- Here are some ideas for how you can use Charlotte Mason
in your home, even if you're not homeschooling.
(gentle music)
Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason Podcast.
I'm Sonya Shafer.
Perhaps you love Charlotte Mason's methods and philosophy,
and want to use them in your home with your children,
but you can't be homeschooling right now.
We've received some notes from people asking,
is there still a way they can use Charlotte's methods
in their home if they're not homeschooling?
Short answer, yes.
Let's talk about how.
And here to join me with that discussion is my friend
and coworker, Laura Pitney.
- Hi. - Laura,
good to have you back. - Thank you.
Glad to be here.
- Let's talk about the big picture first,
and then we'll get down to the nitty-gritty
ideas of implementing it,
but can a person use Charlotte Mason's philosophy
and methods if she's not homeschooling?
- Yes.
Yes, yes, yes.
I think that it's a beautiful thing
that Charlotte has taught us
that it's just a natural way that we love on our families,
and her methods can really be used
in so many different situations.
So don't be discouraged in any way
if you can't homeschool right now.
There's things that you can do to implement those lessons.
So what are we going to talk about first?
- Well, I think what we don't want
to encourage parents to do is
when the kids get home from regular school,
"Okay, now it's time to do Charlotte Mason lessons."
That's not what we have in mind.
- No, they would not like you, at all.
(chuckles)
- Well,
and their brains are tired. - Yeah.
- They've been working all day,
and it would just be overload for them.
And keep in mind, they probably have homework too.
So I love how you said it was just a natural part of life.
- Yeah. - That's
what we want to focus on.
Some of the natural things, let's start with those first,
and then we'll get into specific methods, all right?
I think of atmosphere, discipline, life.
Atmosphere of your home.
It should be almost an overflow of
the parent's own desire to keep learning
and growing for herself. - Yeah.
I agree with that 100%.
And I think that that natural desire
for the parent to learn and grow
kind of reaches over to the child
because the parent wants to know
what they're learning and growing.
And so, it becomes this natural ebb and flow of,
"Well, this was my day, and how was your day?"
And then the child can then tell back things that happened.
It's just that relationship of caring,
and then also putting into words
some life lessons that they learned,
or school lessons that they,
it's just this natural conversation that can happen
while you're washing dishes or in the car.
So just the atmosphere that your children know
that you want to know things that they're learning
and then the children genuinely care about you
and want to know about you.
And now that comes a little later,
because you know,
a lot of times kids don't really act like they care
about the parents at all. (chuckles)
But I have seen that in fruits of my children
as I've gotten older, where it is a give and take,
which is important life skill of any relationship.
So I feel like that's a natural component of
that atmosphere of your home is just,
there's a caring and a give and take of
whether it's knowledge or experiences.
And that to me is Charlotte Mason,
just because of the telling back
and the genuine concern and the heart issues,
I just feel like that's
definitely a component of the atmosphere.
- And the love of knowledge.
- Yeah. - For knowledge's own sake.
- Yeah. - You know,
we're not asking the child to tell us about it
because we're going to get to some kind of trophy
or a grade
or anything for ourselves. - Yeah.
- It's we want to keep learning,
- Mm-hmm. - As you said.
And I think that's a huge component,
if your child is in a situation
that puts a big emphasis on grades
to make your home a place
that puts an emphasis on knowledge.
- Yeah. - For knowledge's sake.
- Yeah, yeah.
- That's another part of the atmosphere.
Then discipline, good habits.
Can we work on good habits, even if we're not homeschooling?
- You better, you're in trouble if you don't.
Because you have you think about that,
if your children are away from you
a good portion of their day,
you can't necessarily always control
maybe the habits that are being promoted in that situation.
So you want it to be proactive
and still really try to focus on those habits
every opportunity you can
because otherwise, if you don't work on a habit,
then some habit's going to form.
- Probably not a good one.
- Right.
So, I mean, that's just,
I feel like just because you love your children,
you really want them to have good habits
despite maybe how much you're with them or not with them.
- Yeah, so they know.
- Yeah. - These are the boundaries
in our home. - Yeah, yes.
- This is. - Yeah.
- What our family culture is. - Yeah.
- And that's going to help form those habits in their lives
in a huge way.
- Yeah. - Huge way.
So that's atmosphere and discipline.
Now let's talk about some natural ways
that we can incorporate some CM methods.
- Mm-hmm. - Not in strict
formal lessons, but just in everyday life.
- Yeah.
- I've got several bubbling up in my head.
- Go ahead. - Okay, all right.
Picture study.
You can just put on display the picture,
choose one artist
just as we regularly would do picture study,
stick with the one artist for 12 weeks,
but each week we're going to display
a different picture of his or hers.
