The modern homeschool movement of the United States began in the 1970’s, and since then homeschooling has seen a dramatic increase, with the number of homeschooled children growing from an estimated 10,000 to over 3 million students today.  Homeschooling can be a rewarding and wonderful experience for both parents and children.  It allows parents to have a significant role in developing and preparing their children for the future.  A homeschool education provides an opportunity for schooling to be adapted for each child’s learning style and personal interests.  It offers the opportunity for parents to be creative in their teaching methods, and to provide memorable and enjoyable educational experiences that can develop a child’s love for learning into a child who is a self-motivated learner.

But well before the 1970’s a remarkable lady was already implementing practical and gratifying methods for homeschooling.  Over one hundred years ago Charlotte Mason (1842-1923) was advocating homeschooling. She believed that parents were their children's first teachers and that the home was a vital part of a child's education.  Her wisdom is timeless, and her works are worth reading and considering to be put in use today.

I’ve included excerpts from Charlotte Mason’s Volume 1: Home Education and bolded several sentences to catch the reader’s attention with the intent to later use this information to help explain the practical wisdom or “takeaways” I found within Charlotte’s writings.  Charlotte Mason was English and some of her vocabulary is not common in the U.S. today, so I’ve added definitions in parentheses directly following some words to provide immediate clarity of meaning.  If you would please, read the following story of a mother teaching her children as they enjoy the outdoors of the English countryside, and gather Charlotte’s valuable insight as an educator.

“By-and-by the others come back to their mother, and, while wits are fresh and eyes are keen, she sends them off on an exploring expedition--- Who can see the most, and tell the most, about yonder hillock (small hill or mound) or brook, hedge or copse (thicket, grove, or growth of small trees).  This is an exercise that delights children, and may be endlessly varied, carried on in the spirit of a game, and yet with the exactness and carefulness of a lesson.

“ ‘Find out all you can about that cottage at the foot of the hill; but do not pry about too much.’  Soon they are back, and there is a crowd of excited faces, and a hubbub (a busy, noisy situation) of tongues, and random observations are shot breathlessly into the mother’s ear. ‘There are beehives.’  ‘We saw a lot of bees going into one.’  ‘There is a long garden.’  ‘Yes, and there are sunflowers in it.’  ‘And hen-an-chicken daisies and pansies.’  ‘And there’s a great deal of a pretty blue flower with rough leaves, mother; what do you suppose it is?’  ‘Borage for the bees, most likely; they are very fond of it.’   ‘Oh, and there are apple and pear and plum trees on one side; there’s a little patch up the middle you know.’  ‘On which hand side are the fruit tree?’  ‘The right----no, the left, let me see, which is my thimble hand?  Yes, it is the right-hand side.’  ‘And there are potatoes and cabbages, and mint and things on the other side.’   ‘Where are the flowers, then?’  ‘Oh, they are just the borders, running down each side of the path.’  ‘But we have not told mother about the wonderful apple tree; I should think there are a million apples on it, all ripe and rosy!’  ‘A million, Fanny?’  ‘Well, a great many, mother; I don’t know how many.’  And so on, indefinitely; the mother getting by degrees a complete description of the cottage and its garden.

“This is all play to the children, but the mother is doing invaluable work; she is training their powers of observation and expression, increasing their vocabulary and their range of ideas by giving them the name and the uses of the object at the right moment,---when they ask, ‘What is it?’ and ‘What is it for?’ And she is training her children in truthful habits, by making them careful to see the fact and to state it exactly, without omission or exaggeration.  The child who describes, ‘A tall tree, going up into a point, with rather roundish leaves; not a pleasant tree for shade, because all the branches go up,’ deserves to learn the name of the tree, and anything her mother has to tell her about it.  But the little bungler (a person who does something in careless way), who fails to make it clear whether he is describing an elm or a beech, should get no encouragement; not a foot should his mother move to see his tree, no coaxing should draw her into talk about it, until, in despair, he goes off, and comes back with some more certain note----rough or smooth bark, rough or smooth leaves,--- then the mother considers, pronounces, and, full of glee, he carries her off to see for herself” (Vol. 1, pp. 45-47).

“Years hence, when the children are old enough to understand that science itself is in a sense sacred and demands some sacrifices, all the ‘common information’ they have been gathering until then, and the habits of observation they have acquired, will form a capital groundwork for a scientific education.  In the meantime, let them consider the lilies of the field and the fowls of the air” (Vol. 1, p. 63).

