  recommend pinching them to get them to snap back to attention(!)

The solution that I have found was not easy to implement, but once I began, I did not stop. Committed, I struggled through about six months of constant frustration on my end as I adjusted to having my kids WITH me and not being able to focus on worship the way I had been accustomed. In the beginning, it was a great struggle, because it required that I remain completely collected and calm, that I address every infraction but seem to be immersed and busy in worship, that I allowed no peep to come from their lips and that every blessed moment of my time in Divine Liturgy be simultaneously engaged in adoration of God and the deep trenches of motherhood where fear and panic and desperation often lurk.

Along the way, little things convinced me that that keeping them with me was the right thing to do. Even before my return to the Church, I felt guilty putting them in children's church. I knew they were playing and coloring pictures and not in worship. I knew they weren't seeing me and their father worship and thus not gleaning the importance of it from us. Even when they went to children's church or the nursery guilt free---- I started to notice that they got sick. EVERY TIME. And the cycle was exhausting. One day, my husband decided we were going to attend a church that simply didn't HAVE a childen's nursery. I had a moment of panic, but also recognized the value of what I was being asked to undertake. Motivated by Charlotte Mason's motto for her students, I breathed in deep and said under my breath: I can, I am, I ought, and I will.It was time.

Determined to stick it out until it was DONE and they were trained, I endeavored to do the only three things I knew to do:

1. Expect them to behave. I knew they were capable, because I had been to churches where I had met children who behaved. I had seen neat rows of families with mother on one end and father on the other end and children who listened and were reverent and wore matching clothes with brushed hair. I had stared at those families with awe and wonder and a hushed sense of the sacred Presence while my own beasts wriggled and squealed and hollered and bit pews and worked on stealing the pencils and tearing apart the hymnals. I knew it COULD be done and I determined to expect that my little monkeys were just as capable as any other children. I also sat right in the front, to ensure that they could see and be a part of what was happening. Sitting in the front also puts the pressure on. People can see us.

2. Ignore their attempts to lure me into conversation and attention-giving during liturgy. Every attempt they made to talk to me was met with a swift "Shhhhh" and a redirection towards the front. I used the same theory I use at night with my babies: Don't turn on the light, don't make eye contact, no noise. Even trips to the bathroom were swift, unconversational, and non-interactive. Mass is only one hour long. It seemed to me that anyone-- even a toddler or a pregnant mother-- could forego water or snacks during that hour. No food. No drinks. No books. No toys. No games. Just Liturgy. That was the plan.

3. Address bad habits immediately. I didn't want my kids to drop things and make noise, and I knew that if they had things to hold... they inevitably WOULD because that's what kids do. So I didn't give them coloring books or snacks or toys. I didn't give them books or children's missals because I knew they would read them instead of paying attention. I explained my expectation, and I trained them in it at home whenever I had the opportunity to (for example, when we pray the liturgy of the hours together in the morning and at night.) If I saw that a child was particularly unruly I was not beyond taking them out, but when I took them out I made the experience as horrid and bland as possible. If perchance I was forced to take out an unruly one year old (that's the hardest age because they are still so young but also so loud) we would just stare at a wall for a few moments til they realized liturgy was more interesting. I didn't let them get down and run around, play, or run in the narthex. As soon as they were reasonably quiet again, we would return to our seat.

Our reasoning for the solution I determined to use is that we are a Charlotte Mason education family. CM believed wholeheartedly that kids could rise to the occasion when we expected more of them and treated them with respect. She was pro-parental authority (the parent sets the standard) but also pro-respect of the child as a person with rights and the capacity to do well.
She never manipulated, used love or fear, etc to motivate the child, but rather believed that parents should model good behavior themselves and train in good habits from the beginning-- and not allow bad habits to ever take place in the first place.
In other words, if we don't eat or draw in church, there is no reason a kid should, so from the beginning we expect and train the child to pay attention without using fear or love or bribes or manipulation as a tactic. They catch on very quickly---- and although I still have to take my one year old to the back from time to time, even she understands to lower her voice and sit still during the one hour we are at mass, and I am quite certain that if I never let her get in the habit of doing anything else it will stay that way.

Also, habits come by practice. Because we pray the liturgy of the hours as a family and they are also required to sit still and be attentive at that time, it isn't a foreign situation when we go to mass.

In the beginning, it worked pretty well, but there were still struggles, particularly when I was alone with the kids (my husband is often gone).
One day, my husband said to me, rather harshly, that though I was doing a good job, I was still enabling any bad behavior that came from them because I paid so much attention to it.
Calm redirection, he told me, was ALWAYS better than any reaction I was having.

Watching him with my children from the back while I rock a sleepy, loud, baby has sometimes been funny. I have seen the kids get to all sorts of shennanigans behind his back as he worships, but ultimately, they have been quiet, which is the main goal, and undistracting to all but ME, which is the other goal.

The hardest moment in my mothering came when I felt that I had finally arrived-- as per the above-- and that I could now rest in the peace of knowing that I had done a good job. In the car on the way home from mass one day I casually mentioned it to my husband and mentioned in a joking matter how glad I was for my quiet times of prayer at home when I could really HEAR God.
To my shock and surprise, he chastised me heavily for not paying attention during mass.

At first, I felt this was completely unfair--- I was supposed to keep everybody under control, excel at that AND find a way to listen??? But then I realized that he was more than able to do so.
I determined from that day to do even better, and though I haven't "arrived" yet I can say that I am now both able to keep our kids quiet and attentive AND am able to narrate the homily and say that I was able to pray during liturgy. It truly is a glorious level of peace we reach when we get to this stage in our motherhood.

I have strong feelings that this is a skill that REALLY helps children to grow both in confidence in themselves and in their relationship with Jesus. I also have strong feelings that it's an important skill to teach them because I am a firefighter's wife, and my kids have had to represent him by behaving well both at funerals and award ceremonies where misbehaving children are seen with much less empathy than the kids that act up during mass where people at least are thinking: "I'm glad they are there." Because we have insisted that they can, will, and ought to behave and pay attention during mass, they can represent their father in public events like that and truly give honor to the person being honored (in the case of Mass-- to Jesus!) and that makes my heart so happy.

I am praying for all of you who have not yet found the "perfect" solution to get them to pay attention, as it is such a valuable life skill. God reward all of you for your faithfulness to keep trying although it is -- as I well know--- a very, very difficult task.

Please do not think I am sitting here with my feet up and all the answers--- I too struggle when my younger children have decided to misbehave on any given day. But I do have peace, because I know what to do, and my intention in writing this is not to say that I am better than you or that my kids are better than your kids, but rather to share that peace and the means by which it came. As far as I'm concerned, all is grace. These ideas came from the example of holy mothers who have gone before and are the fruit of hours spent in tears in the bathroom holding an unruly child.

Incidentally, my mother in law still pulls out her organizer and writes notes in church and passes them around to people in the pews. She is in her sixties.

Train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6

On changing my major and naming a journey.