And then if you want to actually have a time to look at it,
hide and describe.
- Mm-hmm. - Look at it again,
the method of picture study, that takes five minutes.
You could do that at supper one night,
just as a whole family, if you wanted to.
- Right. - Music study,
again choose your composer
and just play that composer's music
in the car while you're driving places
or as background while you're eating supper.
And just naturally very informally
mention the composer's name when you put it on.
- Yeah.
- You don't have to do. - Yeah.
- The whole. read the biography, narrate the biography,
putting them in your book of centuries, all of that.
You can just get familiar with the composer
and the music. - Yeah, that's a great idea.
We're in the car a lot, so. (laughing)
- There you go, yeah.
Scripture memory.
You can do that again, it takes five minutes.
Do it at breakfast, do it at supper,
just make it a part of your family life.
- Yeah.
- As well as if you're doing family devotions
or family Bible studies, incorporate those,
it's just part of your family.
- Right.
And I think that there's some grace given
because in our minds or maybe this is just me,
I would love for every day to kind of be the same.
And I know I'm going to have that scripture time every day
or you know,
like the dinner together as a family every night.
And that just doesn't always happen for us.
I mean, we just have so many things that we're committed to,
whether it's church or sports or whatever.
And so there's grace
that I have learned to give myself that
I'm going to at least connect with my children
over their personal devotions on Sunday nights.
That's once a week.
And that's the time I know I can give them,
but if it happens other times during the week, great,
but I at least know,
I'm at least going to make sure that's my bookmark
where I do it on Sunday nights.
So I think that to be proactive
and plan is really important
to where you can stay connected with
these little touches of CM throughout your week.
If we don't have a plan,
not saying it doesn't ever happen,
but I just think that it'll set you up for success
as the parent that wants to implement the CM methods.
So having that plan,
I just feel like is a good place
to start to really implement that life portion
because so many circumstances just come up or change.
And so there's grace, but yet there's also some planning.
- Yeah,
some intentionality about it. (chuckles)
- Yeah. - Yes.
- Yeah.
- Because we say it should just be a natural thing,
but it's not just going to happen
if you don't plan for which artists are we going to study
and which picture am I going to put up?
And when am I going to put it up every week?
- Right, right. - So there is some planning,
that's a good point. - Yeah.
And just the knowledge behind what you would need to know
so that you can help it to naturally happen.
So I think about. - Yes.
- If you are unfamiliar with the word narration
and what that means,
with what that looks like practically
and how your children maybe would tell back to you,
it's going to be really hard
for you to naturally have narration happen
over washing dishes.
Do you know what I'm saying? - Yes.
- So it's like even just becoming familiar
with what methods you want in your home,
so that it's more natural than it being so scripted
to have to go through the motions of it
with. . . - Mm-hmm.
- I don't know if that makes sense.
- It does.
- I think that would help the mom too.
- If something feels uncomfortable to you
or it's unfamiliar to you,
it's very hard for it to come across naturally.
(laughing)
So. - Yes.
- Yeah,
so you do need to make sure
you feel comfortable. - Yeah.
- And confident with the method.
- Yeah. - In order to
make it occur naturally.
- Yeah. - In an everyday situation.
- Yeah. - Absolutely.
A couple of other ideas I thought of was
a family read-aloud.
- Oh yeah.
- And you can use an audio book
if you want to. - Yeah.
- Not all the time, I love reading aloud.
- Mm-hmm. - There's that
personal connection,
but there are ways to make sure you're sharing good
literature with your children.
- Yeah. - At bedtime.
I think I've mentioned before that one family
who the dad wanted to read the bedtime story
and they had all these kids
and so they would put them all to bed
and then the dad would pull up a chair in the hall
and open the door to all the rooms
(chuckles) and just
read from the hallway.
- Yeah. - So everybody could hear.
- Yeah. - Or you can snuggle
up on the couch or whatever.
However it works for your family
is a thing. - Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. And I think that's the key because I just feel like
sometimes the moms, or as a mom, I get discouraged
because there are all these things I want to do
or I want to make sure I'm doing right.
And so just to again, what works best for your family
and your situation and your schedule,
it's okay for it to be that way.
It doesn't have to be this glorious thing
that's just always working without any hiccups.
- Yeah, it's easy to get caught
in that trap of. - Yes.
- All or nothing. - Yes,
and that's totally where I land
and it's hard not to get discouraged,
but again, lots of grace.
(chuckles)
So plan and think about what works good in your family
and think about the specific CM methods
and things that you want to do.
Because if you don't try to figure it out ahead of time,
I just think you're going to be defeated before you start.
