20 August 2019

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?

[pullquote align=”right” style=”default” width=”300″ size=”16″ line_height=”18″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#222222″]So I said goodbye to Charlotte Mason forever. However, I didn’t turn my back on all that’s beautiful, good and true.[/pullquote] 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.

READ  Sharing Our Values and Beliefs With Our Unschooled Children
[pullquote align=”left” style=”default” width=”300″ size=”16″ line_height=”18″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#222222″]Good isn’t always old. (And old isn’t always good!)[/pullquote] 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.

Sue Elvis

I'm an Australian blogger, podcaster, and Youtuber. I write and speak about unschooling, parenting and family life. I'm also the author of the unschooling books 'Curious Unschoolers', 'Radical Unschool Love' and ‘The Unschool Challenge’. You'll find them on Amazon!

17 Comments

  1. I focus a lot on beauty and truth in our home. We are keen observers of God’s creation and He is an amazing artist. I also try to create a home that is beautiful to us so we can enjoy the time we spend here. It is important to me. It’s actually important to all three of us. We’re all artists in different ways so observing, creating, and discussing beauty is a big part of our family life.

    Re: classical music being the best… No, not true. LOL! Baroque music is much better and my favorite by far, especially the later era. I would choose Telemann, Scarlatti, Handel, Corelli, Vivaldi, and Bach over almost anything in the Classical period and later.

    Sallie

    • Sallie,

      The beauty and truth that are a focus of your home are reflected on your blog. It’s a beautiful place too.

      Your words about music reminded me of a podcast I did with Imogen. We chatted about classical music, creativity and other things in one of my earlier episodes which I just added to this post!

  2. Hi Sue,
    Yes that is true. The Charlotte Mason style of homeschooling was the first one to catch my attention because of the same reasons, good living books, short lessons, narration, nature and the awe of God interwoven through it all. Anytime I have felt “panicky” about unschooling, over the last few years, the Charlotte Mason methods seem to calm the fears. But as with you, it has only ever been a temporary solution, eventually my kids don’t want to follow the pre-planned learning plan either. They all want to be free to choose.

    • Deb,

      Yes, returning to a bit of structure does seem to happen when we feel panicky about unschooling. And if we’re going to use a method of homeschooling, Charlotte Mason is very attractive! But you’re right, it’s only a temporary solution.

      Maybe if it feels like we’re not doing enough, we could strew a few resources instead of writing a Charlotte Mason plan. Suggest a few outings, offer to read some books, hang a beautiful painting on the wall, play some music, issue some invitations to watch a play or a movie, initiate some interesting conversations, share a few ideas we’ve been pondering… And then see what happens. Perhaps one thing will lead to another and learning will happen in unexpected ways.

      There’s something satisfying about writing a plan and then ticking things off as they are accomplished. But it also feels good to observe our kids immersed in the things they’re interested in. We can write down all their learning experiences and watch our homeschool records books fill up!

  3. Hi Sue! I think you nailed it with this:
    “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.”
    When the kids here don’t want to do some ‘learning’ sort of thing, I can see it in their eyes. They’re still there, but their mind is somewhere else. Things work best when we’re all into whatever it is that we’re doing, and since they’re their own people, only the can decide whether they’re into something or not.
    Thanks for the reminder!

    • Hamilton,

      Oh yes,it’s easy to tell when our kids aren’t interested. I agree: you can see it in their eyes! Maybe many parents ignore the signs and plough on regardless because they feel it’s their duty to do this. Kids have to learn whether they like it or not. But it’s a waste of time and effort, isn’t it? Real learning only happens when our kids are engaged, when they decide something is interesting or relevant to them.

  4. I really appreciated this. I’ve been jotting notes down about something similar over the past few weeks. Well, not just Charlotte Mason, I guess, but how certain aspects of Charlotte Mason, Classical, Project-based learning or whatever really …can simply be enjoyed within natural life. Maybe it’s that the content can be enjoyed without having to take on the fixed process? Now that my kids are young adult down through the teen years, I’m finding it fun to look back in hindsight at their different styles of learning. The hours of historical fiction that my oldest and I read together simply doesn’t fly in large doses for my youngest who is very visual and finds beauty in sketching, creating characters and graphic novels but both can be equally good and beautiful.

    “Living books, beautiful paintings, nature, poetry, Shakespeare, and noble ideas aren’t the exclusive property of a particular homeschooling method. They are part of of our fascinating world.” Yes:).

    • Erin,

      Oh yes! We can enjoy the content of the various homeschooling methods without adopting the fixed process. Unschoolers have a huge advantage. We don’t have to confine ourselves to only one type of content but can sample everything.

      Different styles of learning… I’ve been thinking about that. Trying to fit a child within a certain learning framework doesn’t always work, does it? Not everything within a method suits each child. But when we have access to the huge feast of experiences available in our fascinating world, there’s something for everyone!