This is a bit of a personal blog, but I am feeling a bit... well.. bursting at the seams lately, so I just wanted to share what God has been doing in me. For years I have had this sort of blurry vision of how I believed God was calling me to minister to His people, both personally and as a family. I have always kind of hoped that I would end up a missionary in a foreign country. Or homesteading and teaching survivalism with my husband to families. Or running a little herboristerie (herbal shop) on the beach with a nurse friend where we could offer holistic, simple solutions to all of life's problems.... solutions like sin less and love more. 

First, I have been so conflicted-- because finding a balance between helping/ caring for my own family and finding/ caring for those I felt called to minister to (primarily other Christian women) has been quite challenging. Then finding ways to bring in income without feeling like I was taking money from those I wanted to serve most has been a real challenge.
Occasionally, I have found a good balance-- lately I've been home more often but making good headway in service to others by taking the time to help women who needed someone to walk them through switching over to a CM-style of homeschooling. It has been really enjoyable.

But  I have also been so confused.... wondering all the time what God could possibly be doing with me and preparing me for. I have been all over the place--- learning one trade, then another, moving from one place, then going to another, then right back where I started. What was God doing with me?? At first, I focused on that. But then I realized, I was being so selfish! God was preparing me for an ordinary life, for doing my duty, for simple things! Only in fully embracing that did I really begin to make an progress, spiritually or otherwise.

And yet even as I embraced that and rejected any form of "ministry" outside my own home, God has constantly brought people literally to my door in great spiritual need.
Out of a sense of need to DO SOMETHING about it, once and for all, and laboring under the idea that it would probably help my family, I undertook to return to college so that I could study psychology and maybe work for a parish and get paid for doing what I normally do.... talking people through their problems.

But at the same time this thing has kept bothering me: I don't want to wear a suit, to leave my home and children, to sit in an office, etc. I don't want to waste my life on discussion boards covering topics that I don't care in the least about just for a paper degree that cost me an arm or a leg. I want to keep doing what I'm doing. I want to be a wife, and a mom, and to do it well. I want to help other women and make an impact. I want to have a "profession" that helps my family AND helps other families... a job that is a ministry.  But how can I?

At the close of this semester, since I couldn't take any more college courses til the fall, I decided to work over the summer on my goal of continuing education in childbirth to stay updated as a doula. By a totally random turn of events, one of the courses I enrolled in thinking it was a doula training was actually a midwifery course. A midwife. Hmmm.

I'd met midwives, been served by them in childbirth and during well-woman visits. I'd worked with them at births.I have friends who ARE midwives, and  I'd even called some with questions about this or that herbal supplement. But what WERE they, really, ,and what did they really do?? What was I going to be studying besides how to catch babies??

I began to read, to research, and to talk to the midwives I know.

Suddenly, it was like I could hear the click, click, click of puzzle pieces coming together in my mind. MIDWIVES!! They were here in cities, in doctor's offices,  and along country roads and they were far away in countries with no running water, serving women everywhere they went. They were into herbs and birth and fertility awareness and marriage and counseling and motherhood. They were educators and they were committed. They were hidden in the background, working hard but hardly noticed. So hardly noticed that though I had gone to them all my life, I didn't even really know what they were! They were wise, wise women, always learning. Many of them had children of their own, whom they had raised. And they were discipling others, especially their own. Honestly, it felt like my brain exploded.

A MIDWIFE!

Before I could understand why it felt so right...like the path I'd been on all along.... I had to think a little bit about my own heart.

I am called to be a wife and mother.
NOTHING in my life had prepared me for wifehood and motherhood. Even when I was married, I never for one moment thought that I was accepting the kinds of struggles and difficulties all wives and mothers experience.  It has been hard. It has been painful. It has been a pruning experience. And yet it has been the single greatest and most glorious undertaking of my entire life. I have a burning vision for future generations of faithful sons and daughters, beginning with my own. In order to see that vision through, I am called to tremendous sacrifice: a career focused on my own family, submitted to my husband's leadership, and in a meek, and quiet manner, serving "in the background" primarily in my home.

I am called to be a Christian wife and mother.
What distinguishes me from the rest of the wives and moms out there? A deep commitment to honoring the ways of God. In my home, my husband leads, and I follow (on a good day.)  In my home, my children are homeschooled, and their vocation is to their studies, for now. In my home, I am to accept suffering with great courage and perseverance. In my home, I must live an authentically Christian life--a sacramental life. We do not use contraceptives, even though it is often hard to trust God. My husband and I regularly abstain from sex and pray together instead. We go to confession, we go to liturgy, we bring our kids, they sit alongside us. We train them up in the faith. Childbirth, and reliance on God, and not knowing what the future holds is a way of life for us. Not so for most women and for many Christians, who decide and determine when they will start and when they will stop having babies. But for those of us who trust in the Lord with ALL of our lives.... things are different. And I want to encourage that in others, and nurture it in myself by remembering the value of human life.

I am called to be a missionary.
Whether I'm here at home or in a foreign land, and I've been to many, there is always this tug on my heart: SERVE THESE PEOPLE. BRING JESUS TO THEM. My life has been a long series of funny turns of events in which I've had to rely completely on God, and I don't expect that to change anytime soon. Our call to missions is tangible-- we feel it inscribed in our hearts, and yet God has never made a way, despite our efforts, for us to "go." The larger our family gets, the less likely it seems we will ever "go," but strangely enough he is beginning to build in us this idea that wherever we are, THERE is our mission. And it has born fruit when we have been faithful to it.

I am called to help women.
Through this blog, and through my personal encounters with other women, my most fruitful times of ministry have been when deep in intimate dialogue with other women. Whether we are discussing faith formation, friendship, leadership, avenues of service, or faithful wifehood and motherhood, helping women has always been the area I have felt most useful. I never want to stop getting real with other women.

I am called to help women celebrate life.
Whether helping women through the decision to skip an abortion, to honor their husbands intstead of belittling them, teaching fertility awareness, serving alongside them as a doula during childbirth, or encouraging them to embrace the children they already have, I've always been grateful to be around women so that I can encourage them to choose life... and life abundant. There are voices for death all around us-- voices telling us to devalue our bodies, to be objectified, to objectify others, to murder our young. I want to advocate for life, all my life.

I am called to help women live simply and richly.
Having been raised in a very materialistic community, one of the greatest blessings I have learned in married life has been to embrace a simple, whole life. By eating natural foods and herbs, making my own beauty and medicine products, and learning the art of homesteading and bushcraft, of a life rooted in hard work and prayer,  I have found tremendous happiness. By enjoying the outdoors and "the simple things," I have seen so much improvement in my quality of life and in the satisfaction I have come to feel in just... being alive.

I am called to pray and to stay "in the background."
Nothing has been more evident in my life than the clear message God sends me over and over again that I am to PRAY, and pray hard.There was even a time when God completely removed my ability to GO to people who needed prayer, thus leaving me at home with nothing to do BUT pray, in the silence. Things haven't changed all that much since then, what with babies and fathers in law to watch over. And so I pray.

