Sharing Gifts

On Inspiring Ideas

I start blogs because I have many things to say. I fail to say them for many reasons. One is making the time of course, but that’s certainly not the main one. I won’t try to thoroughly analyze all of the reasons why I fail to write for my blog (though that does bring up my perfectionistic over-analysis tendencies…). Let’s just talk about one. Today I told my friend that I don’t share about astronomy because I assume that nobody wants to listen to me nerd out about astronomy (she had brought up astronomy as a hypothetical example). And she told me I’m an idiot.

I don’t know if she knows that was the perfect thing to say to inspire me to write some thoughts down and post them, but it was effective. Here I am. I’m trying to stop being an idiot. But now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, what should I say to make sure I’m not wasting your time? Time is valuable and there are a lot of things out there you could be reading… stop being an idiot, Lynette.

I asked myself why it is that I ever convinced myself to start a blog anyway. I guess it was because someone convinced me that there was an audience that I could inspire. But I guess that thought hasn’t been quite enough. My friend (the one who called me an idiot – she’s a really good friend and she did well by saying that, just so we’re clear) told me that blogging isn’t just about sharing my thoughts. It’s also about cultivating a community. Really, we can all inspire each other. It’s not that I have it all figured out or anybody does. But I can share what I’ve learned. And you can share what you’ve learned.

But what should I share? I don’t know what you need to hear. I don’t know what you want to hear. I don’t know how to make sure that my blog is not an inane waste of your time. Maybe I just need to let that go and share what I have to share, trusting that if I share the ideas that have captivated me, you’ll get what you need from it.

Right now, I’m listening to my daughter play and sing guitar in the other room. It’s beautiful. You’re all missing out. She’s not consciously trying to bless my life right now. But she is. She’s fulfilling a dream I’ve had for a long time. I always wanted my children to have musical skills they could share with the world. I wanted to be the family that just informally picked up instruments and played and sang together. I didn’t set out to specifically make that happen though. I hoped it would happen, but it’s not like I orchestrated a plan to turn my family into the Von Trapps or something (if only we could be that cool).

It’s not like I did nothing either though. In fact, when I stop and think about it, I’ve done quite a lot. It’s just that none of it was directly aimed at that goal. For one thing, a friend and I bought ukuleles years ago and started using them to sing folk songs with our children. I spent a few years being bad at it. The only time I pulled out the ukulele was once a school day, to sing a folk song with my children. I figured out the chords, strummed them badly, and we sang along. Some of the songs I was able to strum better than others. I didn’t consciously seek to model learning a skill to my children, but that’s what happened.

Backing up a bit, it’s fascinating to think through all of the many facets of my children’s music education. The education in our home is based almost entirely on the principles of Charlotte Mason. As such, we’ve never had a “music class.” But we’ve experienced music in a plethora of ways. We’ve learned at least one new hymn a month for most of the last 10 years. We’ve learned at least as many folk songs. We’ve listened to the music of around 3-6 composers a year. We’ve sang hymns in church. We’ve practiced solfa. We’ve worked at playing piano.

When people find out we homeschool, they usually want to know what we “use.” I do follow the guidance of others and I do think that’s important, but not in the way that I’ve found most people mean the question. We haven’t worked our way through a music textbook. If you quiz my children on musical terminology, I have no idea how they’ll do, nor do I care.

Charlotte Mason said that the mind feeds on ideas. I didn’t introduce folk songs to my children and then tell them what they were supposed to get out of them. There are certainly many things they could get out of them. They’ve made many connections along the way. One can focus on culture, history, music, chords, vocabulary… there are even some cautionary tales I could have really driven home (heaven forbid). But I never have done any of that. Just like I serve supper to my children and let their bodies take the nutrients they need, I also serve up folk songs to my children and let their minds do the same. We literally just sing the folk songs. Folk songs are meant to be sung.  

Many people struggle with the value of folk songs. Why in the world does a Charlotte Mason education include folk songs? They want to know what it’s useful for. How is it not waste of time? There are certainly many uses. Maybe they’re getting to be better singers. Maybe they’re gaining a connection to the past. Maybe they’re getting tunes to whistle, or work with, or play with. Maybe they’re just experiencing the joy of singing together in community.

Let’s go back to my daughter playing guitar in the other room (She’s moved on, by the way. Now, she came and asked me if she could bake something. I of course told her she is free to bake anything she likes). Why does my daughter play guitar? Why does she want to bake? Maybe it’s because she has been inspired. Maybe it’s because she likes the sound of music and she has found the joy of creating it. Maybe it’s because she likes tasty treats and has found the joy of making them. Maybe it’s because it’s pouring rain and her horse lesson got canceled and she’s making better choices than sitting around and feeling sorry for herself.

Now you want to know how you can have a child who makes such wonderful choices in their free time. I have no simple answers. I can tell you that my children have fed on many living and inspiring ideas. I can tell you that we’ve worked hard to get to a place where I can sit down and type this while my children entertain themselves without screaming. I think I can guarantee you that if you give your children the gift of living ideas – living and real books, music, pictures, nature, etc. - and you don’t destroy their joy by making them take it all apart in destructive ways - they will be inspired by them. But I can’t guarantee you they’ll be inspired in the way you imagined. Maybe though. Either way, the Lord knows what you need and what they need.

Did I mention I’ve been playing ukulele for our entire co-op this year? I didn’t even think twice about offering. There are a handful of children in the co-op who have now acquired ukuleles. A couple of the moms may be almost convinced to be brave and just start playing. This is me being brave and just writing. What do you need to be brave about?