Find what refreshes your mind and soul

an interview with a Charlotte Mason homeschool mom of 7

Carol Hudson’s blog Journey Destination is a goldmine of experience as she documented homeschooling seven children through high school using Charlotte Mason’s methods. Many times I’ve been there clicking from post to post—whether it’s wondering about Ambleside reading lists or looking for examples of narrations. So I was delighted to realize she had joined substack and begun to post here as well.

I couldn’t resist the opportunity to introduce you to her here and ask a few specific questions about her decades of experience. Several of the books she shares at the end of the interview I’ve never heard of and I am looking forward to checking them out.

Rachael: Setting the tone so often seems to be half the battle! How did you encourage your children to set forth and do the work before them each day?

Carol: When they were little, forming a daily habit of setting aside the early part of the day for reading aloud and at the appropriate age, introducing regular times for teaching reading and maths lessons etc. I had a weekly ‘’schedule,’’ which was basically a list of work for the week and they followed that. I’m not a rigidly structured sort of person and as they got older I let them manage their own time but would check to see that they weren’t letting their work pile up. There were certain things I expected them to do without me prodding them – maths lesson, music practice, reading on their own (they would come to me after they’d read something and narrate what they had read or do a written composition about it).

Knowing that as soon as they had finished their lessons they had time to pursue their individual interests gave them motivation to finish what was required. Occasionally, they learned the hard way that if they didn’t get their work done they would have to forgo other activities.

What was one of your favorite ways of learning together that came from Charlotte Mason?

The first time I ever heard about Charlotte Mason was when I read Susan Schaeffer Macaulay’s book, For the Children’s Sake before our first child was born. This introduction opened my eyes to ideas of how to teach and also what to teach. Reading aloud was a natural way to begin and it was something I did all the way through the high school years and really enjoyed. Even now that all my children have graduated, they talk about some of the books we read together and those that have their own children are carrying on that tradition of reading aloud.

On your blog you frequently encourage pursing handicrafts with the children. I’ve found it to be particularly hard to set aside the time, though I find the work itself therapeutic. How did you schedule it in so it wasn’t forgotten?

I think each family has their non-negotiables. If something is important or valuable to you, you make time for it; you don’t see it as optional. Handicrafts was one of those non-negotiables for me. It’s a break from mental work and for me, it was a tangible expression of something I had created or spent my time on. If I make a meal or clean the kitchen, ten minutes later there will be little to no evidence to show for all the work I’d done. A finished quilt on a bed is visible evidence of the time I spent working with my hands.

Handicrafts is defined in the dictionary as,

Activities that involve making things with your hands in a skillful way

Expertness with the hands; manual skill

Skill takes time and many steps are involved but even just practising brings its own reward. Something as simple as crocheting a row of chain stitch helps a child to develop dexterity and concentration.

Breadmaking, baking, bush skills, working with tools, sewing, knitting, spinning, woodwork…are some of the skills we practiced and some of our children became proficient in some of them.

Did you have very many friends doing something similar to what you were attempting to do? 

At first we didn’t know anyone, but a couple of years down the track, another family at church, within walking distance to us, decided to teach their children at home. We had about 8 or 9 years of doing things together until we moved. Later we had a great group of friends when our older children were in their mid-teens but most of them sent their children to school for the final two years of high school. 

I found that with a wide range of ages – from very young up to late teens – I needed to have quite a bit of time at home. Toddlers needed to sleep and the older ones needed time to work on their studies. This meant that we weren’t always involved in homeschooling circles. However, interests such as music, swimming and also part-time work kept everyone occupied.

How often would you take breaks from schoolwork during the calendar year? 

We generally didn’t follow the school holidays except for breaks at Christmas and Easter. The idea was that if Dad was working, we did too. This gave us quite a bit of time to play around with. If we had visitors or family staying with us we could afford to take time off. We took our holidays when public school was in progress – quieter and cheaper!

Of course, there were unplanned breaks such as the time six of our children got chickenpox, one after the other. 

What are elements about that lifestyle of learning together and life together that you miss the most? 

Regularly making music together. We used to jam together after lunch on most days. My oldest son often took the lead in this & I’d end up joining in whether I initially felt like it or not. 

How would you contrast the education you were able to help your oldest child achieve compared to your youngest? Did your personal capacity affect it much in the end? 

There are sixteen years between my oldest and youngest children and altogether I home educated for three decades. I was definitely more intense the first time around, but by the time I started teaching my seventh I had relaxed a bit. 😊

What helped me long term was the realisation (thank you, Charlotte Mason) that it was my responsibility to nourish my children’s inner lives with ideas just as it was my responsibility to nourish their bodies with food. However, it was their  responsibility to ‘dig’ for their own knowledge. 

The early years were probably more difficult for me, especially physically, with pregnancies, miscarriages and the tiredness and disappointment that goes along with all that. Although the teen years were challenging at times, I enjoyed the banter and humour of those years. 

I think you need to find what refreshes your mind and soul. For me, it has been reading – fiction and non-fiction; getting outside for a walk; in depth conversation – I read once that ‘Thoughts disentangle themselves as they flow through lips & fingertips.’’ Writing and talking through ideas has kept up my personal capacity.

What were some books that encouraged you in your journey when you would get discouraged? 

This question goes along with my answer to the previous one. Encouragement sometimes came from unexpected places. There were a few times when reading aloud to my children when a passage spoke to me. At other times it was when I had intentionally picked up a book. Here are some I can think of (I’ve written about most of these on my blog):

When Children Love to Learn, Elaine Cooper, General Editor

What is a Family by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Seeking God: The Way of St Benedict by Esther de Waal

The Clever Woman of the Family by Charlotte M. Yonge 

China Court by Rumer Godden

And the Old Testament Book of Psalms – ‘’Why are you downcast oh my soul?’’ Psalm 42

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Thank you Carol! Readers, please feel free to bring further questions in the comments. You can follow Carol on substack here and browse her years of blogging at Journey Destination.