Weekly reflection on Charlotte Mason Vol 1 Home Education, pages 11-20

What did you learn from your reading?

p. 17 "Despise: to have a low opinion of, to undervalue" - thus the dictionary; and, as a matter of fact, however much we may delight in them, we grown-up people have far too low an opinion of children."
I am ashamed to admit that I learn more and more every day how I have too low opinion of children as a function of my cultural training that I'd like to admit. That is not to say I think ill of children. On the contrary, I love children, mine most of all. However, I think that through pop culture, pop psychology, and mass marketing I have come to have too low opinion of their capabilities, desires, and innate moral character. I am beginning to distinguish  between approaching my child through who I"know" him to be through my daily experience of him and who I "think" him to be as determined by my expectations of a 4-year-old boy. When I default into interacting with the "idealized" 4-year old, it usually doesn't have good results. That is a tip off that I am not being mindful or present and my son can sense that automatically, usually acting out in some way to get me to notice him, to jog me back to being present. It is his way of saying, "Wake up mom and notice ME." That is "ME" as who he really is.

p. 20 "The mischief lies in that same foolish undervaluing of the children, in the notion that the child can have no spiritual life until it please his elders to kindle the flame."
    That a child could have an independent spiritual life from the start, one that originates and develops without the influence or consent of adults is profound to consider yet once considered, seems rather obvious. I recall having what I would now call mystical experiences as a small child. At that age I just accepted them as  "the norm" - everyday part of life - and had neither language with which to express them nor adults in whom to confide. Our real duties, as adults and parents, is to guide children in their spirituality, give them language with which to express their experiences, and candidly offer our own experiences to them. We guide them in our own faith traditions as lovingly and respectfully as we can, helping guard their experiences of divine love as best we can to fuel their growing faith.

"But trailing clouds of glory do we come / From God, who is our home..."

Reading a little Charlotte Mason this morning...

"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar;
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
 From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!"
 - Wordsworth

A Rainy Monday Morning with the Buddha

Upon D's request, this morning our preschool "lesson" is the Buddha. My husband recorded the award-winning PBS documentary, "The Buddha" a few months back. On Saturday night we began t watch it, but D fell asleep after 27 minutes. This morning, raw and rainy, I suggested that we stay inside and snuggle up on the couch. He asked if we could watch "The Buddha."

He has watched the anecdote of the Buddha having compassion for the ants of the farmers field at a farming festival. It is his "favorite part". He listened intently for the past hour, asking many questions and prompting me to read to him the subtitles as they arose on the screen. Suddenly he piped up, "Mom, The Buddha is a child of God!"

The beauty of a flexible homeschool schedule is that we can take breaks from planned lessons to follow Ds interests and inquiries. Quite frankly, every day I become more aware of how prejudiced my own ideas are regarding what a 4-year old can do, what one will be interested in and what one won't. D patiently and lovingly shows me how limited and limiting my beliefs are and I let him lead me into his beautiful unfolding. Many days I'm not sure who learned more and am thankful for the gift of grace.

The New Homeschool Year Is HERE!

Alas, summer is concluding and the fall is rolling in. Despite record-high heat this week there is no denying that the days are in deed getting shorter when I rise in the dark for my 5:30am runs and the air is bordering on crisp.

After taking the summer off to "do baby" full time and enjoy the heat at the lake as much as possible with both kids, I was admittedly more than a bit depressed for a few days last week upon returning from our end-of-the-summer vacation. The vacation I'd been looking forward to all summer had come to an end. I could feel the weight of responsibility looming and slowing descending, pressing the air out of the room. Adding to all the normal responsibilities of juggling life with an infant and a 4-year-old I now was to add homeschooling. "What had I been thinking?" i wondered as I viewed all the back-to-school photos of my friend's children on Facebook. I then read a wonderful article in Homeschool Enrichment Magazine that reconnected me to why our family has chosen to homeschool. We chose this path because of the rich family relationships we are building and the life we are creating for ourselves based on our values and along our own timetable. It was just the encouragement I needed.  I rallied and have gotten back on track planning for homeschooling this fall.

I'm continuing to read and research Charlotte Mason Homeschooling. In keeping with her theory on learning, I'm steering clear of academics in favor of creating a learning environment at home and focusing on character development, creative play, and the arts. The line-up for the fall looks like this. 

• Suzuki Violin Class - weekly class / daily practice
• Homeschool Co-op  - weekly
• Swim Lessons - weekly
• Kids Open Gym (indoor soccer, pilo polo, kickball) - 3x week
• Music Together Class - weekly
• Five In A Row Curriculum - Daily
• Religious Education - Spirit Play - weekly
• Nature Journaling - weekly  - Referencing Anna Botsford Comstock's Hanbook of Nature Study and Claire WAlker Leslie's Keeping A Nature Journal
• Outdoor Play / Walks - 2 to 3 hours daily
• Field Trips - Children's Museum, EcoTarium, Aquarium, etc... - monthly