SS #28: Education is a Life
The third and final episode in our series on education as an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life, today’s discussion is all about LIFE. What is meant by “education is a life?” How do we procure this life for ourselves and our children?
Don’t forget to download our free Life Audit at the bottom of this post to help you put these ideas into action.
Thank you to our sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by A Month of Morning Time. Morning Time is a wonderful addition to your homeschool, but sometimes planning it takes way more time and energy than you have to spare. You get overwhelmed trying to choose the best books to read. You have no idea which poems and artwork are the “good ones.” Truth, Goodness, and Beauty are wonderful ideals but the people in your house need clean laundry and three meals a day. Ready-made Morning Time plans can help reduce your decision fatigue, spend less time planning, and still add delight to your homeschool day. Click here to download a free sample.
Listen to the podcast:
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Show Notes:
- Scholé RDA
- Mystie:
The Tree Book for Kids and Their Grown-Ups by Gina Ingoglia
- Brandy:
Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington
- AmblesideOnline Year 10
- Pam:
- (Lookin’ for some scholé…)
- Jessica’s amazing post on Happy Planning…
Happy Planner with Brandy’s cover
Book darts
- Amusing Ourselves to Leisure episode
Numb3rs
- Mystie:
- Topical Discussion: Education is a Life
A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason
Vittorino da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators by William Woodward
“that’s what Dickens was writing about”
The Great Tradition by Richard Gamble
- Who was Platina?
- Brain Breaks
- Pomodoro Technique
- Slow reading
- “the memory podcast”
- Brandy and Pam on Your Morning Basket talking facts vs. ideas
- Charlotte Mason’s critique of unit studies
Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel
Better Late Than Early by Raymond and Dorothy Moore
- Time Will Tell: A Reminder to Take the Long View
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Fill this out to download your BONUS Life Audit:
Oh man, Pam, I TOTALLY 100% AGREE with your can of worms re: living books v. twaddle (there is a huge continuum here, and I think we’re far too quick to assign books to just one or the other category). You guys should do an episode just on that issue! 🙂
This has been a great series! I love this stuff when I’m feeling like I can handle it. It’s overwhelming during times of crisis, poor health etc. What about an episode on schole in the hard times? Or maybe it’s been covered and I’m forgetting. AO has a homeschool plan for times like that. What about schole ideas to nourish your soul when difficult thinking seems impossible or the big books seem too big? Some days I feel “hungry” but can’t seem to focus to read something too meaty. I guess there is the CM 3 book rule. What about music ideas, art, easy but nourishing reads? Could you put together a resource page for times like that?!? The emergency schole basket??
Miriam – Oh I get it! I recently spoke with Jennifer Mackintosh about a Mother’s Morning Basket and one thing that she stressed in the episode that I love is that it the practice should be for the long haul — it’s going to ebb and flow. You might enjoy the conversation here: https://pambarnhill.com/ymb40-2/
I keep poking Brandy to let us do it. Maybe if you poke with me…
Oh, my, this was just what I needed to listen to today! I’m doing a “year 0.5” with my soon-to-be-6 year old, and I am constantly reflecting (that’s a nice way to put it; “stewing” would also be accurate) about my plans and how we live them out day to day. Am I doing too much with the math and the phonics? Or not enough, or just right but is it balanced with enough art and beauty and creative play and TIME OUTSIDE??” (The answer to that last is “NO” when it’s 100° outside in Southern California in October.) Probably this is just a process I need to go through as this is our first “real” year of homeschooling, but, especially with your discussion of what is truly life-giving in the early years, you’ve given me some useful food for thought to make my reflection more productive. Thank you!
(Also: Frog and Toad and the human condition. <3)
Ladies, another great episode and I really enjoyed the series and the audits were such a special treat (although something sweet would make an extraordinary treat too!)
You guys came up with some good questions towards the end of the episode and the one about “what my children are picking up to read” left me pondering on my current situation. My young children don’t necessary pick up books that I’d like them to but, since I have one who reads and one who doesn’t, I have a bit more control. But my reader will often read the “twaddle beginning chapter book” when we go to the library… Silly question: is reading good living books a habit children develop giving that I provide lots of examples and opportunities?
I don’t know how helpful I’m going to be, because we don’t have a library near here and so my children have rarely been to one! My children have mostly just read the books I’ve collected over the years, and because of that I have tight control over what they read without them even realizing it — because they can pick any book from the children’s shelves as well as from many of the adult shelves.
I’m not sure exactly how to handle twaddle at the library because I think of twaddle as being like candy — something that occasionally wouldn’t do much harm, but would do harm in great quantities. So I don’t know! (How’s that for not helpful?) We do have a very large used bookstore, and I’ve run into a similar problem, but since we were buying, I was able to say, “You can look at and read any of those books you wish while we are here, but we only bring home the best books we find.”
Hmm, I’m really interested in reading more Chrysostom on childrearing and education. Do you have a good resource for his writings on the topics?