I am called to bring deliverance to people.
For the longest time I thought I was called to deliverance ministry-- to helping exorcists. Everything about this thought came about in random patterns I noticed in my personal life... the types of experiences I had and the types of people who I came into contact with or had an impact on. I met famous exorcists. I saw people delivered. Random possessed people often asked me for help. And I prayed, prayed, prayed. But despite all the apparent coincidences that pointed in that direction, in the secret places of my heart I knew that it was my pride and curiosity that called me to deliverance ministry, and not the Lord. This little thing is not insignificant, though-- because I have seen how active The Enemy is in promoting his culture of death all over the world. It is his domain, and his greatest work in the world. Because of that, amazingly, deliverance and healing often come through.... delivery! The willingness of women to accept who they are and what they-- should they be married-- are called to! The Bible says we women are saved through childbirth.... and I believe it. It is our strength against the devil's work.

I am called to counseling and discipleship.
There is a reason I selected first journalism, and then psychology as my major.... Something inside me comes to life when I am in a setting where two people are interacting. Both when I am being mentored or when I am mentoring someone, discipleship and catechesis flows through my veins. It's how I was raised up in the faith, and my greatest desire for the people around me. It is something I have seen bear fruit, but also something which has stretched me and forced me to rely on God alone. Again, this is an area which activated my pride quite a bit, and so an area I have had to step away from to re-evaluate. In midwifery, there is an aspect that cannot be more in tune with the vision I have received... first, because midwives are mentors to women and especially, ideally, to their own daughters, and second because midwives provide counsel to women in all walks of life, counsel in marriage and motherhood, and faith and in health.

I am called to be an educator.
I homeschool my children. I teach Bible Studies and lectures on home education.  I eat, sleep, and breathe booklists and methodology and lesson plans, and I regularly give classes and talks to people in my community. Speaking about various topics, about education in general, and passing out resources to make sure people ARE educated is something I cannot ever stop doing. It sets me on fire.

One thing I have often prayed is "Lord, make me meek and humble" (good luck!) and "Lord, help me to enlarge my husband's ministry."

As I reflect on the role of a midwife, I'm so moved to see that midwives truly "hide" in the midst of all the families they serve, primarily their own, in the background-- encouraging, leading by example.
Yes, there are noisy, loud, aggressive, intense, mouthy midwives. I see them everywhere these days.... but they are not following in the traditions of their mothers.

I know I am called instead to traditional midwifery because....

my first aid shelf looks like this...tinctures and salves and herbs, oh my!

...and because the bathroom shelf in my house looks like this....

and because my kids' room looks like this and will only get more crowded....

... and because my happy place looks like this

... and like this

... and like this

... and like this

... and like this

.... and like this.... and because none of these things are going to change.

Me, my Mamoune (My French Grandmother, from whom I have learned so much), and one of my daughters.

For the first time in my adult life I am not suffering conflict between the care of my OWN family and service to others.... I feel fully at rest having babies, caring for babies, being a long-term student / apprentice, and staying home with them, knowing it is preparing me for a rewarding vocation as a wife, mother, and midwife. ♥

All of my life, I have used herbal remedies and ideas to serve my family that I learned from my own Grandmother, and prayed along the way that I would one day be a grandmother to many who-- like her-- had a family legacy to hand down, a body of knowledge to pass on, and a beautiful, full, rich tapestry of family life and service to give to my own children and to the people all around me as a gift. As living proof that life is precious and God's ways work. My Grandmother is the perfect example of a woman whose life and ministry and career have all melted into one beautiful picture of a woman with a life fully lived according to her vocation.

Those of you who know me well know that St Josemaria Escriva is one of my favorite saints. The Catholic Church has written specifically on the topic of midwives and their apostolate, and St Josemaria's words on the topic of apostolate has been my heart's joy lately:

Christ has taught us in a definitive way how to make this love for God real. Apostolate is love for God that overflows and communicates itself to others. The interior life implies a growth in union with Christ, in the bread and in the word. And apostolate is the precise and necessary outward manifestation of interior life. When one tastes the love of God, one feels burdened with the weight of souls. There is no way to separate interior life from apostolate, just as there is no way to separate Christ, the God-man, from his role as redeemer. The Word chose to become flesh in order to save men, to make them one with him. This is why he came to the world; he came down from heaven ‘for us men and for our salvation,’ as we say in the Creed.
For a Christian, apostolate is something instinctive. It is not something added onto his daily activities and his professional work from the outside. I have repeated it constantly, since the day that our Lord chose for the foundation of Opus Dei! We have to sanctify our ordinary work, we have to sanctify others through the exercise of the particular profession that is proper to each of us, in our own particular state in life.
We have to act in such a way that others will be able to say, when they meet us: this man is a Christian, because he does not hate, because he is willing to understand, because he is not a fanatic, because he is willing to make sacrifices, because he shows that he is a man of peace, because he knows how to love.
St Josemaria Escriva, Christ Is Passing By, 122 

A midwife!! Glory to God.

Final (I hope!) schedule for next school year

   Combined Prep 1B 1A Final

Enjoy!

Mind Blown!

AN IMPRESSION.

I have been asked to try and recall any memories I may have of Miss Mason and I have attempted once or twice to write something adequate but have failed miserably. Time and events from the outside seem to have made a long leap from the days when I first worked for the P.N.E.U.

But a picture of a certain Sunday in Advent, though it must be twenty odd years ago, rises to my mind and is as fresh as if it had occurred yesterday. It was my first visit to Ambleside as appointed, or provisionally appointed Secretary to the London Office. I was horribly frightened (I had only arrived the night before) the students knew so much more than I did--I had no training--nothing but a hope that I might possibly be the right person for the job. Miss Mason I was told had talks with her students on Sunday afternoons. We assembled in the drawing room, it looked so countrified to my London eyes, and the trunk and branches of a cherry tree outside the window held my attention--as well as the portrait of Matthew Arnold on the wall. Trees and Arnold might help me I thought to keep my nervousness within bounds. I remember Miss Mason and her gentle smile and voice as she explained my presence to the others there. The actual words of her talk I have forgotten, but I hope not the spirit. "That thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed" was the stone upon which she built a complete" house of education" for us that afternoon--explaining how thoughts could be translated into action when revealed, and like young plants bear fruit in due season in the lives of the young children who were to carry on the work.

I have since looked up this text on which the little sermon was built and find I had underlined the words following "There was one Anna a prophetess." Surely something then had moved me to connect the two ideas. Had I realized dimly at this first meeting, that a prophetess was speaking, and that slowly and surely her prophecies would be fulfilled? That she was then revealing to a little handful of her followers something of that wealth of though which she was depending upon us to translate into action?

[084]

I know I hoped sincerely that I might bear my part in the good cause.