      • Sue, you said: “We can enjoy the content of the various homeschooling methods without adopting the fixed process.” I’m pondering this. Can you maybe give some examples? I mean, I get enjoying great art, music, nature, etc. like Charlotte Mason and Classical just in an unstructured way. I’m just thinking of other aspects of various methods and how they might be incorporated in an unschooling manner. Does that make sense?

        • Karen,

          When I wrote this post, I was thinking about using such things as great works of art, music, classic books, etc as strewing resources. Surrounding our kids with beauty, goodness and truth. But can we also get the benefits of each method by unschooling? I’ve been pondering that question. I don’t think I have thought about it enough, but I do have a few thoughts I could share.

          Narration… kids often want to share what they’ve discovered with us. If we take the time to listen and get involved with their learning, they will have ample opportunities to put all they’ve learnt into their own words. Isn’t it better for kids to tell us things because they’re interested and excited rather than because it’s a required part of the process?

          Thinking skills… If we talk with our kids, have discussions about anything and everything, if we listen to each person in turn, valuing what everyone has to say, our kids will learn to think. So many kids are told what to think. But if we allow our children to have opinions, they will learn to think for themselves. They will modify their opinions with experience. If we think critically, they will learn to follow our example.

          The three stages of classical education… could allowing kids to learn in their own time and way take that into account?

          Habits… kids are capable of working hard and forming good habits. Unschooling isn’t as random and self-centred as it might appear. Because motivation comes from within a child rather than being imposed by a parent, any habits built up are more valuable and more likely to be retained.

          Learning virtues… our kids will learn right from wrong and become considerate and loving people if we are closely connected with them and provide them with our good example. We can surround our kids with stories of the people we’d like them to emulate which is good, but our behaviour will have the most influence on them.

          These are some random and half-formed thoughts. I need to do more thinking. And I’d have to do some research about the various homeschooling methods to make sure my thoughts are going in the right direction. Although we’ve tried a lot of homeschooling methods, I’ve forgotten a lot of the details of how they work!

  5. Charlotte Mason has always appealed to me. I think it’s because of the books (which I like to collect) and the subjects covered (Shakespeare, poetry, art, nature study…).
    I just love reading Shakespeare and looking at art from the past and reading the classics. The narration and copy work aspects of the method never really appealed to me and I didn’t use them often, so I kind of did my own pick and choose method.
    However, many of the ideas that appeal to me, are not ones that appeal to my boys. Instead of pushing my interests on them as I have in the past, I’m trying to follow my own interests and share things that I think they might enjoy by strewing. As you said, I think strewing is the answer to sharing truth, goodness, and beauty with our children. And I imagine that trying to force it on them would result in the exact opposite of what we are trying to accomplish.
    Our son wanted to try a Co-op this year and so he is in a one day a week Charlotte Mason one. He’s enjoying it so far but I told them that we are self directed learners and that we don’t make our children do things. Max asked me to remind him of things he needs to do. But he can stop going any time he wants. And I feel like I need to keep reading on my unschooling books and surrounding myself with support so that I don’t slip into my old mindset again!

    • Amber,

      I guess it’s natural that we want our kids to like the same things as us. Maybe strewing without any pressure and issuing casual invitations to join us when we’re involved with our interests will show our kids the possibilities. They might decide for themselves that they want to share our passions. Your kids could end up being huge Shakespeare fans even though they’re not interested at the moment!

      Oh yes, it’s easy to slip back into an old way of thinking. It’s not easy to do something different from the crowd, is it? Sometimes we’re drawn back to the structure of a method like Charlotte Mason. But we can support and encourage each other. More importantly, our kids thrive when we unschool. That’s enough to encourage us to do what they need and keep unschooling!

      • Yes it sure is Sue! Seeing them happy and thriving shows us we are heading in the right direction!

  6. I somehow missed this post back in August! Here I’ve been pestering you about this topic and you’ve already put your response in such a great blog post!

    Last week I made a list for the week, like a plan, but instead of having to check off certain things each day, my son looked at the whole thing and decided for himself which parts he’d do on which days. I see now that it’s sort of like a strewing list and then if I check off what got done I will have a record of it as well to keep.

    We’ll see how this works for us:)

    • Emily,

      Perhaps your son could also add things to the list. If you share a notebook (paper or digital), you could both add your ideas!

      It’s good to try different ways of doing things, isn’t it? See what works and what doesn’t and adjust things as you go. Sounds like last week’s strewing list went well!

  7. I loved this! I just started unschooling 4&6 months ago. I discovered CM 6 months ago, and loved it. However, the deschooling process has moved me towards unschooling although I have plenty ID doubts. I had a previous informal training in Montessori which I loved as well. But now, I’ve been like “take what’s good and leave what’s bad.”

    • Flor,

      I’m glad you enjoyed my Charlotte Mason post! Oh yes, this method of homeschooling is very attractive, isn’t it? I think a lot of people are torn between unschooling and Charlotte Mason. You are right: take what’s good for your family from all the available ideas.

      Your comment gave me an idea: I might gather together some of my posts on this topic and republish them.

      Thank you so much for stopping by!

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