There are many bad situations with dysfunctional parents. This conversation assumes parents who are not addicted to substances or things, provide worthy food, shelter, and love for their children. That is step one. Step two is the parent coming alongside their child and living an outward facing life together. Outward towards nature, outward towards their Creator, and outwards towards others as opposed to an inward facing life. An inward facing life is narrow and its tone is o

In a recent email I mentioned “worthy work”. “If the class is listless, or rowdy – put them straight to worthy work.” The specification of “worthy” is necessary because - all work is not worthy! Speaking of traditional curriculum assignments I have heard parents lament, “They ask me what the point is, and I don’t have an answer! I don’t care if they finish it or not.”   Why then assign it in the first place? Why are you using that program? If it doesn’t have enough substance

Why does “Christ is Born” catch in my throat? (Just a yibit – as Grand#2 would say!)   This holiday season has brought a germ of gestating thought to clarification. And so, if you were one of the many  people who greeted me with “Christ is Born!” Don’t feel singled out, the greeting was warmly received and these thoughts are warmly offered. I rejoice with all who stand in humble awe at the miracle that precipitates these Christmas revels. But this phrase, along with “Christ i

Most people are onboarded to Charlotte Mason’s method of education with her emphasis on books.  This emphasis will forever ring as a definitive response to the needs of personhood. The gift of the written word, the innovation of the printed word, the convenience of the bound word, the genius of preserved words were a heritage of western culture that modern education was beginning to relegate to the back burner. “Education for the masses requires revision and modernization”, t

There is a corollary between Charlotte Mason’s prescription for the posture of the teacher towards students and the posture of a school community towards the family. I have met teachers who don’t trust parents alone with any meaningful material, let alone the student(!) as Charlotte Mason says is possible. In traditional hybrid models, At-home work often consists of specific and incoherent (because the parents aren’t in on the context) tidbits that feel tedious precisely bec

Often the best way to understand something new is to compare it to something already seen or understood. For example – what is a giraffe? Well, it’s like a cow, but taller… ok, much taller – and leaner. Same sort of tail, but a longer neck… much longer; similar ears, and it does have horns of a sort… but different. Same length of hair, but with a distinct pattern. In the end, we realize that in actuality, a giraffe is not as much like a cow as first expected, however, a famil

Over the last couple of years, I have been working on a topical approach to explaining Charlotte Mason at the request of Commonplace...

My parents were not devotees of James Dobson, and yet he and his lifework Focus of the Family were so ubiquitous that they formed, if not the white noise of my childhood, at least a ticking fan. My younger brother is what, in the eighties, was called a “strong-willed” child. In a dearth of practical wisdom on parenting my parents were at a loss on how to corral him and give his  younger brother some semblance of a normal un-bullied childhood! My mom is a tough nut. She once a

This article is hosted over on Charlotte Mason Poetry. Here is a direct link! An option to read and listen here: “God with Us” as the...