Ms. Mason was gifted in many ways, but in none I think more than in her power of inspiring others with ideas, and ideas fundamentally so sound, that those who were able to work them out, felt that they must originate in truth--so often ideas are inspiring for a time, but having little actuality, little relation with facts--they do not live to bear fruit. We can all say of Ms. Mason's work for children and true education, that it dealt with those primary conceptions of the tense value of every human soul that nothing of God's gifts given direct by God Himself, or through the instrument of his creatures could be too good for it. I think I had the impression that this was the thought in her heart that Sunday that she was revealing to us, and that we on our part were earnestly desiring that it might be the spirit in which the work could be accomplished and the only way in which it could ever be accomplished. This must have been so for I find marked with the same date, "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings." Whether I elaborated the idea for myself, or whether Ms. Mason did for me, I am after this long stretch of years unable to tell. The train of thought was continued somehow to its conclusion. If we were able to reveal the thoughts in our hearts to the children, they would so express themselves that we could not fail to recognise the source from which all inspiration and good thoughts come, that are only truly revealed in "that perfected praise" which is the inherited gift of the children of God.

This little sermon, if I may call it so, has recurred to my mind over and over again and I have written it out as best I may--as a very small tribute to the memory of one for whom I had and have a very profound admiration.
Frances Chesterton.(wife of GK Chesterton)

Some grown-up reading

Right now I'm reading....

Daily:

Thomas Dubay's Fire Within
The Bible
The Catechism of the Catholic Church

In addition to reading aloud to my children weekly in the following subjects, right now I'm reading:

Mondays (Science and Nature Study)- The handbook of Nature Study
Tuesdays (Literature, Poetry and Shakespeare)- Jane Eyre, the Oxford Book of English Verse, and Shakespeare's King Lear
Wednesdays (Geography and Travel) -Peeps at Many Lands Ancient Egypt
Thursdays (Salvation History)- Scotland's Story and A History of the American People
Fridays (Fine Arts and Philosophy)- Bertrand Russel's The Problems of Philosophy
Saturday (Torah and Plutarch) - Salvation is from the Jews and Plutarch
Sunday (Gospel and Good Works) - Scale How Meditations

What about you?

A parent's education

Yesterday, a friend posted a beautiful picture of--- her husband's bathroom reading. :) It made me laugh, but I could relate-- they are a CM house, and so as parents, read they must!

I've read a lot about parents following along with Ambleside for their own education and I love to hear about it. I was fortunate enough to be raised by parents who are also educators, and for that reason I have been surrounded by truth and beauty all of my life.

At the same time, I agree that one of  the most appealing aspects of a CM education is that parents and children are experiencing life side-by-side and learning-- at their own level, of course, but also in a way that enables them to interact together with the material being covered.

So with that in mind I would like to give you some ideas of ways you as a parent can benefit from educating your own children the CM way. Below you will find a few examples of books we are reading as adults to join in the conversation between our own children and Those Who Have Gone Before.

In the mornings, my children study Catechism. I've said before that our Catechism lessons follow a set order, and I try to follow along with that same theme myself.

On Mondays, they learn a Catechism lesson from a well-written textbook and narrate it. The following six days they recite the Questions and Answers to memorize that relate to their lesson, until they are ingrained in their memory. I do the same with my own copy of the Catechism, reading at my own level on Monday morning before the kids get up and working on memorizing my own sections throughout the week. That way when the kids hit me with a tough theological question, I've got ready-made answers already memorized to help explain the tough stuff.
I then add some living books-- namely biographies of saints. I read these along with my kids, but before the day begins, I also read up on the day's saint, and journal a bit. As they wake up, they join me--- by that time, I've learned enough to mention a few facts about that particular saint, which they enjoy listening to and drawing about in their own journals.

For math, I just stay a bit ahead of them, pre-reading a lesson or two in advance to ensure I know where we are leading.

For grammar, I take great pleasure in testing myself and reciting along with them as they learn the rules. If mom's doing it too, it makes it a lot more fun to see who can do it best!

For literature, I'm quite satisfied reading along with them because we select wonderful literature for them to read! But I do make sure to check out a poem a day from The Oxford Book of English Verse when they are done reading from the Oxford Book of Children's Verse. For foreign languages, I am enjoying the refreshers from teaching the kids Latin and French.

For science, I too record any notes I might find amazing about what I see outside. I too will draw along with them and fill up my "knower" with all sorts of fun science facts. I also read from the Handbook of Nature Study so that I know how to casually name-drop new friends... birds and insects, trees and bees.

For history, I pre-read most of their books, and I make sure to read stuff on my own level and narrate it to my husband when he has the time to listen. I also keep my own book of centuries, which for now my children can observe until they are old enough to do their own.

For fine arts, I too am learning to play an instrument, to use my voice, to memorize names of beautiful pieces of art and music, and to read sheet music.

For Shakespeare and Plutarch, when my children read from a re-telling, I read from the original.

And those are just some small and simple ways to join them on the journey. Taking on these practices is so much more meaningful than throwing a workbook at them and calculating a grade. It ensures not only that the child grasps the information, but also that the parents and children are enjoying life together and all that it has to offer. That they are growing together, or rather, side-by-side. That they are building memories that make a family.

This is the core of why Charlotte's methods are amazing-- everyone must be on board, and work together to create the atmosphere of education.

20 Principles of a CM Education: #1

I'm following along in my CM study group on facebook with Ambleside's 20 Principles of a CM Education study. If you'd like to join us and have a blog, please post a blog by the deadline with your thoughts on each principle, and then join the discussion either in the Ambleside Forum or in my CM Study Group on facebook.

Today I'll be focusing on Principle number one:

Children are born persons.

 This realization had such a huge effect on my parenting very early on. If you've been following this blog from it's beginnings you will remember that I often felt so completely frustrated by the ultimate Mommy War in Christian circles: the question of parenting "style."

In one corner we have well intentioned so-called "gentle parents," followers of a parenting style called Attachment Parenting which you've heard me rail on time and again. I watched them cosleep and affirm their children and ignore temper tantrums for years and thought to myself..... that's not for me.
It seemed to me that Attachment parenting did great harm to a child, allowing them freedoms children should have to act up or express wishes and seemed to me a breeding ground for selfishness and later problems.I based this not on the methods-- which I liked (extended breastfeeding, cosleeping, expression of affection, babywearing, etc.) but on the results. Quite frankly, most of the children I met whose parents considered themselves fervent adherents of this method were wild.

In the other corner we have well-intentioned opposite of AP parents (what do we call those? Ezzo/Pearl people?) where I have sat firmly and happily for many many years. This camp advocates putting marriage and the good of the family before the desires of the child (highly agree!) and also advocates training and discipline (if needed) to rectify personality problems and bad habits. (agree!)
However, it seemed to me that many of the moms I met who were very verbal about this method of parenting still had children I found questionable in their behavior.And it didn't allow for things which felt natural to me: holding babies. gentle, affirming words (well, maybe not natural, but right!) etc.

I was looking for a parenting style that I felt fulfilled my biblical objectives to train my child in righteousness, but which was a tried-and-true technique.

And while many of ezzo/pearlized children I met who were grown turned out wonderfully, there were some parents who appeared to have used every technique recommended in those books and who really, truly were mystified as to why their children had grown up and walked away from the behaviors they had been trained in.

