Creating a Life-giving Atmosphere at Home
Charlotte Mason said that education is "an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life". Mason wasn't referring exclusively to school lessons, though. In fact, we can find all three of those pillars of education in the upkeep of our households!
What qualifies as a reasonably tidy home will vary greatly with the size of your family and the ages of your children, but most of us know that at some point clutter starts to affect our mood, trickling down to the mood of our family members, and finally changing the whole atmosphere of our homes. It takes discipline in repeated small (and sometimes large) doses to keep reasonable control of the chaos. However, if we work to develop good habits in ourselves and our children, it will be life-giving both to our families and to everyone who visits our homes.
Developing these habits as a family is important enough that we’ve included three books on household management in our programs for grades 1-8 . We have also added a new Circle in the Alveary Hive named “Atmosphere of our Homes” where you can share tips and advice on children’s chores, household management, hospitality, and more. Join us! Your tips and ideas may be just what another member needs to hear!
Notes
1. Affiliate Program - Apply to be an Alveary affiliate. New members using an affiliate code receive a $25 discount–and their referring friend receives a $25 commission.
2. Reflective Practice Plan Book: If you've recently joined Alveary from another curriculum, you can use the tips in our Reflective Practice Plan Book to help you end this year strong.
3. Book-Buying Tips: Before ordering books, read through these Book-Buying Tips.
4. Combining Students: Struggling to figure out which children to combine? Check out these Tips for Combining Students.
5. Science: This spreadsheet gives an overview of the Alveary science program and how the books work together.
6. Office Hours: Here is the link to the list of Office Hours videos by date We have added our February 8 Office Hours on Science with Danielle Merritt-Sunseri. The 20 questions from our session are time-stamped in the video. If you click on the 4th icon from the left (looks like 3 bullet-point lines; labeled “Chapters”), you will see the list of topics and where to find them in the video. Our next Office Hours will begin at 3:30 EST on Wednesday, February 15.
