Weekly Wrap-Up: Encourage, Guide, and Direct

"What the student needs from his teachers is moral and mental discipline, encouragement, and direction. "

Charlotte Mason, volume 3, page 170

This quote is going in my planning binder. It should be at the top of every page in my planner. It should roll off my tongue whenever I tell people what homeschooling is about. It should be the focus of my life as a parent.

Isn't homeschooling just an extension of our role as a parent? Who knows our children better then we do or has as much interest and influence? Really it is a privilege to be the moral and mental guide, the encourager, the direction-giver. Charlotte Mason could explain the role of a good teacher, understanding it was more than handing a child a text and hoping that they could pass a test at the end. She wrote, "When I say that life should be full of living, I mean that we should be in touch and able to relate with some genuine interest no matter where we are, what we hear, or what we see. This kind of interest isn't something we give to children."

I have seen how this sort of living of life, done in our home, has led to children who are eager and excited about learning. When you take the boring textbooks and worksheets and fear of multiple choice exams out of the environment, filling the home with interesting books with living ideas and having face to face discussions, there is an eagerness to learn. There are no boundaries. They don't have to wait until next year to learn about geometry because we are too busy trudging through the algebra book. We have room in our day to answer questions to satisfaction, even to encourage more questions. Things become so intertwined that we don't see where our school day begins or ends. It is just parents and kids, books and ideas, learning and living.

So this wrap-up is not filled with practical ideas from our week this time. It is more about an idea that keeps returning again and again to my heart as my son and I work through our year. This idea keeps me going when I am having a bad day. My job (privilege)?  Keep the ideas flowing. Keep making connections. Offer him something to think about, to be interested in, and to stand up for. Correct wrong thinking when needed by conversation and example. Don't just give him an education....encourage, guide, and direct.

Next week I promise a normal wrap-up post.