Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Atmosphere of Home Education

Charlotte Mason compared ideas to the mind as food is to the body. Our minds feed on ideas. She said, "Give your child a single valuable idea and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information." In this episode, I discuss some of the different ways that we get ideas and the powerful fruits that can grow from those ideas.

There is a certain aesthetic in Charlotte Mason homeschools these days. You've probably seen it. The girls only wear linen dresses, the children only have beautiful wooden toys, and everyone is always perfect and happy. Well, maybe we need a little taste of reality in these circles. It's good to strive for excellence, but it's also okay to not be perfect. It's okay to not have everything together all the time. Let's remember where our strength truly comes from and keep doing our best while accepting our faults with a little bit of humor.

How do we nurture goodness in our children in this fallen world? Surrounded by less than ideal influences in certain books, music, movies, videos, experiences, and peers, is there a special formula to help us navigate this world and cultivate goodness in our children? Amy Carmichael said, "A cup brimful of sweetness cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, no matter how suddenly jarred." Let's explore some different ways Charlotte Mason suggested for us to cultivate the goodness in ourselves and our children so that this world is a joy to be a part of. 

Researchers have found that when we read literary fiction, our brains actually simulate what the characters in the books are feeling. Our brain literally rewires itself to emulate that character. Charlotte Mason told us, "The characters in the books we know become our mentors or our warnings, our instructors always." What we take in in the form of literature becomes a part of us. We must carefully choose the characters our children spend time with in their books. Let me give you some tips on how to do this.

Charlotte Mason and I have a long history. Here is the story of how I came into homeschooling and how I became familiar with one of the best educators of all time.

In this episode, I tell some stories of people (fact and fiction) who have inspired me. Charlotte Mason said, "Mothers work wonders once they are convinced that wonders are demanded of them." Our children come to us with their own personalities and it's our job to notice and correct the bad behaviors and notice and encourage the good ones. It isn't always easy. But it's definitely worth it.

One of the main aspects of a Charlotte Mason education is the wide variety of subjects that the students learn. From art and hymn study all the way to citizenship and handicrafts, Miss Mason has a good argument for learning a huge variety of subjects. In this episode, I explore the reason behind teaching so many different subjects even when it isn't always easy. As Miss Mason said, “It is at our peril that we remain too long in any one field of thought.” 

Learning to read is hard work and takes years to master. Charlotte Mason describes the specific way to do reading lessons in her book Home Education on pages 199-222. In this episode, I explain the atmosphere behind the lessons. The books we use, the way we use our time with reading lessons, and our attitudes all contribute to the atmosphere of reading lessons. 

ADHD wasn't diagnosed very much until the mid 1900s. Charlotte Mason was at the end of her life around that time, so it is very likely she never heard of ADHD. But we all know that the habit of attention is dwindling in many children as well as adults because of our current way of life. Because of this, we can all benefit from some wonderful techniques that Miss Mason used in her school. She said "children have naturally great power of attention." And following her methods yields great results in people with or without ADHD.

Charlotte Mason said that education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life. In this episode, I explain what she meant by the atmosphere of education and what that can look like in a home.

Charlotte Mason never intended for the teacher or the mother-teacher to be the source of all knowledge. She said, "The characters in the books we know become our mentors or our warnings, our instructors always; but not if we let our minds behave as a sieve, through which the whole slips like water." In this episode, I talk about how books have taught my children more that I could have ever taught them alone.

When we talk about “the real world” we mean reality–things that are not fictional. People are often concerned that education does not prepare students for The Real World. Is a Charlotte Mason education better or worse at preparing scholars for their futures? Let's talk about it. 

Rewards are a natural part of God's plan for us. But if we use rewards in the wrong way, it can do a lot more harm than good. In this episode, I shine the light on some hard truths about our reward system and give some ideas on how we can move forward in the right direction. 

We have reached the end of Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles. What a beautiful journey this has been. In this special episode, we have a special musical number as well as a discussion about how we ask for God's help in our education and basically in our whole lives, for He is always there, willing to help us and we are so very grateful.

