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You might not know that I have a floor loom. It’s pretty big; takes up a whole bedroom just about. But weaving is one of my hobbies. When I started weaving, there was a lot to learn—not just about the weaving itself, but also about setting up the loom and measuring the yarn and getting the pattern right and all that is involved. It’s a lot, and unfortunately, I picked up a bad habit in my technique. Every time I passed the yarn through and got ready to beat it into position, I would stop and fiddle with the edge, the selvedge. After about a year, I was able to take some classes, and that’s when I realized that what I was doing was not the best; in fact, it was going to hinder me from developing a rhythm to my weaving. I needed to correct that bad habit. It’s hard to break habits, isn’t it? It would have been so much easier if I had started with the right technique from the very beginning.
Well, that’s what I want to help you do with homeschooling the Charlotte Mason way.
There’s a great advantage to starting off with the right mindset and techniques from the very beginning. Let me give you some advice.
We’ve been talking about making the transition to using Charlotte Mason methods in your homeschool. All of us come from different backgrounds, and those backgrounds influence our thinking. That’s only natural. In the next few posts, I’d like to walk through some of those background scenarios and offer you some ideas that might help you make the transition to Charlotte Mason a bit smoother.
Today, let’s talk about starting from scratch. Perhaps your children are just now at school age, so you’ll be starting them off with the Charlotte Mason method from the beginning. That’s great. May I offer you some friendly advice? Let’s go through three tendencies to watch for and three tips.
Tendency #1: feeling like you have to teach everything now
You might have the tendency to feel like you have to teach everything now. Please remember that your children’s brains can hold only so much at a time. Recently, I was watching some very helpful and instructional videos about gestalt language development. It was a topic that I wanted to learn about, and the instruction was very interesting and practical. But I could take in only so much before I needed to stop and process what I had learned. If I tried to keep going and “just finish this one,” my brain simply stopped registering what I was watching and hearing.
And it’s the same thing for your children. You can try and pour more and more and more stuff into those brains, but they’re going to need time to process. Remember that. Don’t think that you need to teach everything right now, this first year. A lot of the Charlotte Mason method is layer upon layer. You’re going to lay a nice smooth layer this year, and next year you’re going to build upon it, and the next year you’ll build upon that. Small, constant touches add up to something great.
tendency #2: growing discouraged when life happens
Those lessons your children learn by living with you in the everydayness of life are just as valuable as the formal lessons that you present.
Here’s a second tendency to watch for: Try not to grow discouraged when life happens. So many times when we start homeschooling, we have this perfect image in mind: “This is what my homeschool is going to look like.” Those are good ideals, and you should hold onto them, but at the same time you’ll need to learn how to flex with life. Maybe “life” looks like: your child isn’t catching on as quickly as you thought she would in a certain subject, so you need to adjust. That’s fine. Or maybe “life” looks like: you walk into the kitchen and find a big, cold puddle of water in front of your refrigerator. (Yep, I remember that day!) You have to deal with life as it happens. One key to being able to stay in home educating over the long haul is to learn flexibility. You’re going to need to flex with life as it happens. Homeschooling is a marathon, not a sprint. So take your time and do life with your children. Those lessons they learn by living with you in the everydayness of life are just as valuable as the formal lessons that you present.
tendency #3: panicking when the child isn’t having fun
Here’s one more tendency to watch for: Sometimes I have seen young homeschool parents, or new homeschool parents, start to panic if the child doesn’t think that what they are doing is fun. We want the child to enjoy homeschooling, of course; but “fun” is not the sole criteria nor the most important criteria for our lessons. We need to keep a good balance.
Of course, be careful that you don’t push or frustrate the child or require him to do something he cannot do. Teach the child. But also keep in mind that part of growing, at any age, is achieving things that look hard at first. You already helped your child achieve hard things when he was a preschooler or a toddler. Learning to walk is not always fun, but it’s something that you allowed him to experience and encouraged him to try, and he did it. That kind of achievement goes a long way toward helping a child to grow. So keep a good balance in mind. There is a place for fun, but not everything has to be fun. You can help your child grow immensely as a person if you gently support him and give him opportunities to achieve something that looked hard at first.
OK, those are the three tendencies to keep an eye out for. May I also offer you three tips to help you get your homeschooling started off in the right direction?
tip #1: Set up good habits now
Set up good habits now. Make it a priority in these first few years, especially. You’re going to want to help your child cultivate those good habits of paying full attention in the lessons and putting forth her best effort. To do that, make sure you start with short lessons and always emphasize quality over quantity. Maybe in her copywork, her handwriting, all she can do is write one word and do it well. That’s fine. Get that habit established: paying full attention and giving that one word her best effort. As that becomes more and more natural for the child, as she grasps that habit and it becomes second nature to write that word carefully and well, then you can nudge it out a little bit and move to two words. But always have quality in mind, rather than quantity.
Tip #2: ease into it
If the thought of diving into all of the Charlotte Mason subjects right away feels a bit overwhelming, remember that you can ease into it. We recently talked about how to ease into the Charlotte Mason approach in five stages. Feel free to review those posts. They will give you some ideas for easing your way into it, a little at a time.
tip #3: think long-term
I encourage you to look further than just this first year. Lay out a long-term plan: “I’m going to start here, and over the next few years, I’m going to teach this here and this here and this here.” That’s going to help you stay on track and not panic when you start talking to some of your other homeschool friends and they say, “Oh, haven’t you taught this yet?” or “Why aren’t you doing this?” or “I’m doing this; shouldn’t you be doing it too?”
If you have a long-term plan, you’ll know that you’re not teaching English grammar in first grade because Charlotte didn’t start it until fourth grade. But you know that when you get to fourth grade, you will teach it. Having that long-term plan in mind will help you remember why you’re doing what you’re doing and when. In other words, continue to educate yourself in the Charlotte Mason philosophy—the ideas behind why you’re doing what you’re doing. That’s going to help you stay the course. Keep reminding yourself of the Why. It will help a lot as you start on this wonderful journey of teaching your children with the Charlotte Mason approach.
By the way, if you have a preschooler or kindergartener, check out Our Preschool Life. It’s a great way to gently ease into the Charlotte Mason approach.
Next time, I want to give three tendencies and three tips for those who are coming out of a classroom setting and starting a Charlotte Mason home school. Whether you are pulling your students out of a classroom or coming from one yourself, next time is for you.
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This was really helpful, good, solid practical advice and encouragement from a seasoned Charlotte Mason Mom, to me–a newbie starting out with my oldest child just beginning Kindergarten this year! Thanks for the tips and thoughts!