In other words, the AP families I knew tended to have an abundance of love but little discipline, and the Ezzo/Pearl families I knew tended to have an abundance of discipline but were often lacking in tenderness. There are many exceptions that come to mind, but those were the norms as I saw them.

I'm a very black and white person, so armed with this knowledge I opted for the Ezzo aproach and it worked quite nicely. People constantly marveled that my children were well behaved and enjoyable.
I tried to always remain firm in my resolve to keep them from selfish behaviors and to squash their wills. And I thought I had it made!

Until my child turned five or so and STILL had not outgrown some of her problematic behaviors, like veering towards a meltdown when we had to leave a place she wanted to stay at. What what what?? You mean I had painstakingly done EVERYTHING right according to all my go-to parenting books and my child STILL demonstrated willfulness from time to time? I had not completely squashed that willfulness??
Yes.

It became apparent to me that even though I had all the answers.... I didn't have all the answers.
Which lead me to this idea, this snippet, really, of Charlotte's. Children are born persons. Around the same time as I first discovered it, my husband and I were con/reverting back to Catholicism. And studying the Catechism, which specifies that human dignity -- treating the person, made in God's image--with respect-- was not optional. This greatly affected our marriage. We were persons.  We should treat each other as such.

In Charlotte's philosophy, a child was not a thing, but a person, and as such worthy of every human dignity, respect, kindness, etc.
This was so beneficial to me, because instead of thinking of my child as a machine which I just needed to figure out, I began to think of my child as a person that I needed to enjoy discovering. And also to begin affording them a respect that I had only heard AP people (and my husband, if only I had listened!) preach.

I loved this middle-ground approach, full of tenderness and compassion but also firm and guiding. I think this is part of Charlotte's universal appeal-- that she is both gentle and firm, and also one of the reasons it is so important to read her own work and not just what others have said about her: it's easy to take some of her quotes out of context or to misunderstand her greater meaning. (One of my biggest peeves in life is hearing Unschoolers rave about how they love using Charlotte Mason, who was a very very far cry from advocating unschooling.)

To take it further, the idea that children are born persons is the answer to the greatest evils which we in the Catholic Church daily battle here on planet earth.
Chief among them is objectification-- objectification which leads to abuse, neglect, pornography, abortion, euthanasia, sex-selection, gender confusion and a host of other issues which relate to the Culture of Death.
Yes, you read that right. Charlotte Mason's first principle is the CURE to the majority of the ills of this world.

And it isn't something she came up with on her own. It came to her because of her deep faith. Reading scripture daily and nourished by it she would have often meditated on this maxim:

Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
-Matthew 22:36-40 (KJV)

I leave you with the thoughts of Charlotte herself with regards to the personhood of Children... thoughts which have provided much meditation and delight for me over the last few years. It is because of this principle that I can say I finally walk that peaceful middle ground, finding a healthful tension between love and affection and order and discipline. Giving children their natural rights as persons creates an atmosphere of education. It frees the children to grow in security and confidence, but also in gratitude and good will. It further enables us to honor that personhood in ALL people around us, because if we see it in children, who are often most trying, we will surely see it in our difficult neighbor, or that challenging family member. Most importantly, it is a foundation for the House of Education which we desire to build over these little persons in our care.

We do not recognise 'Child-Nature.'––We endeavour that all our teaching and treatment of children shall be on the lines of nature, their nature and ours, for we do not recognise what is called 'Child-nature.' We believe that children are human beings at their best and sweetest, but also at their weakest and least wise. We are careful not to dilute life for them, but to present such portions to them in such quantities as they can readily receive.

We are Tenacious of Individuality: we consider Proportion––In a word, we are very tenacious of the dignity and individuality of our children. We recognise steady, regular growth with no transition stage. This teaching is up to date, but it is as old as common sense. Our claim is that our common sense rests on a basis of Physiology, that we show a reason for all that we do, and that we recognise 'the science of the proportion of things,' put the first thing foremost, do not take too much upon ourselves, but leave time and scope for the workings of Nature and of a higher Power than Nature herself.

We think that Children have a Right to Knowledge––Much guidance and stimulation are afforded by another principle. We are not anxious to contend with Kant that the mind possesses certain a priori knowledge; nor with Hume that it holds innate ideas. The more satisfying proposition seems to be that the mind has, as it were, prehensile adaptations to each department of universal knowledge. We find that children lay hold of all knowledge which is fitly presented to them with avidity, and therefore we maintain that a wide and generous curriculum is due to them.
--Charlotte Mason, Vol II ch 21

The Jesuit Educational Standard, Calvinism and Charlotte Mason... oh my!

I have recently been studying the foundations of what is called the Jesuit Education, as per the Ratio Studiorum.
Throughout history Jesuits have been famous for their educational contributions to the world. They perfected the art of the Classical Education, and like Charlotte Mason rigorously fought against the mind-numbing fact-imbibing techniques of the day.

I came to study it for two reasons. (a) My husband and I are interested in securing a 100 % Catholic education for our children, drawing from the ancients-- not because we are worried that they will stray from the faith if we don't, but because we know and understand  that the ancients were able to do one thing that is sorely lacking in our modern world: they were able to think.
(b) I am particularly interested in what ways the history of Catholic education affected the ideas of Charlotte's that we deem particularly brilliant. For example, how heavily she was influenced by this idea that children are born persons, a Catholic theological point that, if it were truly understood, would serve as a dissolving agent for the prevalent culture of death all around us.

I also find studying the history of the Classical Liberal Arts education very beneficial for putting Charlotte's ideas into context.

In this case, for example,  I was looking for information about how to DO our short periods of recitation in various subjects (math facts, latin, grammar) in the method Charlotte would have been most accustomed to. I knew that she had her students do recitations. I didn't know what they looked like.

Below is a simple breakdown of the Ignatian method.

The foundation of the Ignatian Method is based on the Spiritual Exercises and the Ratio Studiorum of St. Ignatius of Loyola and seeks:

• To focus on formation, not information
• To have the goal of leading the student to the knowledge and love of God
• To help the teacher/parent train the student's memory, understanding and will
• To train the student to speak, write and act well
• To do all things Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, for the greater glory of God

Ignatian education is education with a purpose in mind beyond simply filling heads with data. A proper education should:

• Form children into adults capable of being leaders and effective agents for Christ in the world
• Fashion in the student an intelligent obedience to all duly-constituted authority
• Develop in the student a respect for the contributions of the past
• Create competency in the arts of expression
• Instill in the student the habit of orderly thinking, trained by a thorough grounding in the basics and expanded in a literature-based curriculum

How does this work? The three tools of Ignatian education are:

• Self-activity: forms the habit of independent study and interest in scholarly pursuits
• Mastery: tackling progressively more difficult material through learning, repetition, and memorization builds confidence and motivation to keep learning
• Formation: emphasizes development of the whole person--mind, body and soul--to help the student learn to make wise choices in line with the will of God

(I got this simplified outline from Kolbe Academy - a Catholic classical homeschool curriculum provider that teaches using the Ignatian Method.)

