Thank You Miss Mason!

For the past month or so I have been obsessed with Charlotte Mason.  I have felt called to homeschool (and I do believe it is a calling and not a requirement) but felt very lost as to what I felt called to do.  Almost a year ago I heard of Charlotte Mason and even borrowed a book from a friend but never read it or tried to learn anything about this woman or her methods.  About a month ago I decided to look her up on the internet and that is when the obsession began.  Her homeschool methods are everything I did not believe in as a teacher - no "grades", no textbooks, no worksheets.  You learn from "living" books which means you learn from stories, many which are based on facts.  You read books to your children which have quality language and are slightly above their level.  Children learn because they are interested!  You have short lessons and then - gasp - play outside!!  This is her most emphatic point - children should be outside 4-6 hours a day!  Whew!!  

Now anyone who has known me for a while knows that I am not really an outdoors kind of girl. I didn't even own a pair of tennis shoes until college (except Keds).  I like my comfy house.  But - I have 2 little boys who need to be outside playing.  And not just playing on the playground.  Miss Mason says they should be allowed to learn about God's world and learn to celebrate His 

Creation through exploring and make believe play and observation.  So, I have been trying to take the boys in the woods, to the creek as much as I can but not being that successful if compared to Miss Mason's standards.  Yesterday it had been raining all morning -heavy rain.  I thought to myself, "We can't go outside, it's wet."  And then I thought about all these ladies who I have been reading about online who are doing CM schooling and they are talking about finally being able to get outside because it got above 0 degrees!!  Here I was going to deprive my kids of being outside because it was 60 degrees and wet!  What a wimp.  So - we put on our play shoes (I had to dig around the garage to find mine - sad) and went out to find puddles.  And we 

found puddles and mud and a swollen creek to throw rocks in and a muddy "mountain" to climb.  They were wet up to their waists - and LOVED IT!!!  And I did too.  And to think I was going to keep them inside and miss out on this experience with my boys.  When we finally made our way home an hour and a half later (we will work up to the 4 hour thing) we needed a bath! So bath, pajamas, "brinner" (breakfast for dinner) and then they played for almost an hour without a single fight.  Bedtime 30 minutes early.  

This morning we went back out with Daddy and even though it started to lightly rain soon after we went out, we pressed on and got nice and damp and showed Daddy all our new favorite puddles (some of which go too deep with the additional rain last night).  Another hour of good outside time.

Now I have already seen the rewards of outside time just last evening- time outside, them playing together inside without fighting, very little whining.  But it gets better!!  The boys, especially Caleb, have been waking up earlier than normal, 6-6:30.  And while I have a strict rule that they don't get up until 7:30, it has made for some grumpy little ones.  And of course this has carried over to Caleb only taking 1 hour and less naps.  This morning, neither boy woke up until 7:30 - AND  Caleb has been napping for almost 2 hours as of now.  Thank you, thank you, thank you Miss Mason!!!