It is more than anything else the home influences brought to bear upon the child that determine the character and career of the future man or woman. Charlotte Mason
This quote is one I found at Simply Charlotte Mason and boy did it speak to my heart. Simply Charlotte Mason is a site dedicated to helping you homeschool your children using the Charlotte Mason method and wonderful philosophy of education. Even if you aren’t a homeschooling family it's a great parenting resource!
This blog is about sewing but from time to time our homeschool life evolves and requires all of my spare time. Over the last year we moved twice, adopted our sweet girl, and gave up nap time. The side effect has been bad habits! We've come to rely on the television more and more and lost the love of learning in our home. It has weighed heavy on my heart for awhile and a friend reminded me yesterday that there is such a thing as life without television for our children and although the TV seems like the easier option it makes things worse. My first thoughts were "how will I get anything done" and then I remembered it's not about me! Today the TVs moved out and guess what? We survived. We actually did better than survive. We flourished!
Charlotte Mason believed that "Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life". The "atmosphere" is our home, the "discipline" is training our children in good habits, and "life" is offering our children living thoughts. God has blessed my family with a different life than most and although it is scary at times and I make mistakes I have to move forward with confidence and do the work that he has called me to do. I have been chosen by the King of Kings to teach and train these children (Deuteronomy 6:4-7).
Here's to living fearlessly!
Your post spoke incredibly to me! I also have been relying way too much on the TV to entertain my children while I started up sewing these last 5 months. I am a Christian, homeschooling mom of 3 (2 of which we adopted), so I feel a kinship with you. I actually came onto your site today to look up your tutorial about the scavenger bags (my plan to make so when we go on trail walks with other homeschooling moms). I do try to follow Simply Charlotte Mason and I NEED to get back to training up my children instead of serving my own selfish needs (sewing). :) Thanks for the encouragement and motivation.
ReplyDeleteHooray for you! We live without a TV and have for years. It's been great, but the internet is creeping and creeping into my day and I'm noticing bad habits in our home because of it. Thank you for the encouraging words to address them.
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