“And this is the process the child should continue for the first few years of his life.  Now is the storing time which should be spent in laying up images of things familiar.  By-and-by he will have to conceive of things he has never seen: how can he do it except by comparison with things he has seen and knows? By-and-by he will be called upon to reflect, understand, reason; what material will he have, unless he has a magazine of facts to go upon?   The child who has been made to observe how high in the heavens the sun is at noon on a summer’s day, how low at noon on a day in mid-winter, is able to conceive of the great heat of the tropics under a vertical sun, and to understand the climate of a place depends greatly upon the mean height the sun reaches above the horizon”  (Vol. 1, p. 66).

Takeaways and additional insight:

In Charlotte’s fictional story, a mother has engaged the natural curiosity of children through a “game of exploration” to teach them observation.  While enjoying themselves, the children were immersed in the natural environment, experiencing firsthand the tangible (what can be seen, touched, heard, and smelled).  Like a scientist gathering and recording information for research, the children were using their senses to make observations and then excitedly reporting back to their mother their findings, while at the same time sharpening their memorization and communication skills - without even realizing it.  If the children were lacking detail or making exaggerations in their descriptions, the mother skillfully asked questions to help them form a complete and accurate report that is praiseworthy.  As a result, the mother was imparting to her children valuable life-long skills, and a foundation of knowledge and memorable experiences that can support future learning opportunities.

As just mentioned above, the children were using their senses as they were learning, which today is commonly referred to as multi-sensory learning.  This type of learning is believed to enhance learning by activating multiple areas of the brain simultaneously, creating stronger neural connections and improving information retention through a richer and more complex experience, making it easier to recall information in the future; essentially, the more senses involved, the more pathways are created in the brain to access that information.  How we recall information for later use is another subject I look forward to sharing in the future.

A suggestion for everyday practical application:

My family and I have an after-dinner routine of sitting down and reading a chapter of the Bible together with an expository approach.  Directly afterward we have everyone take their turn in presenting something that they have learned that day in school, work, or any activity or experience.  Depending on the family member’s age or ability, a presentation may only take a minute, or it could take five minutes.

To help young children or anyone for that matter to have a comfortable start at presenting information, it helps to ask questions and let them answer.  Questions help the presenter to focus and gather their thoughts.  Questions are also used to gain more understanding if there is a lack of clarity in the presentation.  Everyone is encouraged to ask questions or add information that they’d like to share if it is relevant to the presentation topic. 

Regardless of how the presentation starts, I like it to develop into a conversation.  I enjoy conversation, and I enjoy learning, and I want to instill these qualities in my children.  It’s pleasant to see older participants chime in and say, “I remember learning that” and they begin recalling what they learned at an earlier age.  The knowledge that was stored in the brain is being recalled and what was learned is reinforced as they begin to think about it again.

Here are a few more positive outcomes from this routine:

• It’s a great way of sharing life.  We’re all included in some part of everyone’s day while at the same time encouraging each other by celebrating what we have learned.
• With a spectrum of ages involved, the atmosphere could be likened to a one-room schoolhouse where the younger participants are able to hear and learn from the older, more experienced person with more knowledge and a finer vocabulary.  There’s an opportunity for direct engagement in the conversation and for young children to learn by osmosis, by absorbing the information they are exposed to in the group setting.
• Communication, presentation, and vocabulary skills are intuitively enhanced.  Honing these skills for the future is invaluable.
• We’re teaching one another.  When we teach, we elevate our understanding of the subject. As children are teaching what they’ve learned, they are also reinforcing the retention of what they’ve learned.
• It’s an excellent way for dads to be part of their children’s homeschooling.  I realize there are some dads who come home mentally and/or physically exhausted from work and to be involved in their kid’s education could seem impossible.  I’ve been there.  But this is a great way for dads to be involved every day and to share in their children’s educational successes.  It’s especially important for fathers to be active in their children’s education.  It shows our children that they and their education are important to dad.  So much of our children’s time is spent in school and I believe fathers play an important role that only they can fulfill in motivating their children by showing sincere interest in their children’s schooling.  In the future, I also plan to share some enjoyable ways dads can directly take part in teaching their children.

References:

Excerpts taken from “Charlotte Mason’s Volume 1: Home Education” are surrounded by quotation marks and accompanied by volume & page numbers as printed in “Laying Down the Rails: A Charolotte Mason Habits Handbook”, 2007 by Sonya Shafer