Those of you familiar with Charlotte's Methods will no doubt see so many correlations between her ideas and the traditional Jesuit Education-- a true "Catholic classical education!"
Unlike the Puritan "classical"education, which aims to indoctrinate in order to arrive at truth, the Catholic education seeks to teach ordered thinking and the use of reason to arrive at truth.

I've been thinking about the importance of this a great deal as my family undergoes a very..... a very us kind of trial. My husband and his brother are having a disagreement, because his brother has suddenly become heavily influenced by Calvinist theology, and as such is suddenly rather anti-Catholic. This causes rifts and wounds in our relationships, which is unfortunate. I am confident in the power of Christ to overcome these demonic rifts and bouts of strife, but in the meantime I have also been fascinated as I watched the different ways with which they "make their case."
My brother-in-law's method of argument is to provide walls of scripture. He is a scripture hammer-- for each question that arises he provides ten-twelve different scriptures pulled from various parts of the Bible as "proof texts." There is no real method of interpretation, he simply gives us passages that he has been handed as "proof" of Calvinist/Reformed theology, regardless of the context, or seemingly opposing scriptures that exist elsewhere in the Bible. This is what I call the Puritan Hammer method of debate. I personally feel it's a method reminiscent of a toddler plugging his ears with his fingers and sticking out his tongue.... "Neiner, neiner! itissobecauseisaythebiblesayssoandihavetheholyspirit!" And I'm ashamed to say it's a method I've used many times in the past. :/

My husband's method, on the other hand, is to appeal to his brother's reason and ability to think. "Let's first determine who has the authority to interpret scripture," he argues, and "let's look at how these two scriptures could appear to disagree on the issue, one pointing to predestination and one pointing to free will."

In the car yesterday, on our way home from Church, my husband began to discuss the Catechism with our children. Rather than tell them: "Children, we believe this. Say it with me!" He posed them a question:
"Children," he asked. "Do you believe it's possible that God may have created someone to send them to hell?" "Nooooooooooooo!" They shouted gleefully. "Why not?" He asked them. And they began to reason together.... my kids giving answers and my husband asking questions. Only at the very end did he say: "Very good, children, that is truth. God both predestines us and knows all things AND gives us free will to freely choose Him. "

Honor your childrens' personhood by giving them the ability to think. But guide them in logical thinking, and provide them with ample examples of truth-in-action. This is the Catholic way.

There is no hard proof anywhere I've seen that says CM was influenced by these ideas, but she was no doubt very familiar with them.
Other innovative Catholic educators who were her contemporaries certainly took these ideas into consideration (Maria Montessori among them)-- with CM delivering further, clear instruction as to how to give a truly Classical Liberal Arts Education to a child who is born a person.

Certainly the goals and methods appear to have very much in common.
Both methods teach that formation of the whole person is to be prefered over the fine-tuning of just one aspect of the mind, both methods use self-teaching (vs teachers "telling") and allowing the student to grapple with the ideas themselves. Both methods emphasize mastery over covering a lot of ground. Both methods involve re-telling, and competing with oneself to enjoy the satisfaction of learning well-done. Both methods emphasize using the best possible literature (the "classics") as the foundation for all knowledge and understanding. Both methods had for their chief aim: the knowledge and love of God.

As I grow in my understanding of Charlotte's methods, it has been tremendously beneficial for me to dig into the long and sacred tradition of Catholic education, and to understand that these tried-and-true methods really formed Charlotte's ideas about education, which stemmed from her faith in God and understanding of his nature.

Catholics who are afraid of using Charlotte Mason because she "wasn't Catholic" should be studying her work. They might be surprised to find just how Catholic she actually was!

Planning Days

When I think about planning, my main goal is to keep it simple.

Trouble is... I enjoy planning. Probably a little too much!

While spending time doing homeschool planning is something I enjoy, it's not something I need to do too much of at this stage in life when I'm juggling school for the kids, school for myself, the demands of home life, of caring for my sick father in law, of and marriage and parenthood with young children. I could spend all day immersed in my lists, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is what I did, not what I planned.

So if you're like me, you'll need a system...and  here's how I have worked it out.

Just like staying organized or clean or growing in prayer, homeschool planning requires regular time and attention.

The formula I have used this year is super simple, but it works really well and I hope to stick to it in following years. I have each of these scheduled into my calendar as much as possible.... with the only ones I've slacked in being co-op, and that's for a good reason (babies! Ah!!!)
By next year I hope to have co-op days regularly scheduled each month as well.

YEARLY
1 yearly curriculum review and planning retreat day (full day with goal setting, curriculum selection and review, evaluation of the previous year, checking in with those pesky govt. requirements etc.)
2 bi-annual philosophy/method retreat days (one in the spring and one in the fall, preferably with like-minded friends and family. Some people go to conventions.... I like to get together and dig in with friends and hear what they are up to, and pray together.)

MONTHLY
1 monthly evaluation session (as easy as ten minutes with a cup of coffee & a notebook on the deck) that includes a one-subject review (for example, focusing on history, or math)
1 monthly method session (studying CM, praying, and chatting with husband or friends)
2 bi-monthly co-op days (I do mine on first and third Fridays.. or will when we get back in gear here.)

WEEKLY
1 weekly lesson planning day (I do mine on Sunday evenings and love it that way)
At least 1 weekly blog post or journal entry about the journey

DAILY
1 morning check-in with my CM study group on facebook for info/inspiration and a prayer covering.
1 evening check-in with my notes for the following day.

That's it!
It's enough to satisfy my inner love of list-making and book-reviewing and coffee with friends, while making sure to keep me on track. It's also enough to make sure I'm on top of my goals, enough to make sure my kids don't come to the table in the morning and find me empty handed.... and enough to ensure we are always growing and learning in Charlotte's methods and ideas and doing our part to share them with others.

If you have a system that works for you, I'd love to hear about it!

Learning when you aren't looking

I was feeling like a mega failure at homeschooling today....it's been a crazy month, and I just can't seem to get a handle on how to keep up. Instead of sticking to the lesson plans I've been racing around trying to incorporate our wild life into the things I'm hoping to be teaching.

Yes, there are teachable moments everywhere-- but I was feeling so frustrated that we had had very little time over this crazy vacation season to actually sit down and study our lessons.

BUT THEN....I had my family over for dinner.
It's my daughters' birthday and we were celebrating.

Just a few of the things I saw/overheard which completely changed my mind---and that reminded me that sometimes you just need to see your kids from outside the boxes you draw around your lesson plans. ;)

1. One of my kids asked for a broom to sweep up the porch. They all jumped in the air excited to help him, and left all the adults in the room standing around with their mouths hanging open when they did it. What kids do that??!

2. My seven year old daughter BEGGED me to read "just one page" from Paul Johnon's "A History of the American people," a book my dad -- who is an American Historian-- just finished.

