The Three Aspects of Education

December continues to march along quietly, and we’ve had two weeks of low-key cozy-schooling already. We’ve sung songs, wrapped presents, made cookies, and read a whole ton of picture books. We’ve done a little math review, practiced piano, and worked on creating a history timeline to review what we’ve read since September. The boys have drawn large murals of rocket ships and semi trucks and yesterday spent a full hour creating a spider web out of masking tape. I don’t know why they chose that but I won’t argue with something that keeps them busy and creative together.

Christmas always seems to come up remarkably quickly (though my impatient children would disagree). Side note: I wrapped their presents too early. They’ve been shaken and pinched and prodded and thrown since precisely December 1st and I am not optimistic that they will survive until the 25th without damage or “accidental” unwrapping.

I am also taking advantage of these slower weeks of homeschooling to spend some time thinking about the school year thus far and reading and evaluating where we need changes for 2021. I’ve realized that this blog is valuable for me as a record to look back on, so I will not apologize for taking space here to note some of our struggles and successes this year.

I am currently rereading When Children Love to Learn by Elaine Cooper, which is about the application of the Charlotte Mason educational philosophy, and it gave me the idea of evaluating our homeschool based on the three aspects of education she believed in: “Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.”

In 2020, how effective was our homeschool atmosphere? Was our homeschool disciplined (that is, were both teacher and students actively forming habits of diligence)? Did our education involve real life and living ideas?

Atmosphere

It’s hard for me to objectively measure this one, and I sometimes wonder what an outsider would see or think – perhaps with a clearer vision! – but I feel that our home atmosphere is generally good. Of course, it varies daily depending on my own mood or stress level – and let me tell you, Patient and Caring Mother does not make an appearance without God’s divine help and power! – but most days we do not have a rushed schedule, we enjoy each other, there’s a lot of laughter in between the squabbles, and the kids are creative and busy. We’ve got many, many good books lying around and plenty of open-ended toys and art supplies to encourage creative play. In the past I’ve never liked or been great at consistent cleaning (and yes, our home appearance is definitely part of the Educational Atmosphere), but I am trying to get better at keeping our house clean and orderly. And yes, it is a losing battle, rather like shoveling your driveway during a blizzard. However – I feel much more relaxed when we can begin a day of school with a clean house, and I imagine our children might feel this also. Calmer atmosphere, calmer life! Clean House certainly doesn’t happen every day, but when it does it’s rewarding enough to inspire me to keep trying.

Discipline

This is the area where I find myself most convicted of the need for improvement. Too often I find myself making decisions based on what is easiest, or quickest, which at times can be helpful but at other times is just a display of laziness. My children will not develop consistent habits of diligence, orderliness, attention, etc unless I first learn and model them myself. In the future I hope to consistently work with our boys on developing some needed habits, some related to school specifically and others more general life skills.

Life

A great thing about homeschooling – your kids are with you all the time and can share in so many aspects of daily life! A downside to homeschooling – your kids are with you ALL. THE. TIME. and can share in so many aspects of daily life!

Nah, it’s mostly good, and I’m trying to be more intentional about letting them DO and HELP and be a part of what is happening. They want to help cook dinner, and watch Dad put the snow tires on the van, and hang Christmas decorations, and wrap the presents. They want to know what price tags at the store mean, and what we go to the bank for, and why some houses have two sets of numbers on them, and why we put in a cup of sugar but only a teaspoon of salt. Kids are so eager to know about real life and to participate in it! All it takes is a little extra time on our part and a willingness to slow down and say YES.

Finally, I’ve noticed two persistent thoughts during the past few months which are both untrue and damaging to our parenting and homeschooling. Maybe you’ve had these thoughts too! One is that “It is OUR responsibility to raise our children the right way and teach them all they need to know.”

Well, yes, and no. We most definitely have a responsibility there – but we can’t do it, and it’s not fair for us to carry the entirety of that burden.

My husband and I don’t know it all, we can’t teach them all, we can’t be everything that they need, we can’t raise them to be loving and honest and strong people. But God can! I was struck recently with the realization that I was worried about our children because the burden was MINE and it was MY fault if they failed in any way. It’s so relieving to be reminded that God is sovereign, He is working in our children’s hearts, and He will take our imperfect, flawed parenting and use it for His glory.

The second thought is simply that “We need to do more.” And I’m pretty certain that EVERY homeschooler feels this way quite often and that’s why the homeschool curriculum publishing business is so profitable. I love reading books about teaching and parenting and education, and I’ve read a whole lot of them this year and learned so much, but when I start to get that panicky feeling of “Oh no, we’re not doing nature journaling like we should, and Big Brother really needs to narrate better, and they haven’t memorized 300 facts of history like the classical method recommends and maybe we need to learn Latin and WHY AREN’T WE READING SHAKESPEARE YET!!”… then I know it’s time to put the books down. We can’t do it all, but we can do many good things – and we are.

Well, I thank you for listening to my end-of-the-year ramblings, and I sincerely hope that your Christmas is a time of peace and joy and remembrance of God’s many blessings.

I’ll be back in 2021!

Originally written December 15 2020