However Imperfectly

Have you ever wondered how to help your child truly love learning? In our latest podcast episode and Substack article, we dive into Charlotte Mason’s Principle #12: Education is a Science of Relations.

Children are born with a natural desire to connect—with ideas, history, nature, art, and even the materials they use in their hands. Our role as parents and educators is not to force information upon them but to introduce them to a vast world of meaningful relationships. Whether it’s through books, tangible experiences, or friendships, a full and flourishing life comes from these rich connections.

In this episode, we explore:

• How to cultivate a love for learning through real, living ideas.

• Practical ways to encourage deep engagement with knowledge.

• How to guide teenagers toward meaningful pursuits.

• The role of parents in fostering a broad and full education.

Get the show notes and reflection questions here: https://open.substack.com/pub/howeverimperfectly/p/principle-12-education-is-about-relationships?r=37a62&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

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“But we, believing that the normal child has powers of mind which fit him to deal with all knowledge proper to him, give him a full and generous curriculum; taking care only that all knowledge offered him is vital, that is, that facts are not presented without their informing ideas.”

Read the article and get the reflection questions over on ⁠Substack ⁠⁠.

This episode is sponsored by Nature Study Hacking. Head over to ⁠⁠NatureStudyHacking.com ⁠⁠to learn more.

“Such a doctrine as e.g. the Herbartian, that the mind is a receptacle, lays the stress of education (the preparation of knowledge in enticing morsels duly ordered) upon the teacher. Children taught on this principle are in danger of receiving much teaching with little knowledge; and the teacher’s axiom is, ‘what a child learns matters less than how he learns it.”

This episode is sponsored by Nature Study Hacking. Head over to ⁠NatureStudyHacking.com ⁠to learn more.

Feeding the mind as we do the body is the role of education. Read the article and get the reflection questions over on Substack .

This episode is sponsored by Nature Study Hacking. Head over to NatureStudyHacking.com to learn more.

“Education is a life. That life is sustained on ideas. Ideas are of spiritual origin, and God has made us so that we get them chiefly as we convey them to one another, whether by word of mouth, written page, Scripture word, musical symphony; but we must sustain a child's inner life with ideas as we sustain his body with food.”

This episode is sponsored by Nature Study Hacking guides. Learn how to get outside and use a nature journal. Head over to https://naturestudyhacking.com/

Read the Reflection Questions that go with this episode on Substack.

This fourth principle builds upon the third which reminds us that we have authority over our children, and they have a duty to be teachable. 

⁠Read on Substack and go through the reflection questions⁠⁠

Sometimes I’m on ⁠⁠Instagram here.⁠

In God’s wisdom He places children in… not daycare facilities, nor schools… He places them in families - the foundation of human society and the bedrock of human flourishing. The home is the best growing place for a child. It is here children learn good manners, right and wrong, and how to restrain the urge to wallop one’s brother. Parents are in charge. We didn’t come up with this. We know we are vastly under qualified to teach our children about the Righteousness of God, but someone must teach them and so the honor and duty falls on us. Because it is right. 

Read on Substack and go through the reflection questions⁠

Sometimes I’m on ⁠Instagram here.⁠