Donald Trump and Charlotte Mason

There was panic within me when I realized that Donald Trump was going to be the President of the United States. I felt as if I would throw up. I couldn't sleep. I had a mild panic attack. I worried about my children and wondered how people in this country could vote for someone that was such a bad man personally, no matter his political views. 

After waking up this morning, I calmed myself somewhat. I still feel sick and unmotivated but I am vowing to make the best of the situation. I always tell my kids to look for the best in people. Can I do this too?

I have been reading about Charlotte Mason lately (Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola) and thinking about "Mother Culture." How we should exercise our minds and give ourselves some healthy leisure and diversion in order to be strong. Find time for ourselves (not just our kids) and grow as people. But how can I read and become cultured while Trump is President? I can't focus, I can't think straight. I am troubled. Is this the start of our Dark Age? Where no one can focus on culture and we all just mindlessly live out our days? How depressing.

No! I must not! I can't. Here is what I will do. I will love my family. I will care for my family. I will educate my children. I will give Trump a chance but my family will never be the "uneducated" that he loves so dearly. My children will be educated, cultured, and a light to the world. 

I'm certainly not going to teach my children to hate anyone, not even Trump. I am going to hope that the presidency changes him for the better. Makes him more responsible, more respectful, a better person. He cannot possibly get worse right?

When trying to explain the election, people say that our country has strayed from God. Without religion there is no morality. But I am not a Christian! Yet I am a good person, a very good person. A moral person. When Christians say these things it hurts me. I don't know right and wrong? I can't tell the distinction between right and wrong behavior? Because I'm not a Christian!? This is so extremely narrow minded that I feel truly sorry for anyone who feels this way. Perhaps their parents raised them on only books written from the Christian perspective and they have therefore had their minds closed with belief. It is sad.

Lately, we have been taking a very Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling. No worksheets (except for math), just real living books (not textbooks) that the kids then narrate and we discuss. It is so simple and simple is good.

Although I agree with much of the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling, the booklists often touted are so incredibly white and Christian it is astonishing to me.

We will not read only books from white European/American Christians. We will read much more widely than that. I will not attempt to censor what my children read in order to protect their Christian worldview and Christian souls. We will love the world and everyone in it. The minds of my children are just as capable as my own and I will not narrow them. 

Stop censoring! Love one another. Morality is not only for Christians. Read and grow. 

                                                      

This week Ayomide has been voluntarily working on nature study. With the time change we are both up by 6:30 and just sort of hang out and read or play with Tokunbo until around 8:30 when we wake up the others.

The kids were excited about election day and wanted to put the presidents in order.

Here is Seun laughing about her drawing of George Bush.

Wale wanted freckles for the day.

Copywork.

What we are reading. These are typical books on many Charlotte Mason lists. I have no problem reading books written by white Christians. Actually the Foster books are described as "not as overtly Christian as some of us would like them to be, but her books do what textbooks do not; they tell a good story." Well let me pick that one up! We are really enjoying it. I am currently working on a more well rounded worldly living book list for us to use. I will post on that in the future.

 Both Shina and Ayo's activities at the Y are over and we stay home a lot. Thursday is our only day with activities away from home. I love it. Now if I could just get my mind off of this election. I need an inspiring homeschooling book that doesn't shove Christianity down my throat... For now, I am reading All the Light We Cannot See, a novel set in Nazi occupied Paris. It is helping me to put things into perspective and maybe feel a little tiny smidge better about the state of our nation.