Instead of investing loads of money on curriculum that you are going to loathe at the end of next year, why not invest in educating yourself first?
Then, after you have a good knowledge base of what education, and homeschooling, is, you will be able to make better curriculum decisions, and hopefully spend a lot less and enjoy it a lot more!
I recently shared this idea on Instagram and received a number of queries as to what books would be good for mothers to read.
Among these I would list Karen Andreala’s book, A Charlotte Mason Companion (affiliate link).
Today I would like to introduce this book to you, bring out a few quotes, and give you reasons you might want to purchase this book for yourself as some good summer reading before you buy next year’s curriculum.
This book is so packed full of wisdom. Not only is it practical, but it is full of beauty and will warm your heart as you read it.
Now, something I think it is important to note here is that teaching children, especially one’s own children, has a lot to do with what is commonly known as “instinct.”
It’s sort of like when your first baby is born, and, if you have not been ruined by listening to others advice, your own knowledge of how to do things kicks in. You hear the baby cry and you just know what to say or offer.
It is the same with teaching your own child how to do things like read and write, even his place in the world and how everything works.
Just think about the great mothers of the past, such as the mother of John and Charles Wesley. It’s truly amazing how she went about training and educating her children, but there were no self-help books back then, but she knew how to do it, and quite successfully. There are so many other examples over the generations of mankind.
So, why do we need books like this one at all?
Because we lack confidence. We are so afraid of doing it wrong that we become paralyzed.
But let me speak this to you very clearly:
You already have what it takes.
Now, that does not negate the fact that we are totally dependent on God, because, of course, He gave us everything we have, even our intellect and our instincts. So, to this end, He is the One doing it through us.
But it is still true, we are already well-equipped to do this gigantic job, but we have been conditioned to doubt our own abilities.
From infancy it has been ingrained in our minds that there are actual “child experts” out there who have studied the subject scientifically and have the entire thing figured out.
But they never have figured it all out, and they never will be able to.
Why? Because babies are human beings made in the image of God, and no one ever in history has been exactly the same and needed the exact same things.
Nevertheless, the natural, God-given abilities we have been blessed with to rear our children have been pushed and shoved into some dark closet in our minds by the oppression of those who need to be needed, whether by a teacher or official or some other authority.
What we all desire, and I am included in this, is someone who will take a flashlight and shine it into this dark closet. In doing so, we will be able once again to access all this wonderful stuff God has placed there for our use.
Karen Andreola’s book is one of these flashlights.
In her writing, based on Charlotte Mason’s original works, she brings our own instincts to the surface and gives us permission to obey them.
There are books which attempt to lay out an exacting program of how to go about things, but whenever I’ve used something like this I usually end up like a frazzled lump on the floor someplace with my children circling like sharks in a tank.
But if we read, or listen to, material that sets us free, we come away with knowledge that helps us live out a system that is more organic and enthuses us and our children. Instead of feeling burdened, we feel energized.
In the end, true education becomes part of our thinking and flows from us freely. We are not fitting into a system, the system is being created to fit us.
With that let’s look at the first chapters of this book:
1. What Drew Me to Charlotte Mason
This chapter is a good testimony that helps you understand the author’s perspective. It also explains how Charlotte Mason came to be enjoyed by homeschooling families. It was the Andreola’s who introduced Charlotte Mason back to us in the 90’s. I remember well trying to glean everything I could from Karen Andreola, usually via email groups and message boards. Karen’s work, as well as other prominent homeschool voices, helped set me free from the cage of conventional schooling so I could educate my children with love in freedom.
Quote:
Through Charlotte’s method, we need not do very much teaching. Children gain the ability to educate themselves. They do not depend upon notes they have taken from a teacher’s lecture–where most of the information has been pre-digested by the teacher. With Charlotte’s superior method of narration from books, the child, at age six or seven, comments on the carefully chosen words of an author in essay from, either oral or written. Too much explaining by the teacher can be a detriment to self-education, a concept that is addressed in a later chapter.
2. A Living God for a Living Education (by Karen’s husband)
This chapter goes into the spiritual side of what Charlotte Mason taught and helps explain a few of her stances that would otherwise be misunderstood (such as, each child is born “good”).
Quote:
[from Charlotte Mason] “such a recognition of the work of the Holy Spirit as the Educator of mankind, in things intellectual as well as in things moral and spiritual, gives us “new thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven,” a sense of harmony in our efforts and of acceptance of all that we are.” She taught that we, as educators of our children, must strive to work in co-operation with the Holy Spirit.
This is important to know because it allays any fears we may have had as to the Biblical nature of Charlotte’s ideas.
3. What is Education?
This chapter is just a few pages long, but it gives us some big ideas that can be easily memorized and applied. First of all, it articulates common sense Ideas we all hold inherently but often find hard to articulate.
She leaves us with this profound idea:
Be sure that your children each day have:
- Someone to love
- Something to do
- Something to think about.
4. Education is a Science of Relations
I love this chapter because it highlights the difference between conventional schooling at home and homeschooling.
I know this is confusing. There are so many programs popping up all over the place that promise to help you rear “successful” children, but what measure of success do they use? I’m afraid it is the same old, worn-out, wiped-out idea of a child who is molded into what some social engineers in a stuffy office need.
But homeschooling, true homeschooling, is different. When we take children out of public (or even most private) schooling, we should be bringing them home.Do we even know what that means? It means, instead of the cold brutality of a world of concrete and strangers, where knowledge is a commodity like steel and oil, we treat it like a warm, loving friend attached to all the other warm, loving relationships we encounter.
Karen highlights knowledge and skill as related to God, man, ourselves, and the universe. Here are a few poems she shares in this chapter I find interesting.
John Greenleaf Whittier
We search the world for truth. We cull
The Good, the true, the beautiful,
From Graven stone and written scroll,
And all old flower-fields of the soul;
And when seekers of the best,
We come back laden from our quest,
To find that all the sages said
Is in the Book our mothers read.
William Ross Wallace in 1865 poem, What Rules the World
They say a man is mighty,
He governs land and sea
He wields a might scepter
O’er lesser powers that be;
But a mightier power and stronger
Man from his throne has hurled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
This book is just one among many which would be helpful to mothers who are looking for authentic homeschooling with their children. In my next podcast I will be introducing some other titles that would also be of benefit.
Until then, there are a number of online resources you could check out with most of them linked on the Everything Charlotte Mason website.
I hope you have enjoyed this overview of an amazing book. I hope you snag a copy for yourself–it is still in print, and you can find used copies pretty easily. You may also enjoy Karen’s most recent book Mother Culture.
In future podcasts we could go over something like modern homeschool founders Ruth Beechick or Dr. Raymond Moore. Or maybe a question/answer podcast. What do you think? Let me know in the comments section.
Here is the video in which I share even more than what I have posted here:
