Never quite confident about my educational choices and style, I'm prone to re-evaluating on a somewhat regular basis. Seems the more children I have, the more insecure I become in my abilities to "get the job done", the greater the temptation to yield to a security net, the less creative I am, and the more I rely on just doing "the next page". The result? We're moving through pages, but not necessarily making progress. The atmosphere of our home has become production oriented instead of relationship focused. In Karen Andreola's book, "A Charlotte Mason Companion", she discusses the importance of the atmosphere we provide in our home and how that atmosphere influences and inspires our children whether we feel confident about it or not. From Charlotte Mason herself:
"...Every look of gentleness and tone of reverence, every word of kindness and act of help, passes into the thought-environment, the very atmosphere the child breathes..." p.51
For me, enough conviction for one night! Over the next few days I'll be sharing some important elements in the home atmosphere that Karen mentions in her book.
2 comments:
Wow. Thanks for sharing that, Mrs. Regan. I've heard a lot about Charlotte Mason, but never actually read her book, so your post was a good introduction; that quote was powerful.
Anyways, thanks again, and hope you all are having a great trip! We miss your family at church. God bless you all.
I am such a task-oriented person that all too often I fall into the cycle of focusing on production rather than the little souls who are far more important.
Thank you for this timely and honest post. I needed the conviction and prompting tonight... with God's help I'll start fresh with a renewed focus.
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