Home Education in Our Family 3

The Diet of Ideas: Food For The Mind

"Masterly Inactivity" gives a child space to independently explore, ruminate, and reflect in his educational life.  
(Quoted from The Charlotte Mason Companion on Self Education)


As I mentioned in a previous post, I so very much enjoy watching the process of thought in my children.  I sow an idea (read or provide good books to my children), provide an optimum growing environment (narration, discussion) and step back to see how the idea takes hold.

The best ideas come from the best minds.  We can access these in books.  Sadly my reading diet as an older child was "junky", but thankfully I am able to draw on the wisdom of others and browse the many titles listed in home educating curriculum, to source great books for my children.  In doing this I have learned what to look for in a book, and have found a number more, worthy of a read.

Charlotte Mason's method of reading good books and narration, spark the curiosity of the mind and steep therein, which naturally leads to self education.  I witness this often with my children, and will share with you this example.
Moss recently read the book My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George.  Chapter by chapter his mind was feed by ideas which he mulled over and discussed with me.  By the end of the book he had decided upon a number of activities to accomplish.  If I had "set" him a range of tasks this child would have resisted, not enjoyed reading the book and not have leaned very much of anything.  However, using the method Charlotte advocated he happily read the book, enjoyed narrating to me the books progress, and set his own learning goals driven on by internal motivation rather than external pressure.
Some of the things he achieved were:

• built a tin can camping oven and cooked pancakes on it
• built a mini wire brazier and used it
• roasted chestnuts in his dad's brazier
• shot a possum and a rabbit and cured their skins using a method he researched
• made knives using recycled materials
• went eel fishing and researched how to cook them

The above list in not complete, and is still on-going as he continues to read to find new ideas and mull over the old ones.  His self education is ever ticking along!

And of course our girls also have stories of their own, which I may share sometime.