Unschooling When Charlotte Mason Also Appeals to Our Hearts

Do some aspects of the various methods of homeschooling appeal to you? How about living books? And art and nature study? What about the classics? Journaling and drawing?

Years ago, I was drawn to Charlotte Mason’s ideas. There is something very attractive about her way of doing things, isn’t there? Short lessons make sense for kids who can’t sit still. And shouldn’t children be spending lots of time outside playing and exploring nature? And I understand why narration is required. It gives kids the opportunity to make any knowledge their own.

It’s good to appreciate art that tells a story or engages our emotions and our senses. Then there’s music that sings to our souls and living books that capture our imaginations. And shouldn’t we be filling our heads with noble ideas?

Our hearts might be captivated by Charlotte Mason. Is that because this method of homeschooling is based on all that’s beautiful, good and true?

Despite many attempts, we never managed to successfully ‘do’ Charlotte Mason. Although all would go well for a time, eventually, my kids protested: “Why do we have to do this?” and replied, “Because it’s in my lesson plan. Because I said so.” What I really meant was, “Because Charlotte Mason says so.” My kids and I would start to battle. Unfortunately, this wasn’t beautiful, good and true.

As you might know, one day, I abandoned my search for the perfect method of homeschooling. I stopped trying to force other people’s ideas onto my children and began listening to them instead. I trusted that they could learn without an external method being imposed on them. I realised that such things as narration aren’t needed if we give our attention to our kids when they want to share their discoveries with us. So I said goodbye to Charlotte Mason forever.

However, I didn’t turn my back on all that’s beautiful, good and true.

Living books, beautiful paintings, nature, poetry, Shakespeare, and noble ideas aren’t the exclusive property of a particular homeschooling method such as Charlotte Mason. They are part of our fascinating world. Our kids can come into contact with them just by living life. And if there’s anything, in particular, we’d like our kids to be aware of, we can always strew it.

We could hang a painting on the wall, invite our kids to explore nature with us, offer to read some living books to them, invite them to watch a Shakespeare play with us, strew a poem, say “I’ve been thinking about…” and share some thoughts and ideas.

Of course, we can’t force our strewing on our kids. So yes, they may reject our invitations. But I’ve discovered that my kids, being curious people, often get caught up in my enthusiasm and so are very open to my strewing suggestions.

It might seem better to surround our kids with beauty, truth and goodness the Charlotte Mason way because kids can’t reject what we’d like them to learn about. (Of course, they might like what’s in the plan. Then again, they might not.) But it seems to me that it’s better if kids have a choice. Then when they do choose to read a poem, listen to a book, or look at a painting, they’ll be fully engaged. Their hearts will be wide open, ready to absorb all that truth, beauty and goodness.

Beauty, goodness and truth can be found in unexpected places. We don’t have to stick only to the classical. Good isn’t always old. (And old isn’t always good!) It took me a while to realise this. Years ago, when I was in one of my Charlotte Mason phases. I searched high and low for copies of all the old books that Charlotte Mason used. I remember how excited I got whenever I did manage to track one down. (Old books were harder to find in those pre-Internet days.) But those books weren’t necessary. Goodness, truth and beauty can be found in today’s world as well as in times gone by.

Someone once said to me, “The classical period of music was the greatest. No composer or musician will ever be as good as those of that era.”

If that were true, wouldn’t it be sad?

Something Extra

You might like this conversation that I had with my daughter Imogen. It was one of our earlier podcasts so, when I listened to it a short time ago, I expected to cringe. However, it’s okay. That’s definitely because of Imogen’s input. She had a lot of good things to say!

Photos

Since I’ve been interested in photography, I’ve become more aware of the beauty in our world. The quality of light. The endless array of colours. I notice things I used to walk past without seeing.

Sophie took the top photo of Imogen and I took the photo of the two girls together. Isn’t the botanic gardens a gorgeous setting for portrait photography?

So I’m wondering

Does beauty, goodness and truth attract your heart?

Are your kids discovering these by following their interests?

Perhaps you strew beauty, goodness and truth?

And maybe, like me, your interests make you very aware of what is beautiful, good and true in our world.