My Favorite Charlotte Mason Moment
This post has been a few weeks in coming…started brewing when the unimaginable tragedy hit a few Fridays ago. I was already having a “bad” day when that news came over the car radio as I was driving to the parking lot at the walking trail with the Kona dog. I was supposed to be teaching an art class but just about everyone cancelled for some reason or another, pretty much at the last minute. I ended up cancelling the class and heading out to blow off some steam.
You see, I was upset with some of the moms in my homeschool group. I was frustrated with the homeschooling charter school programs they were in that deemed them “behind” so that they had to forgo coming to my art class in order to “catch up” on paperwork and assignments.
I was frustrated with the situation and realized that I had gone so far off that path that I could no longer understand why anyone would let some entity tell them that finishing math was more important than coming over to my house to play with tessellations. I was really looking forward to playing with shapes and colors with these kids and instead I was all by myself
Then the news hit about Newtown, CT. My walk turned from therapy for a frustrated mom to a walk full of tears and walking farther than I had in a long, long time. The fresh air cleared my head and I prayed in gratitude that I have been able to spend my adult life with my children learning alongside them in a way that makes sense to our family and with such joy, learning that brightened with allowing Charlotte Mason’s words to deeply penetrate our very way of life because our life was about learning, real learning.
In the weeks that have passed since the school shooting, I have had so many people say to me that I must be glad that I homeschooled. It is more than homeschooling that I am grateful for…so much more. It has been the quality of our life as a homeschooling family. It is the relationships, the bonds, the worshipping together every day, the prayers, the walks, the long conversations, the depth of our life is so much more than just schooling at home where it has been “safe”.
Our little community had our own school shooting a few years ago where the principal of the very elementary school where my older two children attended a few years was shoot dead by a disgruntled workmate in the middle of a very ordinary school day. It shook us up then and the Newtown, CT shooting brought up those memories as well. I drive by the garden dedicated to the principal just about every day…I notice it because it is on the corner of a very busy intersection but it seems to be a beautiful reminder to stop and slow down to notice the beauty we do have all around us each day and can miss if we aren’t careful.
Perhaps that is my “Favorite Charlotte Mason Moment”. Perhaps in the sadness surrounding the tragedy there was a prodding of my heart to realize that although I could not control the world or the crazy things in it, I could control how I react and respond to those that I come into contact with. Instead of being frustrated with the other moms in my homeschooling group who don’t have any real concept of how Charlotte Mason can influence their life, I can share with them the way to a better experience in homeschooling. There are so many possibilities that many of them don’t even know about yet. I can suggest great literature, offer to teach art appreciation, introduce them to composer study, take them on nature walks with me. I can show them our notebooks and artwork and be a mentor to whoever will listen. That is my moment, or maybe many moments strung together over the course of the next few years. Moments that can influence lifetimes….turning sadness and frustration into rejoicing.
So my Charlotte Mason moment will hopefully lead to some other moms having Charlotte Mason moments of their own and change our little part of the world a little at a time.
I am submitting this entry to the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival and if you have any entries you would like to submit, you can send them to this email address: [email protected].
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. It was such a blessing to me and made me stop and think about our own homeschooling experience. I am a grandmother and I homeschool 4 of my g’kids – aged 5, 7, 8, and 14. We first learned about Charlotte Mason a couple of years ago and have tried to follow it as closely as possible. It really is an enriching way to educate these lives that have been entrusted to me. I would not want to do it any other way. Thanks once again for your thoughts.
Wow…what a privilege to homeschool your grandchildren! I would love to have a share in that when my time comes. Thanks for your lovely comment.
Great post, Barb. As I’m still in the earlier years of homeschooling I do feel very fortunate to be influenced by Charlotte Mason. I was lucky to start reading blogs of mentors like you before I even started homeschooling. It is a wonderful way to learn and live.
I wish I would have had some mentors my first few years…it is so very different now with the online communities available. So glad that I have been helpful to you and I love reading your blog, seeing how your days are going.
yay barb!
thanks so much for sharing this!! i am so encouraged by your thoughts and feel much the same way in regard to my response to the shooting. it’s so much more than just the scary moments in which i’m thankful i homeschool. i’m thankful for every. single. moment. i get to live, really live, with my kids. just like you said.
you’re such an encouragement to me!
amy in peru recently posted…Psst… you didn’t forget did you?!
Great post Barb. I’ve recently had a similar ‘favorite Charlotte Mason Moment’. We’ve been looking at various high school (home school) options here in England. One of them was to sign up with the European Christian Home Educators Board which uses a well known curriculum from the States for homeschoolers and in independent Christian schools, However, after looking through the curriculum I knew in my heart that I could not subject my children or myself to such a ‘dead’ approach to learning, not after using Miss Masons methods. So we will continue in our Charlotte Mason ways and trust the the Lord will make our paths straight
) Fortunately there are many ways to skin the educational cat here in England.
Thanks for your thoughts and ponderings Barb. As always you are such an encouragement!
Shirley Ann recently posted…Gardening Matters
Your girls are very blessed to have you as their mom. I wish you nothing but the best as you plan your high school years…hopefully I can continue to encourage you in some way. Thanks Shirley Ann.
I so wish my kids could play with shapes and color with you! The families in your homeschool group are quite lucky indeed. And what a lovely post about perspective and appreciation for Charlotte Mason.
Any time…come on over! I should post what we are doing for each class and let you virtually join in.
Barb–
I would *love* that. I often find myself enlarging your pics of art supplies — trying to figure out exactly what supplies you’re working with and what you’re doing. I really would take you up on it. The Sketch Tuesdays in themselves have been such a pleasure for our family these past few months.
I am planning on putting everything I am doing with my co-op into a printable at the end of the year but I could share as I went along if I can squeeze it in.
Hugs Friend. I feel this way too. So much I’d love to do in this community, but the handful of moms here are all so busy. Listening to Charters and Curriculum and Over Sported Out. You’ve reached one. And probably more than one. I was set to change my path to “High School” last year. And the only form I knew was the one I had walked. I woke up this morning to papers, notebooks, and sharpies. The Freshwater Life Book is on the floor. Pieces of electronic sensors scattered around my kitchen table. Projects started wtih out me after I retired last night. As we study Cleopatras Needle as part of our Ancients/Rocks/Geography today, your name will be mentioned, and we will smile and enjoy our learning. There will be moms who want to ‘do it right’. And they are listening to those who have created laws to make it so. Just know that there will be moms like me. Who want to Do it Well. Do it Deep. You’ll meet her. and she will know the prize she has in you. We here do. I really can’t imagine – not attending any art class at your home. Max would love to take a walk with Kona.
Angie W recently posted…Never Poke at the Sharks
Sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky to have such a wonderful online community of moms who so “get” me. You are one of those moms Angie. I am grateful every day for all of you that remind me why I keep a blog and share so much. I hit the publish button on this post and then sort of felt vulnerable. I am not bashing charters or umbrella groups or virtual schools…I have been a part of all those things over the years. I just found my feet firmly on a different path and find it frustrating/sad that so many in my real life don’t even take the time to learn more about how I am doing it on my own with those institutions. I know for some it is a financial decision, for some it is a comfort zone, and for some honestly they like to drop their kids off a few days a week (for a variety of reasons including having younger siblings to manage). No bashing was intended…just sharing my heart.
Wish you could come for art and a long walk today. We booked our annual OR camping trip and I should send you the dates in case you happen to come south to Brookings at the same time we are there.