Category Encouragement

Thoughts, quotes, and ideas to refresh and encourage you as a parent and homeschool teacher.

child by fence

A Chance to Be a Person

A couple of weeks ago, for no compelling reason, I pulled off the shelf a historical fiction book that I first enjoyed about 25 years ago. I figured its 1400 pages would again give me many happy moments over the…

Homeschool boy and mom

Simple and Effective

Sometimes we make things harder than they need to be. Take writing this blog, for instance. I started the process several times this morning, deliberating, pondering, debating over how best to communicate what I’ve been thinking and feeling. I must…

A Growing Time

While You’re Waiting

A few weeks ago as we backed the truck out of the driveway, I was delighted to see the first blossom on the Carolina Jessamine vine that grows around our mailbox on the curb. I had noticed several buds a…

A Growing Time

A Displaced Plant

Spring. A time of growth. The budding leaves and blooming phlox around my house are beautiful reminders of the truth that children learn in order to grow. Charlotte Mason believed that. Children learn in order to grow, not just to…

Why I Love CM

Seventeen years ago, when I first heard a description of the Charlotte Mason Method, my heart resonated with that brief snippet. If you had asked me then why I was drawn to CM above all the other approaches to homeschooling,…

State But Don’t Attack

Most of us have chosen a “different” path in life. We homeschool. And even more than that, we don’t use a traditional method of homeschooling. We use Charlotte Mason’s approach. Those choices can be unsettling to onlookers. And if that’s…

Persons Matter More Than Things

I’ve been reading The Lord of the Rings lately, and one striking illustration has leapt off the pages again and again: whenever the enemy inflicts a wound, a deep sting is embedded that stays and debilitates even after the flesh…

A Growing Time

Nourish the Plant: A Growing Time, Part 4

Spring has certainly arrived here in Georgia! All around I see people outside doing yard work (and sneezing from the pollen)—breaking up the soil, pulling weeds, and cultivating their trees and gardens. Such a great reminder of what we’ve been…

A Growing Time

Pull the Weeds: A Growing Time, Part 3

In front of our house is a little perennial garden. I often tell people how much I love perennials because “you just plant them and forget them.” But that’s not quite true. Every morning as we return from walking the…