Happy Wednesday to you all! It is ironic to me that we are on break from school over here at the Parsonage but this post is mostly about our homeschool. Oh well! These past few days have been a delightful mix of reading, resting, and catching up on small projects that I don’t have time for during the usual day. I made up a new batch of laundry soap, altered a dress for a friend, baked cupcakes, and organized too-small clothes for giveaway. It always feels great to knock things off my list. This means fewer things yelling at me for attention, and more mental space for the daily stuff.
I am a Charlotte Mason homeschooler. This means that our school is rich in the humanities. But these days, in our STEM-focused world many people don't know what that means. Subjects included in the humanities are history, literature, art, classical music, and languages. This doesn’t mean that math and science are neglected, by no means. Our course of study is rigorous and thorough.
I could go into all that we do in our homeschool, and I’m happy to speak to people about it. However, the focus of this Substack is to encourage moms to keep on being creative and to keep reading even in the busy times of life. So, if you want to know more about Charlotte Mason’s specific type of homeschooling I highly commend
or Charlotte Mason Poetry for all the nitty gritty details on how to apply her method of education.A Charlotte Mason mindset has one unique feature that I find very helpful to the creative mom. She emphasizes the health and intellect of the mom. In no other homeschool paradigm have I seen that. Her most famous quote along this line is:
“If mothers could learn to do for themselves what they do for their children when these are overdone, we should have happier households. Let the mother go out and play! If she would only have courage to let everything go when life becomes too tense, and just take a day, or half a day…without the children, life would go on far more happily for both children and parents.” (School Education, pg. 33)
She encourages mom to see their own needs alongside their kids as good and right. Charlotte Mason also had an education course that she encouraged moms who used her program to use as a continuing education course of sorts. This included reading her volumes on education but also included current books on nature study, science, psychology, and philosophy. She thought it was important for moms to keep up their education and to receive intellectual enrichment.
There is the analogy that in an emergency on a plane if the oxygen mask drops down, adults are instructed to put their masks on first before they attend to their children. Because if you have passed out from lack of oxygen then you are unable to help anyone. And that is how I see self-care in these busy years. We have to have our oxygen flowing to us so that we can maintain our outward focus on our kids. If we tell ourselves that we don’t have time to care for ourselves, then ultimately we are doing our children a disservice. When we neglect our health, both physically and mentally, we are not at our best for our kids. Also, we set a poor example for them to follow in their future adult lives. Unfortunately, they do what we do, not what we just say with our mouths. Let me encourage you momma to take a minute and assess your self-care practice. If it is non-existent or hit-or-miss, then take out your calendar and schedule yourself a morning or an afternoon where you can do something refreshing for yourself. Read a book, find something creative to do with your hands, or have coffee with a friend. Something you feel would be refreshing and not burdensome. The point is to recharge your batteries. I’m praying for you all this week!