Thinking Love

The season two opener of the Thinking Love podcast circles back around to the first Charlotte Mason quote that we used in our very first episode: "The mother is qualified."

Homeschool moms often receive this question like nails on a chalkboard; How are you qualified to homeschool if you don't have a teaching degree?

But Charlotte Mason says that we ARE qualified. Even if a university hasn't qualified us, God has.

Having a teaching degree is not necessary for homeschooling. But our journey doesn't end with a qualification - Charlotte Mason sets out the duty we have before us to prioritize our own education.

In our final episode before summer break, Amy and Leah discuss how getting our little ones outside builds a foundation for their future education. We talked about a guiding principle for time outdoors, and how we handle less-than-ideal circumstances.

In this episode, Leah and Amy discuss the Charlotte Mason idea of masterly inactivity, and how we navigate this "letting alone" in a helicopter-parent world.

Many people come to Charlotte Mason's philosophy because they are book enthusiasts. And, after following her wisdom for awhile, non-enthusiasts are quickly swayed. Charlotte Mason used the term living books to describe books filled with life-giving ideas that feed the mind. In this episode, Amy and Leah discuss living books, how to recognize them, and how to choose them.

Amy and Leah discuss Charlotte Mason habit training, combined with modern habits research.

Children will form habits, whether they are good or bad. Instead of just allowing them to develop habits on their own, we can help them develop good habits. It's important to cultivate those habits starting in infancy.

While this isn't a complete list, some of the habits we can work on include:

• habits of a spiritual life
• social habits
• mental habits- i.e attention
• prompt obedience
• habits of order and neatness

What are the areas where we as parents make active choices to structure our kids' time? Having a plan for the early years is important. While young kids don't need strict schedules, having a daily rhythm is helpful for many children and their families. We want our children to build relationships: with the natural world, with their family, with the community they live in. Fortunately, Charlotte Mason gives us lots of suggestions for what to incorporate into those rhythms in order to prioritize our children's opportunities to make meaningful connections.

In this episode, we discuss many of Charlotte Mason's ideas. We do move quickly because there is much to cover! Be sure to listen for comments on outdoor play, reading together, foreign language, singing, and handicrafts.

Charlotte Mason believed that young children didn't need formal lessons - that academic study could wait until the age of 6. As it turns out, a lot of modern research agrees! If you want to understand why it's great to wait, be sure to tune in.

While we often think about providing our children with a Charlotte Mason education, the philosophy can also inform how we view and raise our infants. After all, children are born persons.

What does it mean to utilize a thinking love in home education? How do we accept and reject ideas to create a homeschool that is truly led by the Holy Spirit and unique to our family's needs? This and so much more in the first episode of Thinking Love.

A new podcast just for Charlotte Mason homeschoolers. Meet your hosts, Leah and Amy, as they share their background and their hearts for home educating the Charlotte Mason way.