Last episode, we learned about how we might misuse our authority over our children. In this episode, we get to start talking about the respectful and effective tools we can use to teach our children. Charlotte Mason broke it down into three tools of education: the atmosphere of environment, the discipline of habit, and the presentation of living ideas. I talked about the atmosphere of education in a previous episode that you can listen to here:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7k3HGr5kSOFVf14NNDW8wE?si=b9876ce58ee54b7e

So we will skip that for now and move onto habits. Why are they important and how do we intentionally form them?

Charlotte Mason's fourth principle adds onto the third. Yes, we have been given authority over our children, but we are not to misuse this authority. We are to act in kindness and respect the personhood of our children.

Obedience can be an uncomfortable word for some people. I know it used to be a hard one for me. I wasn't sure if I should expect obedience from my children because I was unsure of my role as a mother. Charlotte Mason stated how we all need to be obedient, not just children, and that obedience leads to safety and a life of following Christ. In this episode, we discuss how the principles of obedience and authority make for a happy parent/child relationship.

Charlotte Mason's second principle is: Children are not born either good or bad, but with possibilities for good and evil. God has given our children the gift of choice and sometimes, they choose the right and sometimes, they don't. As parents, we can guide our children toward goodness by correcting or encouraging them depending on what they need at the time.

Charlotte Mason's first principle is: children are born persons. They are entrusted to us to protect and teach and lead in a manner that pleases their Heavenly Father. They deserve respect and individual attention and education because their souls are worth more than anything else in this world. In this episode, we discuss why it is so important to start with this simple, yet profound, truth.

With so much information available on the internet, it can be confusing to know what we're actually getting into with a Charlotte Mason education. I have read her volumes and hope to clarify in this episode how she actually intended for children to be educated. With things like living ideas, a wide and varied list of subjects --including short lessons that require full attention--narrating what is learned, time out in nature, realizing that all education is self education, and knowing that without God, no learning would happen at all.

Charlotte Mason compared ideas to the mind as food is to the body. Our minds feed on ideas. She said, "Give your child a single valuable idea and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information." In this episode, I discuss some of the different ways that we get ideas and the powerful fruits that can grow from those ideas.

There is a certain aesthetic in Charlotte Mason homeschools these days. You've probably seen it. The girls only wear linen dresses, the children only have beautiful wooden toys, and everyone is always perfect and happy. Well, maybe we need a little taste of reality in these circles. It's good to strive for excellence, but it's also okay to not be perfect. It's okay to not have everything together all the time. Let's remember where our strength truly comes from and keep doing our best while accepting our faults with a little bit of humor.