The heart and mind of a Homeschool Mother are displayed with the widest apertures when she is excited and eager to learn about the subjects she’s teaching. In her joy of rediscovery and/or new learning, she is like a rolling kettle that can’t help but sing out what’s she’s found amazing and interesting *this week* or for *this class.* Her mind leaps from book to blog to biography and, like Maria up on the meadow, her heart wants to share everything that she reads.
The love of learning is a great and intangible treasure that anyone can impart to anyone of any age. But the conduit by which that gift can be conveyed most intensely and interminably is through a Parent: a phonics lesson in the dairy aisle, an internal combustion primer in the driveway, logical fallacy lessons over curried lentils, deciphering the differences between hue and tone and shade while sauntering west into a sunset. In your house, by the way, lying down, rising up. Beneath your doorposts and between your gates.
Our young women are encouraged to pursue professions and empowerment, education and autonomy. But the pots of gold at the end of the rainbows they are urged to chase are rarely more meaningful than paychecks or promotions. How ubiquitous and insistent is the call to forgo (or at least subcontract) the care and nurture of eternal souls for the glory of a Masters in Ambiguity and/or Employment by Others. What does it profit a woman if she gains her own practice but someone else raises her kids?
Modern women, you are equipped for the task of Motherhood, and it’s not because of anything Academia has bestowed on you. You don’t need to take out a student loan to be a Good Mother. One of the best ways that you can teach your children is by being an example of an eager student yourself. Love God’s world and delight in its myriad marvels. Seek wisdom, practice virtue, and develop your mind. A child can hardly be more blessed than to have a mother who loves to learn and leaves that same inheritance to her children.
March 21, 2023
Flagstones 