I’m so glad you’re here! I pray that this is a place where you feel welcome and comfortable to seek, grow and rest in your journey to become the biblical, fruitful woman that God intends you to be! I’m on my journey too, so let’s just be friends and walk together, okay? Enjoy your time here and I pray His most fruitful blessings over you!
Welcome to Week 10, Picture Painting, of the Charlotte Mason Home Education Read-Along Series. I hope you are enjoying this slow pace through Ms. Mason’s volume as much as I am!
This week we are reading pages 45-48 of the Home Education volume. If you would like to see the rest of these posts all in one place you may view them HERE. And don’t forget to download your free worksheets to go with each reading! If you are interested in a Charlotte mason “curriculum”, our favorite resource is Ambleside Online.
Remember, this is MY personal mother culture project. I am deliberately going at a slow pace to absorb as much as I can from CM’s writings so that my heart and homeschool will benefit. If you read faster or in spurts, feel free to go at whatever pace is comfortable for you. And, as always, I would love to hear your thoughts too! My hope is that this series will be a blessing to those mamas who are looking for some motivation to jump into her volumes. On to week 10!
Picture Painting
Taking “Mental photographs” is what Ms. Mason calls the outdoor exercises that a mother is to send the children off in. From last week’s reading, we know that this ‘game’, while playtime for the children, is designed to help them to harness their powers of observation so that they may recall by memory great and small details of what they have seen and to be able to tell about it.
Charlotte doesn’t want us to let our kiddos off if the details are blurry to them, but to encourage them to go have another look in order to make sure that they are getting it right. They look and try to memorize every detail they can about the patch of the landscape they are beholding, then shut their eyes and try to recall what they have just seen.
When they have the perfect picture before their eyes, let them say what they see.
Strain on the Attention
This exercise of seeing and recalling is fatiguing, therefore it should not be over-used.
Seeing Fully and in Detail
The mother is supposed to MODEL seeing fully and in detail. By her example, children will mimic her and learn from her. She will also benefit from picture painting in her own mind.
A Means of After-Solace and Refreshment
The habit of seeing and storing pictures of Nature in our minds provides refreshment and solace. Charlotte ends this portion with caution to mothers not to make children repeat themselves to others but to keep it simple and allow the child to enjoy this time of picture painting.
My Takeaway
I think my biggest takeaway this week is the pure simplicity of it all and the challenge of keeping it simple. Sometimes when I am reading Charlotte’s words, I am tempted to make what she is explaining more formal than it needs to be.
I am imagining being at the park with my children for a picnic and turning picture painting into a ‘lesson”, which is the last thing Ms. Mason would want me to do. I am going to need to be ever-aware of this tendency in me so that I don’t stamp out the joy of it all.
What about you? What was your takeaway this week?
Don’t forget your download!
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