Educating The Homeschool Mother

Educating the homeschool mum or mother culture is one of the sustaining ideas of a Charlotte Mason education. She didn’t want children to just learn, she wanted those who educate to also be nourishing their own minds with good intellectual food.

I was reminded today how continuing to educate ourselves is still necessary as mothers who are home educating our children. Education isn’t just in the domain of academic institutions it is also available for those who wish to gain knowledge by seeking out their own material. And reading is the primary resource that so many of us have at our disposal.

Educating the Homeschool Mum Means Reading To Learn

If you are like me then you have lots of books that you want your children to read and to learn but what are you choosing for yourself?

When I first had children I read many parenting books about how to be a good mum. Then as I started homeschooling , I read many books about homeschooling, when I started a home business and I read how to do that. These days I read a lot about food.  I have taught myself so much through books. As I read I learn more and more and from it springs action and conviction to practically apply all that I learn.

What do you need to learn? What can you read?

Educating the Homeschool Mum Means Reading To Grow

Spiritual growth is a constant goal for my life and reading my Bible daily is my ideal but not one I always achieve however I press on.  I also find that adding a spiritual book to my reading times provides challenges to my thinking and this gives me the opportunity to consider my heart and prayerfully address issues.

Sally Clarkson recommended this daily devotion –Daily Light on The Daily Path – I love it! It starts with a key scripture and then has about two more paragraphs of other scriptures relating to the key scripture. All the scriptures used are listed at the bottom of each page. You can get a paperback one but if you can afford it get a leather-bound one and since it is such a keeper.

I’ve been given books that I’m not interested in and they are still sitting in my book case. When I get a book that I feel challenged to read then success if far more assured.

Do you feel a conviction to learn and grow more in another area? Is there a book that will help you find keys for that journey?

Reading With Your Kids

Many books exist for kids – many are rubbish – but there are gems out there. Find the good ones.

Read them to your kids and enjoy the journey with them.  Black Beauty, Little House on the Prairie, and Winnie the Pooh are some of the excellent books that I enjoyed reading with my children. Today with high schoolers the books are more advanced and still challenging for me as well as the kids.

I’ve spoken to many mothers who wished they were reading to their kids but they never do.  The key to reading to your kids is making it a habit and working it into your routine.

What are your reading habits with your kids?

Mother’s Are Born Persons Too!

Charlotte talks about children being ‘born persons’ and that we need to respect that individuality and provide our children with a rich feast in their education. Well let’s look at the flip-side of that…you are a born person as well. And you need to have stimulation and richness in your life as well.

Does this sound familiar?

“Is there not some need for “mother culture”? But how is the state of things to be altered? So many mothers say, “I simply have no time for myself!” “I never read a book!” Or else, “I don’t think it is right to think of myself!” They not only starve their minds, but they do it deliberately, and with a sense of self-sacrifice which seems to supply ample justification.”

Parent’s Review 1892 edited by Charlotte Mason.

I realised that one of the things that is helping me transition to an empty nest is mother culture.

So what is mother culture?

Karen Andreola has written a whole book on the topic but here is my summarised definition.

Mother culture for many homeschoolers has come to mean the continued education of the mother (especially through reading). And when you homeschool the Charlotte Mason way you discover that reading widely is one of the delights and the secret weapons of satisfying home education.

Charlotte Mason wrote,

“What nothing has, can nothing give”.

Formation of Character  p.122

That for me sums up the ideas behind developing a mother culture for yourself. If I have no stimulating ideas coming to me, then I have no stimulating ideas to give to my children. I become boring and bored. Today we might call it continued education. You are learning and teaching yourself new things. It is self-care of your own mind.

Let’s find the time to keep on learning for ourselves.

Building a mother culture.

Placing value on educating yourself and acceptance that this is worth doing is the first place to start when working out how to find the time to do these things.

Educating the homeschool mum is so important. Where can you find the time? How will more educated reading benefit you?