Meet My Homeschool: Little Drops of Water in Michigan
This post is part of the Meet My Homeschool series, highlighting the beauty of variety and individualism in homeschooling. Schools often strive for standards, but homeschools don't thrive that way - they thrive in authenticity, based on the needs and interests of the family that's learning together! Enjoy this peek into a real homeschool. Let us connect over our similarities, and marvel at our differences!
Let me introduce you to Shanda.
Shanda is a nature-loving, creative, Charlotte Mason homeschooling mother of 3 living in the woods of Michigan.
Photo: Little House Became a Home
Atmosphere of Faith
If you had asked six-year-old Shanda what she wanted to be when she grew up, she would have told you “A mom!” I guess you could say, being a mom has always been a dream of mine. That little 6-year-old girl didn’t have any idea how hard being a mom was, but she did know one thing… it sure is the best job in the world!
I’ve always been a creative person and over the years have dabbled with many creative outlets, from writing to drawing, to painting, to weaving. When I became a mom, it was only natural that these things spilled into my motherhood. I traded in my charcoal pencils for crayons and my watercolors for washable paint. My firstborn and I spent hours laying on the floor creating beautiful works of art on old CAD drawings that my husband brought home from work.
As time quickly vanished and my son got closer and closer to school age, I found myself wishing to prolong the sweet environment that we had created over the years. I never thought that I would be a teacher. That was never a desire of mine. But when I found the desire beginning to grow, I knew that it was from God… only HE could give me a desire for something that before I would have laughed off!
Apart from wanting to preserve the sweet environment that we were already creating, I wanted to also be the one to continue to teach my child to love the Lord. In Deuteronomy 6, it says concerning the laws of the Lord, “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” I wanted to create an atmosphere that lived and breathed the Lord!
If you have caught it… the atmosphere and life of our family are very important to me! So when I stumbled upon the Charlotte Mason philosophy of homeschooling, it was like a lightbulb went off! “This is it!” my heart cried! I wanted learning (whether it be school or religion) to be “an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.”
The Early Years
We are new to this homeschool journey, but we are learning and loving it! Charlotte Mason doesn’t recommend starting formal schooling until age 6, but we chose to start schooling at 5.5 years old simply because it coincided with the start of kindergarten. This might be blasphemous to many Charlotte Mason followers, but I remind myself frequently, “I am Shanda. Not Charlotte.” This is what worked for our family (in particular my husband! Haha).
We’ve almost survived our FIRST formal year of schooling, and I’m already excited for next year! We are currently using The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts and Math for kindergarten. When I opened the LA curriculum, I’ll be honest, I thought there is NO way my son would be reading that well by the end of the year. And yet, here we are nearing the end and he is reading! I’m amazed at the journey we’ve taken this past year. Math was an instant love affair. Filled with tons of manipulative, hands-on learning, story problems and mental math, I feel like this curriculum fits beautifully along with the Charlotte Mason philosophy.
Photo: Little House Became a Home
Our Daily Routine
Our daily routine is fairly simple as I want to preserve as much of my kids’ childhood as I can. Each morning, we start the day by eating breakfast together. It is during this time that I read Bible stories to my kids and ask them for a brief narration of what we read following the reading. We discuss what we learned and how we can apply it to our lives. This is probably my favorite time of day. It’s brief, but it’s filled with beauty.
Following breakfast, we usually break for a few personal hygiene habits and chores. Around 10 am, we settle in for school for the day. The only requirements I had for this year were Math and Language Arts. Any history was a bonus and learned through picture books that we were reading together throughout the day. We would do unit studies as the kids showed interest and provided ample time for spending the afternoon out in nature.
We used Exploring Nature with Children as our spine for nature studies. I LOVED having a spine to spark ideas for weekly nature studies with my children. From pond studies to tree studies, to studying about worms… this nature-based curriculum was right up our alley! I’ve always been someone who is drawn to nature. Even as a child, I would spend countless hours roaming and exploring. Now I’m getting the chance to do this alongside my children and it’s pure magic. This is where we learn the most… not just about nature but about ourselves! As Charlotte Mason said, “Every child has a natural interest in the living things about him which it is the business of his parents to encourage.”
We are so fortunate to have many homeschool related opportunities in our area. Our local nature center offers homeschool classes every other week and this has been the highlight of my son’s homeschool year. It is here that he has developed friendships and deepened his knowledge about nature. We also have gotten involved in a local Charlotte Mason nature co-op! This group isn’t just for my kids, but also for me to get together with like-minded moms.
Little Drops of Water
I think the biggest thing I’ve learned through this journey though is to continue being a “little drops of water.” When a child is ready, they will blossom. With a little water and a lot of sunshine, they will bloom in their time. I remember when my son was fairly young still, I got really frustrated that he just could not understand the concept of “same” and “different.” We walked away from the idea for several months, and when we revisited it, it clicked! It wasn’t forced and he was ready. It’s impossible to force education, but by living it and making learning enjoyable, my children eventually will want to follow my example. This applies even more so to my love for the Lord. I want to be a life-giving parent who shows Christ in every area of our lives… including our homeschool.
It would be cliché to steal Charlotte Mason’s “Atmosphere, Discipline, Life” motto for our homeschool, so I suppose it would be fitting to say instead that our homeschool can be summed up as “little drops of water.”
Photo: Little House Became a Home
Thank you for joining us on our homeschool journey. As a special thanks, I want to leave you with a poem:
Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land.
So the little moments,
Humble though they be,
Make the mighty ages
Of Eternity.
So the little errors
Lead the soul away
From the paths of virtue
Far in sin to stray.
Little deeds of kindness,
Little words of love,
Help to make earth happy,
Like the Heaven above.
Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney
