Creating a Spiritual Atmosphere in your Home School

 Over at the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival this week, we’re discussing Principle # 20 of the introductory synopsis of Charlotte's educational philosophy:

"We allow no separation to grow up between the intellectual and 'spiritual' life of children, but teach them that the Divine Spirit has constant access to their spirits, and is their Continual Helper in all the interests, duties and joys of life."

A Great Privilege for the Homeschooling Mother

For me, this is one of the great privileges of homeschooling, that as mothers who are teachers we’re ‘allowed’ to address spiritual topics and answer thoughtfully and fully questions of a spiritual nature that arise during the day with our children. Having been a teacher myself in a public/state school, I don’t take that for granted.

Indeed, I’ve been blessed with so many opportunites to discuss my faith with my kids, and it’s been amazing how things have come up just through seemingly ‘ordinary’ school work. We don’t have to leave our faith at the doorstep just because we’re ‘in school’ and then take it up again when school is finished.

My Own Insufficiencies in this Area….

Personally, I’m aware that I still struggle in my own walk with the Lord not to ‘compartmentalise’ my faith. My natural tendencies are to believe that I can be ‘spiritual’ while I’m having my quiet time, or during family devotions, but the rest of the day I just have things to do that I get on and do without giving God much thought. I’d love to think I was practising the presence of God like Brother Lawrence while I was doing the dishes, but that’s just not how it happens for me. I’m a sinner, and I don’t love God with all of my heart, mind and soul all of the time like I should do.

Part of my struggle in this area, I’m sure, comes from the fact that I was raised the only Christian in a non-Christian home, and so my faith was compartmentalised. We just didn’t talk about spiritual things throughout the day. However, although I love my parents, I’m so thankful that my children have the opportunity to be raised in a Christian home, and my husband and I are trying to be intentional about how that works out in practice and what difference it makes in our daily lives.

Scheduled opportunities

Here are some of the more scheduled ways in which we try to work out Charlotte’s 20^th Principle in our family:

-         Sophie (7) now has her own Bible reading and notebook time as part of her morning routine.

-         Every weekday morning we have Family Bible time together, involving reading (at the moment from a Children’s Bible) and praying for one another for the day ahead.

-         At lunchtimes we do Scripture memory together (this is the system we use) and sing a hymn.

-         During school time we read from the Russian children’s Bible as part of our Russian language time.

-         We try to play Christian music around the house and in the car.

-         At bedtime we pray with each child.

-         We make the most of  special times,  such as Christmas, Easter, to do meaningful crafts and have discussions together.

-         The children get spiritual input each week at Sunday school

Of course there are spontaneous opportunities to turn our children’s thoughts to spiritual things:

-         conversations arising from the school books we’re reading

-         general questions throughout the day

-         special prayers when the children are feeling ill or can’t sleep
-  directing praise to the creator God when we're out in nature

And then there are things I’d really like to do more of:

-         spontaneous prayers about our own needs and the needs of others as soon as they arise

-         exchanging and writing down prayer needs or items of thanksgiving

-         a weekly 'family church' time

-         praying more regularly for worldwide needs

Qu: How do you try to implement the idea expressed in principle no. 20 in your family?

Qu: What tips or advice do you have - what has worked well for you?

Abide in Him!

Photo credit: girl raising hands: freedigitalphotos.net/pat138241

Making the Most of the Holiday Season

It happened a few days ago. It was a strange feeling, a little unexpected but not unwelcome. My husband doesn't feel the same way, and thinks it's too early, but the kids have been feeling this for some time now. What happened? I started getting excited about Christmas!

Back in October I was following Cheri Gregory's 'A Holiday-Ready Heart'. I love her witty but poignant way of writing, and would recommend you have a look at her posts for the 31-day challenge over at The PURSEonality Challenge Blog. However, because we don't celebrate Thanksgiving (being British) the holidays seemed like a long way away back then.

Then came an invitation to celebrate Thanksgiving with some American friends, and I started thinking about what we could do to embrace the meaning of this celebration with our own children. I settled on Ann Voskamp's Thanksgiving Tree idea (you'll have to skim down to her entry for Nov 7th). Our leaves are all cut out and ready for writing on tomorrow!

And I guess once I'd decided to do that, I started remembering all the fun crafts we would be doing in December to prepare for Christmas, and that was it. I'm now thinking about where to put all the decorations this year whilst unconsciously humming 'Hark the Herald Angels' to myself.

If any of you are like us and live overseas then you've probably had to send out your 'Christmas present request list' to your families back home already. And if you're anything like us then you're resigned to the fact that most of these precious parcels will arrive in January or February anyway! Once a Christmas parcel arrived in sweltering hot June, containing a hand-knitted woolly sweater from Grandma. I put it on the baby, took a quick photo, and promptly took it off again!

So as we start getting excited about Christmas with our families, here are some things that I'm finding helpful and inspiring:

• A good place to start, if you're a perfectionist like me, is with a Christmas planner. There are some good ideas over at 'Christmas Your Way'.
• I'm really looking forward to doing Truth in the Tinsel again! It's a fun way to talk with your children about the meaning of Christmas whilst doing some simple crafts. I highly recommend buying the ebook if you haven't got it already. I've found it a good alternative to the more widely known 'Jesse Tree' idea, which just seemed a bit too much for my preschoolers.
• We're also looking forward to making our advent wreath again and lighting a candle every Sunday whilst reading some Scripture as a family together. There are different ways of doing this, but here's one link that explains what the wreath is. The first Sunday of Advent is the 2nd of December, so we need to have our wreath ready by then.
• Christmas music of course is a must! We have a CD of children's Christmas songs, and a more classical 'Carols from King's College, Cambridge' which we love. This year I'm looking forward to buying Kari Jobe's Bethlehem album.  I bought her two other albums while we were in England earlier this year, and I just love her voice, her lyrics and her music!
• Finally, I'm looking forward to joining in with the Christmas Bible study over at Good Morning Girls to prepare my own heart for the Christmas season. It starts on 26th November, so go and get subcribed if you haven't already!

Qu: What special things are you planning to do with your family this Christmas?

Qu: What special family traditions do you have around this upcoming holiday season?

Qu: How do you manage to keep Christmas meaningful amidst all the stress and commercialism?

I'd love to hear what helps and inspires you!

Abide in Him!

Linking up here:



Photo Credit:
small candle - freedigitalphotos.net/ graur razuan ionut
star ornament - freedigitalphotos.net/ suat eman