3. My youngest (3) randomly recited a poem at the table: the Land of Counterpane.

4. My sister in law, a public schoolteacher who puts in countless hours training and curriculum selecting, was complaining about having a month to teach her kids fractions. My seven year old introduced her to Life of Fred. She left the house with the title of the LOF with fractions in it so she could buy it to teach her kids(!) Even better, she said: "then I can knock out some language arts requirements too." ;)

5. The same sister in law was talking about how she had Romeo and Juliet on the shelf in her third grade classroom and one of her students had picked it up and read it and had been talking to her about it. She expressed how amazed she was that her 3rd grader not only could read it, but would... after all it was on her reading list for ninth graders. We were able to testify to the fact that most "reading level" indications are meaningless. Good books are good books, and everyone will enjoy them. She found this idea amazing, and I loved sharing in her "aha!" moment.

6. My son, five, walked around spelling all the items in the room. And used both memory and phonetic rules, as appropriate, to do it. (Does it have a silent e?)

7.  My five year old son also spontaneously narrated the story of St. Paul's conversion in a manner that left all of us rapt with attention.

I'm not saying I'm going to lose the lesson plans (as if!) but only that in times of stress when we feel like we aren't "doing enough," it might be good to take a step outside our plans to see how much our kids are growing in all the beautiful ways we are guiding them... and if we have laid down the rails properly, in all the ways we aren't.

“They (children) must be let alone, left to themselves a great deal, to take in what they can of the beauty of earth and heavens; for of the evils of modern education few are worse than this–that the perpetual cackle of his elders leaves the poor child not a moment of time, nor an inch of space, wherein to wonder–and grow.” -Charlotte Mason: Volume 1, Home Education, Part II, P.44

Addressing some of the myths about a CM education

I recently came across this post on a friend's blog.
Essentially, it attempted to do the Catholic would-be homeschooling community a service by providing a break-down  of different homeschooling methods. It was a nice post and a good idea.

I have to strongly disagree, however, with the way the information was presented when it comes to Charlotte Mason, and I decided to blog about it not because I am upset with the post, but rather because it was the fourth or fifth time this week alone that I read the same type of misrepresentation of Charlotte Mason's methods, and I think that CM deserves to be adequately represented. I don't know that I'm qualified to do that, but I'm going to give it a try just the same.

First, a word about the different approaches to homeschooling. (Incidentally, I don't think you can put things into boxes all this easily, but I'm going to do this just for the sake of clarity.) It goes without saying that we are talking about education, here, and that "education" is by far one of the hardest things to nail down. We know it when we see it, right? There are many voices who have, in the Great Conversation, provided food for thought in the banquet halls of "education." So because it's such a slippery term, let's just assume that what is meant here is the assimilation of ideas that provide a framework for knowledge and understanding... perhaps for wisdom.

Charlotte herself had something to say about what Education was. You may have heard it before:

Education is a discipline, an atmosphere, and a life.

TRADITIONAL is actually NOT traditional. It is what homeschoolers call other homeschoolers who teach like they do in regular public schools (which haven't been around very long.) Traditional homeschool families often use workbooks and textbooks and have regular days that resemble regular school in most ways. The material in the textbooks and workbooks may be different from the material taught in public schools because it may contain religious content, for example, but to a traditional homeschool family, the general idea is that the parent teaches from a textbook and the student does work at their seat involving writing and reading and testing for comprehension and mastery. These students can often work completely independently with very minimal supervision, which is an advantage for parents looking for that quality in their homeschool. Most families who begin homeschooling will begin with this style of schooling, not realizing the other available options.

UNSCHOOLING is basically the idea of a child-led education. In unschooling, parents don't select textbooks and workbooks but instead take advantage of learning opportunities all around them to teach. Unschooling tends to be very relaxed in atmosphere and tends to be embraced by families with more artistic goals.

CLASSICAL has a wide range of meanings but essentially ends up meaning a liberal arts education as delivered by the ancients, specifically the Greeks and Romans, and also by Catholics. It typically involves a lot of memorization and fact learning, builds on itself, and is heavily academic, particularly in the areas of language, artihmetic, science, music, and philosophy. The classical method is heavily individual, and students do not work together on very much. It tends to be more hands-on than the traditional approach for the parent but students can still work mostly independently. Most Catholic material available which comes from the parochial schools of the 40s and 50s is classical in nature, and most of the Catholic homeschools out there to enroll in are classical (except Seton and CHC.)

UNIT STUDY method is in essence the selecting of subject matter and content based around an idea (usually a historical period, for example) in all academic areas. For a unit study approach, a family might use math books, science books, history books, art, music, literature and poetry etc all based on
a particular geographic location or time period. In the Unit Study method, each child will typically have work to do at his/ her own level but on the same subject as his/her brothers and sisters.

SCHOOLHOUSE method is what I call families who decide to do things as they did in the old one-room schoolhouses across north america. There is heavy emphasis on the three R's and religion, most families use old textbooks designed for these environments, and school is conducted with all age groups working together. This method is often called the "bus" method because the teacher will teach the large group of students and each student will "get off the bus" at their own level, going on to work independently.

ONLINE SCHOOLING is a relatively new concept-- students are taught by professional teachers via webcasts or recorded videos, and do the majority of their schoolwork on the computer. These schools normally utilize traditional methods, but not all. There are some exceptions. One appeal here for some people is that a teacher, and not the parent who feels inadequate in some way for that particular subject, can teach the subject directly to the student, just like in regular school. Again, students can work alone and require little assistance.

LITERATURE BASED schooling means that the students use good books of a literary nature to present information instead of textbooks and activities. This method is often used in combination with one of the other methods-- namely, Classical OR Unit Study.

ECCLECTIC means that a family picks and chooses from different methods what they like.

There are a few educational philosophies out there built on the ideas of famous educators that have gone past. Some of these include Waldorf, Thomas Jefferson, Maria Montessori, and Charlotte Mason. They are named after their creators, but most of their followers would just say that they are providing an education. In the case of Charlotte Mason, for example, I call what I'm giving my kids a living education.
Adherents of these philosophies typically band together in communities and re-purpose their entire homeschools in accordance with the ideas of the educator who founded them. I went to a waldorf pre-school, for example, and everything we did was recommended by the Waldorf method. Some people are really drawn to a few different people's educational ideas, but in reality, these methods often oppose each other in some places and purists are the only ones who are really following through with these types of educational philosophies and seeing the results promised by their founders. Charlotte Mason, then, is one such person-- a victorian era educator with ideas about education. Her ideas were so good, though, that she completely changed the face of education in Europe and here in America among homeschoolers who adhere to her methodology.

Philosophies are often rooted in religious beliefs, and shaped by them. These styles of homeschools are no different. Waldorf has some eccentric spiritual beliefs that put off some Christians, Montessori was a Catholic in name and practice but perhaps missed a few chapters in her catechism on the duty of parents to educate (Can you tell I think she was too child-led and soft? :P) and Charlotte Mason was a life-long member of the Church of England... something which puts off many Catholics but shouldn't, since Anglicans are notoriously more "Catholic" in their thinking than actual Catholics most of the time, these days anyways. (Zing!)

So now a word about Charlotte Mason's methods-- what they are and in some way, what they aren't.

Charlotte Mason IS Classical. It's a liberal arts education. In no way do we have to set up these little camps. For years before I actually started schooling I agonized over whether we were a "Charlotte Mason" family or a "Classical" family or a "Good Books" family. It seems so silly, looking back, because CM is all that and more. I think in my nervousness about approaching homeschooling, I felt the need to identify with other people. Ironically, using CM's methods have isolated us from other homeschoolers in some sense, but the tradeoff has been better family bonding and a delightful experience of education, which I would venture to say is rare judging by the endless facebook posts in my news feed about how hard schooling is for parents and students alike--- what drudgery. Not for us!

Charlotte Mason IS complete. CM students will be adequately prepared for whatever challenges face them, whether it be college or real world work. It is rigorous and academic. Children, for example, who use the Ambleside Online curriculum or who attend one of the new Ambleside schools will find themselves reading WAY above grade level quickly and well, and will have an ease associated with learning and study that very few children will enjoy.

Charlotte Mason IS religious. Although some secular families attempt to use CM's ideas without incorporating her belief in God, she absolutely intended for Children to know, learn about, understand and connect with their creator through her methods. Regardless of whether your family is protestant or Catholic, CM's ideas will enhance your child's religious education, and do so in a way that creates inner growth. In fact, CM parents who study her ideas and implement them are making spiritual progress and growing in their faith. CM parents are discipling their children. How many parents can say that?

Charlotte Mason IS artistic. Students will practice and learn the arts and learn them well. Students will enjoy a freedom of expression at appropriate moments and will be familiar with various artistic expressions and will sharpen their abilities to practice and appreciate the arts.

Charlotte Mason IS math and science heavy. Charlotte used good books as VEHICLES to deliver ideas to children, but her students were exceptionally "gifted" in all areas, even in math and science. Many children who grew up on a CM diet grew to be excellent mathematicians and scientists.

Charlotte Mason IS Character training. Her revolutionary ideas about character building and habits influenced everyone, including the scouting programs your children enjoy today. Morality, strong character-building and exemplary citizenship  were her specialty, and CM parents who adhere to her principles enjoy children who become wonderful people to be around, even at an early age.

Charlotte Mason IS practical. Where many homeschoolers are beginning to stay away from college preparation and prefer to focus on practical living skills, farming, or other types of work-experiences, CM students do academic work in the mornings and are given beautiful afternoons in which to work on handicrafts and real life skills. This prepares them for real life in a way no other homeschooling methods can because they are participating in it right from the start.

Charlotte Mason IS alive. When you hear the term "living books," you think yay, sounds great! And you are right. It IS great. True, one of the things that defines a CM education is that we use only the best and most interesting and well-written books. However, the books aren't what makes CMing a living education.... it's the books AND the methods, a whole system, that makes the magic happen. I hear a lot of people say (and I used to say) that they take some things from CM. One of the first things they take is the idea of living books, because who can argue with that? But in order for CM students to truly come alive, they must not only have thrilling books but high quality books using the best language. they must not only read these books but read them with the habit of attention. They must not only read them but narrate them, and well. They must not only narrate them but read them slowly, and only once, building a relationship with them over time.  It is the combination of methods that makes CM "alive."

Charlotte Mason IS computer based to some degree and if you want it to be. There are loads of good books available on the internet and many people -- including myself-- take advantage of some of them. However, for those of us who, like me, desire to see their kids running and playing and AWAY from the screen, it's nice to know that we don't have to get on there at all if we don't want to. Yay!

Charlotte Mason IS freeeeee! I mean, you know, I'm building a library that my family members swear is making them question my sanity, and ohhh, the books I could buy! But I don't have to. There are libraries on every street corner and literally dozens of free CM-based curriculum choices available on the internets for those who don't feel like doing the research and making up their own. Yay! In fact, if a curriculum provider is charging an exorbitant amount of money to use their stuff, they probably aren't all that committed to pursuing Charlotte's dream-- she was a philanthropist who desired to see a free and wonderful education for ALL people.

Charlotte Mason IS delightful. I've never used the word delightful so much as I have since beginning our homeschooling journey. It's almost funny. Planning school is not a chore but a delight. Sitting down with my children is not horrific but delightful. Doing the work is not drudgery but delightful. What a glorious way to spend a lifetime! Most people who opt for unschooling do so to bring the joy back into their days. However, contrary to what you may have heard people say, Charlotte Mason is NOT child-led. There is nothing soft about CM's methods, although they are "gentle" to some degree. and there is nothing that says that a CM family will EVER just sit around doing art. Even in art, Charlotte taught her students a method before setting them loose to paint. She understood one of the most important things about life: it's all about TRUTH and BEAUTY, which comes from discipline and hard work and imagination and goodness.

Charlotte Mason IS international. Unlike many other methods, which are relatively America-centric in their implementation, CM students can learn in pretty much any environment-- it works as well for settlers and country dwellers as for big city families, missionary families, families who travel regularly.... anybody! Further, because Charlotte's students read in many languages, it provides a living education based on good books in their original languages! What an achievable gift to all people, and a force for peace in the world.

Charlotte Mason IS family-oriented. Like most one-room schoolhouses of days gone past and homes before that, CM understood that it was good for families to be together and that learning didn't have to be this complex process. CM is very parent-involved and parent-directed, but also very respectful of the human dignity and personhood of the student, and therefore enjoyable for the whole family, making it a blessing all around.

Charlotte Mason IS simple. Many people see the long list of achievements CM students are doing each week and think: NO WAY, that's too complicated for us. On the contrary, CM's methods enable the homeschooling experience to be as streamlined and simple as possible. It is enjoyable, fast, and fascinating. Those of us who have tried it know we will never go back- and if we do, we probably didn't try it as described by Charlotte herself.

Charlotte Mason IS scientifically-proven. Her ideas about health, habits, books to read, and methods have been proven in brain science time and time again. Every step of the way, you will discover that doing what she suggests will literally improve the way you use your brain, and that these things are as true for children as they are for adults. In every way, from her ideas about clothing and fresh air and nutrition to her ideas about reading the KJV and Shakespeare, CM is proven healthy!

So now that you know what it IS, spend some time studying other methods to learn what it ISN'T.

It isn't really possible for people to have one foot in and one foot out-- her method is all-inclusive and is designed to be implemented in its entirety. Also contrary to popular belief, it isn't by reading about Charlotte's ideas that we come to implement them best. It is by reading her actual ideas... As written in her own words. 

My hope is that by posting this, I can dispel some of the myths out there rotating about what a CM education looks like in contrast to other types of educations.
Growing up, I attended a traditional French school that used SOME textbooks. However, it was in all ways very CM -style... .and I loved everything about it. Most French public schooling is this way because Charlotte herself was influenced by-- and in turn influenced-- French educators. No one of note in the French education department knows much of anything about her, and yet her ideas and methods are all over the public schools. I find that beautiful and amazing. This occurs naturally with many people, including homeschoolers, because her ideas are simply good. Which is why it was important to me to share what a CM education IS with all of you!