And that's not what you want,
especially when you feel like
this urge to want to implement CM
outside of their regular school lessons,
you really have to be proactive.
And I say that as an encouragement,
because it's a beautiful thing
when the things do start naturally happening.
- And there's nothing wrong. - It feels so good.
- With just doing
one at a time. - Yeah.
Yeah. - Okay, I'm going to,
I think I want to implement geography.
- Yeah. - So I'm going to put
a world map up on the wall near where we eat
and it's just going to be there
so that when we're talking about current events or when we,
if we happen to be reading a book together,
or if one of the children mentions
a place that they're studying in their lessons,
let's go find it.
But putting that map up there and knowing,
just keeping it in the back of my head,
anytime anybody mentions a country or a state,
we're going to go look for it.
- Yeah. - Just get that ball rolling,
and now maybe we will bring in.
- Mm-hmm. - We're going to go to
a park once a week. - Yeah.
- And not to play
on the playground first. - Right.
- But to walk in nature first,
or we're going to work in a garden,
in our garden. - Yeah.
- Or something like that for nature study.
So just one at a time. - Right.
- Until you get that plate spinning.
- I think that that's really important to understand
like taking a walk in a park with your children
for the purpose of enjoying nature
also gives quiet time for your children to think,
and to let those ideas cultivate
that they've heard during the week.
So even just having intentional downtime together,
I feel like is an important part of CM.
They need that time to let all these ideas
and those scriptures,
and even the ways they connected with their history lesson,
they need time to ponder that.
- Yeah. - And if your schedules
are so full
and every part of your day is always got something
that would be a simple way to add a CM time to your week
to where all those things
that you're pouring into your children
can maybe resonate with them.
Just, I mean, the Lord uses nature I think so freely.
- Absolutely. - And just that time of
whether it's walking in silence or studying mushrooms
or looking for acorns, whatever it is,
even just giving that time allotment,
I think is a value to implementing a CM time,
even if you don't homeschool.
I just think I've experienced that in my own life
and with my children, just that quiet time,
it's like the conversations that happen
or wherever they go in their mind connecting to these ideas,
maybe will come out with their words, maybe not,
or if they bring their sketchbooks,
it might come out in one of their drawings.
So as much as we want to invest in our children's education
and their habits and their time,
I have just found there's value in scheduling downtime too.
- Yes.
And that's a huge part of Charlotte's philosophy.
- Mm-hmm. - Overall.
- Yeah.
- And I think it comes down to that,
it's not just which of her methods can we plug in,
it is also her philosophy
of the whole atmosphere of your home, good habits,
discipline of good habits.
And then giving these life-giving ideas and opportunities,
whether that is a new idea or time
and margin to ponder. - Mm-hmm, yeah.
- The ideas you've already gotten.
All of that is so important.
- It's beautiful. - Yes.
A couple of other ideas.
- Yeah. - That come to mind.
- Okay.
I'm ready. - Keeping in mind margin.
Okay. - Yeah.
- Because this is going to sound like, go, go, go.
But this is just throwing out other ideas for some families.
There are things you can do on the weekends.
- Yeah.
- Depending on the weather and where you're living
and all that, but you can do history museums,
science museums, art museums,
you can go to Shakespeare plays,
you can go to live music concerts.
- Mm-hmm. - And if those
tie into the composer you've been listening to,
or the artist you've been studying,
that really makes it come alive to the child.
And it's not like you have to go
for the whole day either. - Yeah.
- Depending on the age of your child
and what else is going on,
maybe it's going to be just a short trip,
but who knows seeing that one Constable life-size picture
might just stick in that child's mind.
- Mm-hmm. - And enrich them
for their entire lives. - Yeah.
- So.
- It's a great idea. - Some other ideas.
- I feel like, that's a misconception I fall into as well,
is that school happens Monday through Friday,
you know and. - Hmm.
- Like the weekends, I'm free (laughing)
to do what I want to do or just run errands, get caught up,
but you know,
just because school's out doesn't mean school stops,
you know? - Yeah,
it's the love of knowledge. - Yeah.
Yeah. - We come back to that,
knowledge for its own sake.
- But I like it Monday through Friday,
because then I know I'm getting it in,
but take that to heart, there's a great idea.
- If we make that.
- Yeah. - A way of life.
- Yeah. - A lifestyle
of wanting to keep learning and growing no matter what,
we want to give that example to our children,
of ourselves wanting to keep learning and growing
as well as providing opportunities for them to do it.
I think all of that can happen.
- Yeah.
- Even if you're not homeschooling.
- Yeah. - Strict lessons.
- Agreed.
- Thanks.
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