Secular Charlotte Mason

Oh what a lovely feeling!

Last night, as we were getting dinner on the table, my sweet husband was filling me in on how things went at home during the day.  He paused, looked at me, and said:

"You know, it's funny.  The closer we stay to Charlotte Mason's ways, the more engaged Jack is in whatever we're learnign and the more enthusiastic he is.  Whenever I try to introduce something else, no matter how interesting or important it seems, I lose him.  Miss mason sure knew our Jack."

That was so funny to me.  I had been interested in classical Education for  along time, and from the moment I heard about the details of the CM method, I was enthusiastic.  While Rod likes CM, he has always leaned more toward WTM and TJE and he keeps trying to jump the gun and get started with the sort of analysis that TJE uses.  Not a bad idea...but Jack's only six and it's way too soon.

Rod sees Jack's intelligence and that Jack seems so much more capable than most of the kids his age and wants to jump ahead.  I keep reminding him that Jack may be a bright boy and capable of understanding a lot -- but he still thinks like a 6 year old.  It makes sense to extend the work Jack does beyond the scope of what other six year olds do, but it's not appropriate to chaneg the character of the work. (At six they absorb, at 12 they analyze...)

At our house, I do the research and write the curriculum, while Rod does much of the hands on work with Jack.    Rod has a tendency to ... well, not exactly discount what I say, so much as let it run right through from one ear to the other.  he respects the researtch I do, but isn't inclined to do the reading himself nor does he internalize what I try to pass along.  He is constantly sharing "amazing insights" that other people have shared with him...only to stop mid-sentence and say "You've been saying that for years, haven't you?"  It's really kind of funny...now that I have gotten used to it. 

However, I think both Jack and Rod would benefit if Rod knew more about CM directly and I don't know any other CM parents around here for him to talk to.    We don't currently have Internet at home, so joining groups online isn't an option right now, and when Rod has time to read, he (of course!) attends to his own interests, figuring that I have the homeschooling covered. 

So here we go with my question. Do you have any other ideas for me about how I can share CM with him, using "someone else's voice"?  Any books on tape that you can suggest?  Movies/documentaries?  he's interested, just not very energeticly.  And it's hard for him to hear my voice on the subject...so it has to be something more "objective"...

Honestly, the very best resource for this sort of issue is the All Day Seminar DVD set from Simply Charlotte Mason. The beginning of the first disk is a bit of a snooze but the rest is pure gold;  just be sure to skip the section on "Bible". Anna's family is similar to yours in that she does the research and pulls the materials together but her husband is the one actually working with their son. Her husband watched the disks recently and really liked them. I think there is something about these disks that appeal to men since even my dad has voluntarily watched them. I can't really think of anything else that would do what you need.

By the way I, like your husband, keep trying to add in WTM stuff with my youngest and her behavior and preferences keep showing me that she is a CM girl *all* the way lol. Apparently I'm a little hard-headed and need to "listen" better.

<laugh>  Thanks, Gina.  I actually love WTM, too, and would love to have time to go through the cycles myself.    And I think that as Jack gets older and more matuer, he may be agreeable about adding more classical.  But CM just works better with the way children (at least my children) tjhink.

I was wondering about those dvds...we used to get the Simply CM weekly pep talk e-mails and I often found them very interesting.  Not sure Rod ever read them.    But they were VERY religious sometimes and I wasn't sure how the DVDs would be.  I'll order those on payday and call them his Samhain present. 

I have to second the recommendation for the All Day Seminar on DVD, which is not all day but about 4 hours of gold if you include the Laying Down the Rails.  I learned SO much practical, everyday advice from these.  It gives me more confidence to be patient in certain areas and not expect too much (thinking here about copywork and grammar).  She has the audience do some of what she is suggesting and it's interesting to see the method in action.  I really like the picture study example since a few in the audience picked up things in the picture and interpretations of the picture that I hadn't thought about.  Overall, many things make more sense to me now.  I hadn't thought about asking my husband to watch them, but I think I'll suggest it. hehe 

The DVDs were worth every penny IMO.    I will probably watch them every year since my kids are young and some of what she described will be used later.

Thank you, Gina and Chai Mama.  I ordered the full set and will make it a project to watch it as a family.  (If it's a video, jack will watch it.  And if he works as much like me as he seems to, he will grok far more if he knows why we do what we do.) 

If anyone hears of anythin I can add to this, I would still LOVE to hear about it -- books on tape, serminars, lectures. 

Thanks!

m