I have been in the trenches of last minute school planning here in these last, hazy August days. My homeschooling journey seems to lead me further into a more authentic and dedicated Charlotte Mason based approach with each passing year. I am even committing to actually reading her own words (ha!) in her six volumes for myself- "Mother School", as it is. The thing that draws me deeper into her philosophy is how very enriching it is for all of Life's Students (ie. Everyone). One of my favorite principles to observe at play in my life is the Science of Relations- the idea that a person's mind will find connections between the rich ideas it is fed. I now see this happening quite often in my own learning.
A word picture in Charlotte Mason's writing is Feast. She says the teacher is to "spread an abundant feast (of ideas) and each child takes what he needs." What a rich, joyous picture of an education! Mason is referring to scholarly topics- literature, history, etc. I heard a sermon recently where John Piper give a similar call to Pastors and churches to spread a feast of teaching and rich hymns and worship-Beauty in the Sunday morning service- for weary people to replenish their souls with. This brings me to one of my favorite teachers of Christian women, Sally Clarkson. What Mason calls education to be, and Piper exhorts the church to, I feel Sally encourages family in.
Sally's book, The Life Giving Table, lays a blueprint for nourishing our family, physically and spiritually, through great meals and intentional discipleship. She paints a beautiful picture through sharing many real life family memories created around her table. I have always appreciated Sally's honesty in sharing the challenges in her parenting journey and also the principles and ideas that have proved successful through years of life experience. She is straightforward in that her ideas will take real intentional and consistent practice in your home- they wont just naturally happen or come without effort- but I truly think the reward of the memories and shared family culture and faith built around a table regularly spread with sacrifice and love is well worth it!
I love Sally's suggestion to narrow down a few customs, habits and holidays to personify "Who We Are" as a family. In our house, the kids and I all relish our Morning Time Meetings and Poetry Tea Times. Other special things like a certain dish for each person's birthday breakfast are suggested. I can personally attest to the deliciousness of the Clarkson's Special Cheesy Eggs (recipe found in the book). They are so good I haven't been able to contain them to special mornings. ;) Our family and our close friends/neighbors have adopted the Clarkson's traditional Shepherd's Meal as our own Advent tradition as well. We have loved gathering in a candle light room to read the Account of the Shepherds while eating delicious potato soup and have even been known to have a "follow the star" night walk of our own on adventurous years! (See Chapter 12 for Sally's wonderful description).
Sally is truly one of my longest admired, most influential "Mentor from afar". I so appreciate that she doesn't shy away from setting forth just beautiful and worthy ideals and really encouraging women to pursue them. She does this from a biblical reference and also gives very tangible ideas to accomplish it. I also really am thankful for Sally's wisdom and humility in realizing women can be in hard situations or seasons to live these things out. Her chapter on Living Out Grace was very refreshing to me as she shared some easy ways to just start small and start somewhere in creating this culture for our your own family. I have seen the wisdom in my own life from where Sally says that making space in your life for rest and beauty is pretty much a necessity. In busy or hard seasons, It is really more important to make it a priority to have times of refreshment and enjoyment. I am looking forward to putting Sally's Life Giving Table principles and ideas into practice more as my kids get bigger but I am thankful to have these encouraging ideas even as we are in the midst of baby, toddler and school age years!
Thanks to Tyndale Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book to review.