Charlotte Mason's 18th and 19th principles state "18: The way of reason: We teach children, too, not to 'lean (too confidently) to their own understanding'; because the function of reason is to give logical demonstration (a) of mathematical truth, (b) of an initial idea, accepted by the will. In the former case, reason is, practically, an infallible guide, but in the latter, it is not always a safe one; for, whether that idea be right or wrong, reason will confirm it by irrefragable proofs. 19. Therefore, children should be taught, as they become mature enough to understand such teaching, that the chief responsibility which rests on them as persons is the acceptance or rejection of ideas. To help them in this choice we give them principles of conduct, and a wide range of the knowledge fitted to them. These principles should save children from some of the loose thinking and heedless action which cause most of us to live at a lower level than we need."

Charlotte Mason's second principle is: Children are not born either good or bad, but with possibilities for good and evil. God has given our children the gift of choice and sometimes, they choose the right and sometimes, they don't. As parents, we can guide our children toward goodness by correcting or encouraging them depending on what they need at the time.

Charlotte Mason's first principle is: children are born persons. They are entrusted to us to protect and teach and lead in a manner that pleases their Heavenly Father. They deserve respect and individual attention and education because their souls are worth more than anything else in this world. In this episode, we discuss why it is so important to start with this simple, yet profound, truth.

With so much information available on the internet, it can be confusing to know what we're actually getting into with a Charlotte Mason education. I have read her volumes and hope to clarify in this episode how she actually intended for children to be educated. With things like living ideas, a wide and varied list of subjects --including short lessons that require full attention--narrating what is learned, time out in nature, realizing that all education is self education, and knowing that without God, no learning would happen at all.

Can all of Charlotte Mason's principles be the most  life-changing? Must I pick one? Then I pick this one. Learning how to strengthen our own will and then teaching our children how to strengthen their own wills can give us all a wonderful tool to have a happy life. And I think that's a pretty important thing. 

Charlotte Mason's 14th and 15th principles talk about why narration is important and how often we should repeat reading in lessons. (hint: it's never) In this episode, I talk about how narration really makes things stick in our minds and how true it is that our children can pay attention the first time if we don't teach them otherwise.

Charlotte Mason's 13th principle begins to explain what the curriculum should be for children. She starts with three points: The children should have much knowledge, a variety of knowledge, and the information should be presented through rich, literary language. 

Charlotte Mason’s 12th principle is, “Education is the Science of Relations”; that is, that a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books, for we know that our business is not to teach him all about anything, but to help him to make valid as many as may be of–’Those first-born affinities that fit our new existence to existing things.”

It took me a long time to understand this concept, but I finally got it and I am super excited to talk about this.

Charlotte Mason's principles 8 through 11 all talk about Education being a Life for our children. In this episode, we explain what this means and give some examples of how it looks to have a true living education.

Last episode, we learned about how we might misuse our authority over our children. In this episode, we get to start talking about the respectful and effective tools we can use to teach our children. Charlotte Mason broke it down into three tools of education: the atmosphere of environment, the discipline of habit, and the presentation of living ideas. I talked about the atmosphere of education in a previous episode that you can listen to here: 

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7k3HGr5kSOFVf14NNDW8wE?si=b9876ce58ee54b7e

So we will skip that for now and move onto habits. Why are they important and how do we intentionally form them?

Charlotte Mason's fourth principle adds onto the third. Yes, we have been given authority over our children, but we are not to misuse this authority. We are to act in kindness and respect the personhood of our children.  

Obedience can be an uncomfortable word for some people. I know it used to be a hard one for me. I wasn't sure if I should expect obedience from my children because I was unsure of my role as a mother. Charlotte Mason stated how we all need to be obedient, not just children, and that obedience leads to safety and a life of following Christ. In this episode, we discuss how the principles of obedience and authority make for a happy parent/child relationship.