Advice from a 2-year-old

Last week, we were taking a hike through the woods not too far from our house and I was holding my 2 year old's hand. You have to somehow picture his little 2 year old voice as he said what I'm about to tell you. You also have to realize that I've not said this to him and I have no idea where he got it from. Out of the blue, in a very serious and matter-of-fact tone, he suddenly says, "We don't want to go on the road, Mama, cuz we might get hit by a car, and then we'd be dead on the road."

That is a very good point.

Why I’ve decided to Use Ambleside Online

Last week I talked a little bit about my love for a Charlotte Mason philosophy of education and how we intend to use her methodology in our home. If you haven’t yet, you should definitely read that post first.

As promised, I’m going to begin sharing a bit at a time about what we’re using in our home. We’re just starting on this journey, but I’ve put a lot of research and thoughtful planning into what we’re doing. This definitely is one of my hobbies and one of the things I enjoy most.

Last spring, after already spending way too much time planning out exactly what I was going to do for school this year, I discovered Ambleside Online. Actually, it’s a place I’d been before and I had always been a bit confused by it. This spring, it all clicked and I began realizing what a beautiful plan it is.

These women have worked incredibly hard to develop a curriculum which pretty closely follows the exact books they used in the Charlotte Mason (PNEU) schools. They’ve contextualized it to America (Charlotte Mason was British) and our modern day a bit (She lived 100 a century ago), but they do use some of those same books. In short, it’s a treasure trove for finding all of the classic books you should read with your children and when you should read them – which is exactly what I was looking for. They only choose books which achieve an incredibly high standard of literary quality. And they provide all of this information free of charge. It’s amazing.

Anyways, as I was saying I’d already developed my plans for school before discovering Ambleside Online. Initially, I just used it as a resource and incorporated a couple of their Year 1 books into my plans (not a recommended way to do things obviously – but I already had made my plans). As I learned more about Charlotte Mason and Classical Education, I understood more and more why they use the specific books they do in their Year 1 curriculum, and I - one at a time - incorporated pretty much all of them.

Visit here to see the books we’re using in our homeschool this year. Keep in mind as you’re browsing that we also add music, art, memory work, math, copywork, foreign language, and nature study to what you see here. And we’re done by lunchtime every day! How is this possible, you ask? Watch for my future posts.

Seriously, the number one reason we're using this curriculum is because these books are just. so. good. I'd encourage you to check some out at the library to see what I'm talking about.

Note: Because my daughter is an avid reader, I've been able to add some more American History biographies. We've also made use of 2 old fairy tale books I already had on my bookshelf from my great grandparents rather than buying new ones. I'll go into detail about all of that soon. Stay tuned for my thoughts on history and science as well.

Also, if you're wondering how to make use of that book list, there's a 36-week schedule available here.

I love you, Mama

Yesterday morning I woke up feeling awful. I'm so thankful to my husband who let me go back to bed after I nursed the baby. He got everyone breakfast before he had to leave. I was in and out of sleep for that hour and a half. In the midst of it, I heard my bedroom door open and footsteps crossing the room. I opened my eyes just a little bit to see my daughter. She bent over my face, stroked my cheek, kissed my forehead, and said, "I love you, Mama." Then, she turned around and left the room. She's such a good little mama. 

Some Thoughts on Education (OR Why a Charlotte Mason Education is Beautiful)

The main reason I started blogging again was on the encouragement from a couple of friends. These friends are fellow homeschooling moms and for some reason they love hearing about what I'm planning to use to educate my children. One day one of them said, "Lynette, you should just start a blog, then I could just go there and see everything."

Ahem. I already had a blog. I just wasn't utilizing it very well.

So my intention going forward is to gradually offer posts which will provide just that - an overview of what we're using.

But first things first. It's important before we get that far for you to understand where I'm coming from. If you start seeing the book lists and ideas of how we pursue education in this home, you might be a bit overwhelmed and confused if you don't understand how we're using these tools.

It would be so very convenient if I could somehow write a concise post of why we've chosen to homeschool our children and why we've chosen the educational philosophy we have, but there are so many facets to it all that I don't think it's quite possible to do it justice. This post will probably raise more questions than it will answer. But so be it. Hopefully, as I continue this blogging journey more things will continue to become clearer.

Over the last 6 years (I can mark it by how old my daughter is), I've had a complete paradigm shift in how I see education. I've been incredibly blessed by a number of talks from Andrew Kern - the founder and president of the Circe Institute. He defines education as "the cultivation of wisdom and virtue by nourishing the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty." He also goes on to say: "It should be distinguished from training (for a career), which is of eternal value but is not the same thing as education." If you'd like to see a deeper fleshing out of that definition, you can find that here.

He didn't create that definition - components of that have been around for a couple thousand years. But he says it well and it encapsulates what I mean when I say that we're pursuing classical education in our home.

