For those that follow my podcast Everyday Charlotte you know the quote I kind of go by, my motto if you will, is inspired by this small quote from Charlotte Mason's writings, "Education is a life". I go a bit further with "Education is a lifestyle", in short because learning never ends and I want to raise my children to love it, accept it, and appreciate that we're all works in progress and will be our whole lives. They don't need to know everything right now.

Living ideas being introduced to you and your children should be an everyday thing. It should be a habit. It should be something we don't even have to think about. Get rid of everything that isn't living and this will make it an easy-ish transition. You may ask, "What are living ideas?" And I, personally, would answer your question with another question,"Which ideas excite your children (or yourself)?"

What drives you and your children forward to uncover the why? The how? Is it something that remains with you later? I believe what is living can be such a personal thing for each family to discover.

There are good authors, illustrators, & content; absolutely. But will every book I find living, give you the same feeling? Likely not. But you also won't know until you try a wide range of art, poetry, literature, musical compositions, free reads, handicrafts, etc which ones fill you up. And we also can't pretend to know what will always feed our children's minds with ideas that propel them forward, because they are persons all themselves.

So, we start with the good, the beautiful, the lovely. Tried and true masters of their professions. And then we gradually dig a bit further until we find those sweet spots that become near and dear to our hearts. And as we purposefully curate the ideas we introduce them to they will begin to really bloom. As we do when we start to discover the things that feed our spirits.

This small piece, "Education is a life. That life is sustained on ideas. Ideas are of spiritual origin..." They feed our spirits.

"...and God has made it so that we get them chiefly as we convey them to one another, whether by word of mouth, written page, scripture word, musical symphony, but we must sustain a child's inner life with ideas as we sustain his body with food."

#1 "...We get them chiefly as we convey them to one another." So, this could definitely be affirming our ideas during narration & conversations. Or even blog posts. The act of putting our thoughts to words can sometimes help us to complete the connections. I know this to be personally true, which is why I love conversations, taking notes, & blogging.

#2 "...as we sustain his body with food." Donuts taste amazing, but we all know if we feed our children that as a meal they will rot their teeth, their gut health will disintegrate, & their bodies won't have what they need to grow to be an adult. And that's our main job as their parent.

Treat their minds - our minds - with just as much consideration.



**For myself this has meant a lot of things in our lives and household had to change practically speaking -- downsizing/minimizing has been an integral part of our CM adjustments. Not just for a tidy house, but to give me time with my children to be free with them and set the example of self education, & the beauty of certain aspects of a Charlotte Mason education like nature study & journaling, painting, & digging in the things I personally find curious. If I want to ask these things of my children and interest them in changing the dynamic of how our family has come accustomed to I first have to be the example.

I'm always interested to hear how others have started implementing Charlotte Mason's Philosophies in their homes & homeschool. Feel free to drop me a line or comment below telling me some of the favorite living ideas you've discovered in your journey along the way...

God Bless,
Julie