The Importance of Ideas in Writing
A friend’s son is at that exciting but weighty time of life where he is considering what he may do when he finishes his home education. This will determine what he concentrates on in his last year or two of schooling at home. His deliberations have been the cause of some useful spin-off conversations between my children and I. How do I know what I should do? When do I start preparing for my future? When will I know what God wants me to do? I’m good at quite a few things – which one should I concentrate on developing?
In the course of our discussions we have been able to talk about various directions one can take in post-school life. We have spoken of the pros and cons of university, the problems and benefits of various university and TAFE courses, and the benefits of working from home or starting one’s own business. At one time when their minds were receptive to hearing about it, I shared how, as a country girl, I had left home at age 15, spent two years at boarding school designed to ‘acclimatize’ me to life away from home, then gone off to university in the big city. Whether that is your own hope for your children (and it isn’t ours), my children were quite amazed to find that their mother had actually had a life before they came along.
“What did you study, Mum?” they wanted to know, probably thinking the answer would be childcare and home economics, the only continuous roles they have ever seen me in. The answer was “History and German”. Thoughtful stares passed between them as the horrible truth dawned: their homeschool experience had been made up largely of their mother’s great loves!
In my own defence I wish to say at this point that, in discussion with Paul, I have tried to bring about a balance by including other learning areas in the equation, and have drawn up a timetable to make sure it does happen. However, I just can’t help but be more passionate about the subjects I love.
One thing the kids haven’t yet discovered is a love that goes back way beyond those university days and influences our homeschooling in an even greater way. That is, my love of writing.
From the age of seven I actively sought to enter all manner of writing competitions, with varying degrees of success. I also devoted much spare time to writing. One school holiday I remember doing a long essay on the Assyrians using all the information from the local library (which wasn’t too much). Another holiday I announced to my mother that I was embarking on my first chapter book. By the end of chapter three it was clearly turning out to be a hybrid of the Bobbsey Twins and the Famous Five and was distinctly lacking in a worthwhile plot, so it was shoved into the arch-file kept under my bed for “interesting information”. Anther holiday in Grade Nine was spent writing my own commentary on every verse of Isaiah, then followed on the next holiday by Romans (the Bible book, that is). While other children rode horses and went to movies in the holidays, I wrote. Every few days Mum or Dad would drive me from my papers to chop some wood or pick up rocks in a paddock. One day, Dad drove me many miles out to the back paddock, pointed to the ‘home hill’, which was, incidentally to him, a great many hills and creeks away, told me to ‘Walk home, you need some fresh air!’ Then he drove off without me.
My children haven’t yet heard these stories. If they had they might realise why learning to write features highly in our homeschool and every day we work systematically toward that goal.
That is my story of my love affair with writing and anything to do with linguistics (the formal study of language). Where does that leave those readers who simply don’t feel the same way (and, it seems, that is a lot of people). Are your children destined to never be excited about writing and language arts because you are not? I hope not. My own children have become excited about things I never have been interested in, because I got some tips from someone who was interested in those other things. In the rest of this article I want to briefly look at a key Charlotte Mason devoted much effort to describing. It can help us all in this area.
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