Home Education in Our Family 2

What is Education?
Someone asked me once, "Where do you do your schooling?" I answered, "We are constantly learning and the world is our classroom!"  He was slightly taken back, but then impressed with a thought from outside the square.

It is true a child needs to be taught enough skills - or academics - to be able to obtain a reasonable job when they are grown, but there is so much more to education.  From the earliest of ages I have told my children that God intended them for a special purpose.  It is, therefore, our duty to become the best of all He has made us.

I see a need for a balance between having some experience of various subject matter in order to discover new passions and try something new, and having time to freely pursue those passions more deeply.

Charlotte advocated three things in educating children.

1. Something to Love  That's not too hard around here!  Parents, siblings, animals in the form of long term pets (cats, rabbits, goldfish, chickens) and short term pets (tadpoles/frogs, worms, snails, praying mantis, wetas, injured birds...)!  And at times service to others.
2. Something to Do  Usually when the children say they are bored I find it may be because it has been a while since spent time with them.  Most times, however, they are engaged in some creative outlet such as sewing, knitting, cooking, making knives, working with leather, gardening, curing animal skins, building huts, taking photos and still frame movies, drawing and art, and of course the Story-games (which I will post on... I promise!)
3.  Something to Think About  in the book, The Charlotte Mason Companion (which is so far too good to put down!), Karen Andreola says "It is enjoying other peoples' ideas and thoughts and jokes... noticing beauty in music and pictures... enjoying country sights and sounds, birds and flowers.  Children's horizons of thought need to be wider than their workbooks."  I am often pointing things out as we drive along, or at home as we see or hear sights, sounds or ideas to enjoy or ponder. It is very true that when we give their minds things to think about, it spills out like a cup running over into their leisure activities and , hopefully will be a habit they carry into adulthood.  Good books are such a great resource for ideas to think about, especially books about those great people who have gone before us.

So, education is more than just learning stuff, it is using the stuff you learn to extend and fill out your passions in the context of discovering and fulfilling your God-given purpose.  A lifestyle for all, rather than an affair for teachers.