Choosing Joy

Perhaps you are wondering how we were able to travel to London? Then read my SBI success story to find out how we got to visit London.

I hope you are blessed by the message this month. Many of my “servants” have been sick this month. My vacuum cleaner broke, our washing machine decided to die, my bread machine kept getting stuck in one cycle, our pool pump gave in...and yet in this all I heard a quiet still voice telling me to “Choose Joy”.

Charlotte Mason

A year ago we attended a workshop called “The Victorian Schoolroom”. Our children were given traditional clothes to wear, games to play and school work to cover. Moms were asked to role-play a teacher’s assistant, the visiting inspector as well as a wealthy patron of the school.

Children and parents came home with a fuller understanding of the educational environment in which Charlotte Mason was involved. We need to remember that the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling was revolutionary for her era where children were not to speak unless spoken too, were required to sit rod straight with their hands behind their back and were given “concept lessons” where they had to memorize long lists of dry facts. These things were also amplified if a child were to find themselves governed and disciplined by a harsh teacher.

Added to this were the long work hours at home doing chores and Saturday school, which left very little time for the joy of childhood days. Thus she introduced the living book, narration, nature study and hours spent outdoors in God’s creation amongst other things.

Giving our children their childhoods back, while balancing work and play, is one of the great gifts that homeschooling allows us to embrace. She says: “There is a little danger in these days of much educational effort that children’s play should be crowed out, or… prescribed for and arranged until there is no more freedom of choice about play than about work.” Let’s be sure to lean on Charlotte Mason’s methods of gentleness when dealing with our children, and to give them plenty of time to joy in their childhoods.

Family and Sibling Relationships

Our family devotional this year has been Clay and Sally Clarkson’s 24 Family Ways. We have found that as we begin a new study every week with this as a guide, God has given us many opportunities to practice what we have learnt.

This has meant learning how to honor authorities within the family, how to obey parents, how to co-operate with one another and how to be peacemakers.

When we spend time teaching our children from the Bible it is always important for us to take it from a purely spiritual level to a practical level. The Bible when looked at as a series of laws to live by can become a very overwhelming standard. But when we show our children that the Holy Spirit is there to be their helper and the Grace of God there to carry them through tough spots, the Bible becomes a blue print for their lives.

The Clarkson’s 24 Family Ways helps children to see the Bible teachings on attitudes, relationships, authorities and other issues relevant to family life in a very practical way.

This month we have had many instances where we have had to remind the children of choosing joy – a very practical issue and we also continued to teach them to listen for the Holy Spirit voice to guide and direct them towards the correct choices. Our 24 Family Ways: Family Devotional Guide is also available from Christian Book and comes highly recommended.

Organizational Tips

Quick clean up tips for children :

Love your husband

One of the easiest things to do for our husbands is to bear them up in prayer. Prayer is often the required remedy for wives whose hearts are hardened towards their husbands. Prayer is a healing balm to our spirits as we surrender our will to the Lord. Prayer covers our husbands and changes our attitudes towards them.

When a wife sees a conflict coming, the best action to take is praying first. In that time of praying with an open heart and mind, God changes our aspect from one of “getting even” or “getting our point across” to one of His. He says that blessed are the peacemakers. But being a peacemaker is not easy when we try to do it in our own strength. But with Him it is possible.

Praying God’s will for our husbands, not our will for them, is a life changing, relationship altering event each and every time we go before God and ask Him to help us to love our husbands

Quote

"Let the child grow up aware of the constant, immediate, joy-giving, joy-taking Presence in the midst of them." Charlotte Mason

Living books

We have just finished our American Civil War studies with Sonlight Curriculum and have been moved to tears by two books. Turn Homeward Hannalee and Shades of Gray have stirred deep emotions about war, be it in another country, and the effects of it on innocents.

A living book should never tell you what to think but should rather open up healthy debate by which you affirm what you do in fact believe. These books did that in my children’s thought processes. Other living book reviews can be found by category on my website.

Other updates to Homeschool Curriculum for Life

There have been a few submissions on the “Day in the Life of a Homeschool Mom” page. I would love to have some more of you submit your days. If it is intimidating submitting with your name, please feel free to submit anonymously.

For new homeschoolers, or those considering homeschooling, please sign up for the free E-course entitled Tips on Starting Homeschooling on my sister site. While this is on my South African site, it is relevant to new homeschoolers worldwide.

Take care until next time,
Choose Joy!
Wendy

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