The Atmosphere of Learning

Charlotte Mason is famous for “education is an atmosphere, a discipline and a life.”  I don’t think one has to be a “Charlotte Mason homeschooler” to see the truth in this statement.  If we want our children to learn and to love learning, it must be the culture of our home.  An atmosphere that is present beyond the curriculum.  Healthy curiosity in interesting things, meeting needs around us and persevering through hard seasons can be just as important as finishing the math assignment.

Healthy curiosity is one of the best ways to start learning things that are interesting to us. A lot of my homeschooling years, was learning alongside my kids’ curiosity.  Seeing my interest and help in researching encouraged them to keep learning.  Consequently, we raised chickens, even hatching some eggs in an incubator.  We learned how to butcher chickens by ourselves, and ventured into raising meat rabbits.  We learned how to participate in the local farmer’s market as some of my girls started baking and wanted to sell their goods.  I bartered time for one daughter to take sewing lessons.  We joined the local 4H group to learn shooting sports.  Anything they expressed a sincere interest in and was feasible to do, we gave it a go.  It led to some lively dinner table conversations.

Beyond curiosity, there are times of need.  When we adopted a daughter from Africa, I had no idea how to care for and style her hair.  The kids saw Mama learn her way through an absolute need.  We had a flat tire on the way home from the grocery store, and thankfully my son had already learned how to change a tire.  We locked ourselves out of the car and figured out how to get help. The garage roof needed new shingles and our roofing crew that year was our kids. We needed a new bedroom so we could take care of grandma – framing and drywalling became part of the lesson plan.  Needs present themselves all around us and when we are willing to learn new things to make our way through, it helps our kids see their ability to meet needs by learning something.

Of course, hard seasons will hit our lives, and the learning may not be so fun, but if we dig in and learn what we need to, our children can learn to do hard things and persevere.  When Grandma came to stay her health needs were significant.  With home health nurses the learning was extensive.  We learned about packing and cleaning wounds, healing and preventing pressure ulcers, changing out catheter bags, operating a Hoyer and living with dementia. We persevered through the work and were able to spend Grandma’s last days with her.My kids are all grown now, and I have watched them navigate their adult lives with curiosity that bubbles over.  I have seen them confidently meet needs that have arisen and even persevere through some hard seasons.  The atmosphere of learning in our home went way beyond the math pages and was one of the most important parts of our lives