Down the Rabbit Hole into TCT...

I can’t believe we have wrapped up our first year of formal schooling. Looking back I felt all sorts of pressure to get everything and all the things aligned for this sacred year in the Charlotte Mason sphere of turning six and Year 1! And boy, how wrong I was to ever feel anxious about anything. I think first and foremost being able to have someone in my life who has pointed me towards good philosophy book, great picture book and beyond book lists, HELPS A TON. It’s why I started sharing my current reads on Instagram because having someone I trust share a book with me changed my life! I don’t know if I didn’t read For The Children’s Sake way back when six years ago if I’d be where I am now. With that said, I’ve been immersed in trying to find and read all the books and Charlotte Mason volumes over the course of six years. With teaching first grade I thought I had this all wrapped up and ready to roll with AmblesideOnline and away we’d go! I had of course been collecting books from their book lists for YEARS! I was invested!! Then the Lord did only what the Lord can do and put something better directly in my path. 

Amanda (the author of TCT) came out with The Children’s Tradition. I don’t even know how I stumbled upon it. Probably binge listening to The Commonplace on YouTube or trying to find answers to timetables or examples to bounce off of before we started our year. I listened to this interview with Autumn and Amanda and was restless ever since. I was starting our year early since I was pregnant and due in October and wanted to have a flex window where I wasn’t feeling pressured to add school in, so we’d done a few weeks of AO and really just felt like I needed to be doing more. I couldn’t figure out what it was missing until I listened to them talk about the curriculum. Pregnancy insomnia took hold and finally bought the beta. Shockingly I had almost every book I needed and chalked it up to the Lord providing that necessary pivot in our year. 

As soon as I started diving into the philosophy I knew it was the thing that was missing and was so excited to dive in. We added in Latin (loosely) to our days, we read Good Books that have truly stood the test of time. I’ve watched my littles (six and four) fall in love which characters and stargazing and learn to love the Lord more every day through His Word and loving each other well. Do we do all of this because of the curriculum? Well of course not, but what helped me connect all the Charlotte Mason readings, all of the rich stories into being a way of life was the philosophy of TCT and I truly can’t wait to dive into the updated version to be inspired even more. I joke when I tell people I don’t think my kids even realize we “do school” because when you immerse yourself into the good, true, and beautiful it really does shape your life. It shapes how you view your children, your chores, your job, your family. 

I’ll try to get into the nitty-gritty of what it looks like practically speaking, but for now it’s bedtime and I’ve got to go wrangle my constellation loving children from stargazing. ✨