The Irony of Homeschooling: We Think We Are The Teachers

Two of My Boys With Their Dad

The Story of Two Boys and Their Charlotte Mason Education 
(Click the YouTube video at the bottom to listen to as you read....beautiful.)

Sometimes I close my eyes and try to think back over the days we have spent homeschooling here in our little spot in the universe. This spot where so many things have been learned over the years...it plays like a movie where the soundtrack starts with one person playing a soft melody on a single piano and then a single violin sweetly starts to play along.The image that comes with the music is that of sitting side by side with my little boys, one on each side, as we read and enjoy great stories of heroes and adventures...sometimes it is so vivid that I feel like I could turn around and look and they would really be there with there pockets full of smooth stones and Lego guys. If I try really hard, I can still smell that little boy smell....sort of like Johnson and Johnson mixed with a hint of sandbox, Cheerios, and sweet little boy sweat. It is a good memory.

Those days are gone and have been replaced by grown up things and grown up thoughts. But the threads that weave themselves from those early years until now, the threads that wind along through many seasons are the discussions we have had along the way. My boys really like talking to me. Charlotte Mason called it narration but when you look at it from a mom's point of view it really is just plain old talking, sometimes with great passion about the way a story turned out. Those stories and characters would many times turn into imaginative play in our backyard jungle gym or with Lego pieces on the floor of their bedrooms. I would hear their play and see hints of adventures to come for those boys of mine.

The seeds were planted as we were building a love for reading, reading of great literature and living ideas. Those seeds grew inside them and sprouted into so many interesting things. By our learning from the past, examples of men who did right and who did wrong, they have become better young men. They challenge the things of the world and hold themselves up to a higher standard because they have seen the folly of those that chose a wrong path. There has been no real need for lectures since these lessons that we read touched their hearts. They wanted to be better people. The impact has been real.

The piano plays louder and they grow. Their challenging of the world has made me a better person too. Funny how I have learned and changed along with them. Maybe that is the ultimate irony of homeschooling. I never thought of myself as being a student in this school but perhaps it is the lesson I was meant to learn....we are all students and have something to learn from heroes and villains of the past and little boys who grow in front of our eyes.

Now when I hear the rattle of their key in the door as they come back from being at work or with friends who are sharing their current adventures, I am glad that just for a few more years they still want to talk to me. We don't sit side by side on the couch reading aloud these days but we do sit around the table and talk and take long walks and talk. Our soundtrack isn't over yet but we are starting to learn and enjoy a new tune.

Their pockets are now filled with cell phones, wallets, and iPods. Their fragrance is a little different too but that is okay with me. My boys will always be my boys and the bond we made over living stories and living ideas will last forever. They will be off having the adventures and being the heroes....my heroes until the very last piano note plays. 

The theme for the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival this next week is to tell our favorite Charlotte Mason memory or story. This is just part of our story. 

To read another entry I wrote featuring our CM Memories, you can click over to: 
Charlotte Mason Gave Our Homeschool Wings

Here is what the soundtrack sounds like in my head....Colors of the Wind