Within that context, about a hundred years ago there lived a woman named Charlotte Mason. She was a British educator who was really passionate about seeing children receive a true education. She lived in a time when classical education had been stripped of most of its truth, goodness, and beauty and progressive educators were coming along with their pragmatic visions.

Charlotte Mason believed that children were persons who deserved better. She started a number of schools which followed her educational philosophy and was especially interested in reaching the poor with a "living" education.

A Charlotte Mason education is focused on giving children real books which are written in a literary style. They're not just books which tell stories. They're books which tell stories well. There is a high value for nature study, literature, poetry, art, and music as part of the heart and soul of giving children's minds beautiful ideas to feed on. She believed that children should be given a feast of living ideas to grow with. History and Science are taught with the best books available - written by writers who know how to use language well and are passionate about their subject matter.

I remember when I first encountered Charlotte Mason - long before I had a very good picture of how it all worked - I read that children in Charlotte Mason schools weren't limited by their reading or arithmetic abilities. Children who were learning how to read would spend a little time each day working on that skill - and then they would have someone read to them so they could still take in all of the wonderful literature and ideas which are out there waiting to be explored.

After listening to a reading, children narrate back what they've heard. Children in the younger years do this all orally. Their education doesn't have to wait for their fine motor skills to develop and their love of learning to die. They get to engage with living ideas right from the very beginning.

This was held in such contrast to the education I had seen and experienced. Children who struggle with reading in today's schools are held at greater and greater disadvantages as they miss out on so much simply because they're taking longer to develop those skills. That picture of a child still being given a joyful, living education was absolutely beautiful to me.

If you'd like to read a little more about Charlotte Mason and what this education looks like, here is a great starting point.

Soft Hearts

My daughter was having an especially challenging afternoon the other day. It became apparent that the constant fighting was mostly her being very difficult toward her brother. When I went to talk to her, she stared at me with a very hard look in her eyes. I asked her a few questions like, “Are you being loving and kind right now?” She said no. “Why are you acting like this?” She didn’t know. “Is your heart hard or soft?” She said it was hard.

At this point in the conversation, my 4 year old son noticed a piece of cotton stuffing lying on the floor next to him. He picked it up and rubbed it on his sister’s chest right where her heart would be saying, “To make your heart soft.”

Everybody burst out laughing and somehow it actually worked. Her heart was softer the rest of the day.

He's a Sly One

A couple of weeks ago, my husband called to say they hadn’t needed all of the pizza they’d ordered for the college students and I didn’t need to make supper! My children were happily eating pizza in the kitchen and I went to the living room to take care of something. 

Upon my return, I discovered my 4 year old son had placed 7 pieces of pizza on his plate! I said in a very calm voice, “What in the world do you think you’re doing, mister?” He looked at me very seriously and said, “I touched all of these, Mom.”

I’ve been chuckling about this for weeks. He cracks me up.

The Noblest of His Race - What does it mean to be truly brave?

Bravery.

Knights slaying dragons. Men slaying giants. Warriors lining up for battle.

In our world of affirmation and self-esteem building, we mostly talk about bravery as something we’re already capable of – not as a high goal to be achieved. I’ve often heard it said that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. I’m not doubting the truth of this expression, I’ve just started thinking about how we spend more time talking about the fear than we do the courage.

To be considered a coward was once more fearful to any virtuous man than facing certain death in the hands of a giant.

I keep thinking about how to teach my children to be brave – and to not be cowards.

I’m not even sure we would know how to appropriately label cowardly actions in our world, but if we did, I’m pretty sure we would just comfort with assurances that “even David was afraid of Goliath.” Because after all, if having courage involves also having fear than clearly that implies if you are fearful, you can at least identify with the courageous.



I’ve just started reading Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley.  Written in 1855, I already know from the opening pages that Kingsley is primarily interested in offering pictures of heroes to be admired for their courage. It should have been written as “an epic,” he says, to preserve “the same great message which the songs of Troy… spoke to the hearts of all true Greeks of old.”

He writes of Sir Richard Grenvile, “ the noblest of his race” who has no patience for “any taint of cowardice or falsehood.” That’s a calling for which all young men should aspire – to be “the noblest of his race.”

But what does that look like? How do we become noble? 

Amyas wants to be brave. He’s speaking to Sir Richard Grenvile himself when he says, 

“I should like to be a brave adventurer, like Mr. Oxenham.” 

“God grant you become a braver man than he! For as I think, to be bold against the enemy is common to the brutes; but the prerogative of a man is to be bold against himself.” 

“How sir?” 

“To conquer our own fancies, Amyas, and our own lusts, and our ambition, in the sacred name of duty; this is to be truly brave, and truly strong; for he who cannot rule himself, how can he rule his crew or his fortunes?”

Do you feel like you were smacked in the gut?

I do. (And if you don’t, maybe you should read it again more slowly.)

To conquer my own fancies… and my own lusts… and my own ambition…  in the sacred name of duty.



Courage includes fear to be sure, but it’s so much more than that. This is a high calling. Lord, teach me to be truly brave and truly strong.