Lifestyle Learning
A RomanticChildhood
As a mother, I’m the artist able to create something beautiful and expressive on this blank canvas that represents the childhood and blossoming lives of my children. I began to ask myself what combination of broad strokes and tiny splashes could I utilize to artfully fashion an exquisite childhood experience. In what ways could I blend and compose all the different elements necessary for enhancing the most beautiful or edifying attributes in each child? First I needed to decide what those components would be and how they might come into play at the various ages and stages of my children’s lives. Secondly, how might they compliment the general or encompassing composition of our family? This is not to say that a child’s mind or personality is simply a blank slate. Quite the contrary, each child is very much a little person with his/her unique and individual God-given imprint. The blank canvas I’m referring to is simply an attempt to describe the opportunities that unfold as each child progresses through the childhood experience.
What is Lifestyle Learning?
The home education process is more or less a natural outflow of the “romantic” childhood ideas I had already embarked upon with our children. It was basically a continuation of what I truly desired for them and remained very consistent with all the various aspects of the gentle child-rearing and child-instructing lifestyle that I felt was so much a part of my heart The idea is to preserve and promote my children's innocence, imagination, curiosity, and natural love of learning..
The main objective to keep in mind is to treat this phase of our lives as an adventure, as a time to grow, as an opportunity to grab onto, nurture, and cherish with the realization that we will never have this unique opportunity again in our lives or the lives of our children. It's taking the opportunity to invite our children to participate in our passions and pleasures in life....and to discover new ones with them. It's an opportunity to see through the eyes of our youngsters and to discover the world afresh and yet to be explored. This, to me, is the essence of Lifestyle Learning.
The main objective to keep in mind is to treat this phase of our lives as an adventure, as a time to grow, as an opportunity to grab onto, nurture, and cherish with the realization that we will never have this unique opportunity again in our lives or the lives of our children. It's taking the opportunity to invite our children to participate in our passions and pleasures in life....and to discover new ones with them. It's an opportunity to see through the eyes of our youngsters and to discover the world afresh and yet to be explored. This, to me, is the essence of Lifestyle Learning.
In Craft & Creativity
"The highest form of bliss is living with a certain degree of folly."
Erasmus
A Big, Broad, Colorful World
In Nature
“People who live in the country know the value of fresh air very well, and their children live out of doors, with intervals within for sleeping and eating. As to the latter, even country people do not make full use of their opportunities. On fine days when it is warm enough to sit out with wraps, why should not tea and breakfast, everything but a hot dinner, be served out of doors? For we are an overwrought generation, running to nerves as a cabbage runs to seed; and every hour spent in the open is a clear gain, tending to the increase of brain power and bodily vigour, and to the lengthening of life itself. They who know what it is to have fevered skin and throbbing brain deliciously soothed by the cool touch of the air are inclined to make a new rule of life, Never be within doors when you can rightly be without.
All the time, too, the children are storing up memories of a happy childhood. Fifty years hence they will see the shadows of the boughs making patterns on the white tablecloth; and sunshine, children’s laughter, hum of bees, and scent of flowers are being bottled up for after refreshment.”
All the time, too, the children are storing up memories of a happy childhood. Fifty years hence they will see the shadows of the boughs making patterns on the white tablecloth; and sunshine, children’s laughter, hum of bees, and scent of flowers are being bottled up for after refreshment.”
Charlotte Mason
Into The Great Outdoors
In Growth & Experiences
Periodically, it’s a good idea to reflect on our life and the lives within our family and ask ourselves if we’re stretching and growing as individuals. Perhaps we might be able to come up with some ideas on how we could add some spice or adventure into our family that could better build our relationships and expand our horizons. As an example of getting out of the daily rut and taking some risks into our lives, read what Linda Eyre [from her book, A Joyful Mother of Children] discovered in her mountain climbing adventure below:
"As we reached the gate at the bottom of the mountain [Kilamanjaro in Africa] that led back to the real world, with both knees and a finger wailing at me, having slid back down a different, more difficult rain forest trail, I knew that I had paid a lot both financially and physically so that I could take a risk. Yet, the long hours on the trail …, watching the kids learn, enjoying the beauty of the earth, and marveling at the strength and limitations of my own body, had made this one of the greatest learning experiences of my life.
I still believe that taking risks is one of life’s great teachers. In risk taking there are always hard times. It’s part of the risk package. But win or lose, pass or fail, the learning curve becomes steep, and you learn more in a small amount of time than you may have in years. Of the three amazing weeks that we spent in Africa, the one I personally learned the most from was the one that was by far the hardest and required the greatest personal risk. It was truly a soul-fulfilling, mind-expanding, body-challenging experience."
"As we reached the gate at the bottom of the mountain [Kilamanjaro in Africa] that led back to the real world, with both knees and a finger wailing at me, having slid back down a different, more difficult rain forest trail, I knew that I had paid a lot both financially and physically so that I could take a risk. Yet, the long hours on the trail …, watching the kids learn, enjoying the beauty of the earth, and marveling at the strength and limitations of my own body, had made this one of the greatest learning experiences of my life.
I still believe that taking risks is one of life’s great teachers. In risk taking there are always hard times. It’s part of the risk package. But win or lose, pass or fail, the learning curve becomes steep, and you learn more in a small amount of time than you may have in years. Of the three amazing weeks that we spent in Africa, the one I personally learned the most from was the one that was by far the hardest and required the greatest personal risk. It was truly a soul-fulfilling, mind-expanding, body-challenging experience."