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Helen
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Erin posted this question on the Delayed Academics thread:
Erin Lewis wrote:
| Can anyone give me a brief summary of what Charlotte Mason education is about, or provide a link that explains the basic idea behind the philosophy? |
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The phrase I’ve heard associated with Charlotte Mason is that Education is an atmophere, a discipline, and a life. I thought it might be helpful and interesting to think about the different ways we take care of the educational atmosphere and environment in our homes. February/March tend to be tough months for homeschoolers. Perhaps we could share some ideas to help keep the winter momentum going.
Charlotte Mason wrote:
When we say that "education is an atmosphere," we do not mean that a child should be isolated in what may be called a 'child-environment' especially adapted and prepared, but that we should take into account the educational value of his natural home atmosphere, both as regards persons and things, and should let him live freely among his proper conditions. It stultifies a child to bring down his world to the child's' level. |
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quote from Ambleside
The Bookworm wrote this on her blog
wrote:
| I like the distinction between atmosphere and environment. Environment is physical; atmosphere is about attitudes rather than things. A child needs to be nurtured in an atmosphere of respect, where he is treated always as a person and a child of God. |
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I think educational atmosphere has a lot to do with cultivating a mother’s joy. I made a post about atmosphere at my blog a few years ago in the context of a series of posts on educational philosophy
What makes up your idea of the homeschool atmosphere and environment? What do you do to cultivate this idea in your homeschool?
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Ave Maria!
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Becky Parker
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I'm on my way out the door so I don't have much time to share but I'm looking forward to reading this thread! When we started homeschooling 8 years ago, I read all I could about Charlotte Mason and her methodology and decided that was the way we were going to go. Since then, I have ventured into other methods including Montessori and the Classical method, which I still really appreciate and take from. But I always come back to CM. It just feels right and I think, it has alot to do with the "atmosphere". When my dh really wanted us to enroll in an accredited program, I chose MODG because I believe there is alot of CM influence there - nature study, copywork and dictation, etc. I've been wishing for a new Charlotte Mason inspired book to read as I feel I have read them all but I need a little boost in our homeschool. This post will be helpful I am sure.
I hope to get back to post about our atmosphere when I have a bit more time to get my thoughts together, but I wanted to reply here while I had a minute.
Thanks Helen! I can't wait to read what others have to say.
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CrunchyMom
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I think that atmosphere is very strongly tied to CM's thoughts on twaddle vs. living literature.
For instance, another thread recently had people express discomfort with how some will make every. little. thing. educational for their kids, bombarding a 3 year old with questions about all the pictures in a book (instead of just enjoying the book). I feel our home would ideally find a balance where we view learning as something enjoyable and important without artificially inserting it.
So, without being able to put my finger on an exact definition, I can see that some might try and create an atmosphere that ends up being the twaddle equivalent instead of a living one that naturally breathes with the joys of learning.
For instance, I LOVE Usborne books and have many, but the atmosphere I feel when visiting an all Usborne site is a bit stifling and artificial with trying to make EVERYTHING educational. I hope I am expressing myself well without seeming to put down a company I actually like.
I think an atmosphere of learning is more easily achieved when attention is paid to environment as well, but of course, environment can be overemphasized to the detriment of atmosphere, too.
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Lindsay
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[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Erin Lewis
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Helen,
Thanks for linking to what you wrote about atmosphere on your blog. I have found that I have to make an effort to be joyful at times, but it often helps me to actually feel positive when I force myself. My husband doesn't understand that - he says he won't "fake it" and pretend to be happy if he isn't, but I think that there is certainly power in positive thinking, and cultivating a positive attitude, even if you don't feel like it, is good for the atmosphere of the home and good for the children.
Like Lindsay said, I would also like to make learning a fun yet important part of life without artificially inserting it. I think that many moms today insert the academic learning things almost automatically - they might even argue that it is natural to start quizzing a kid on everything under the sun. I just today saw a mom at a children's museum who kept asking her three and one year olds about everything they painted and would say, "See, red and blue make purple" or whatever after every time they mixed the paint colors. The best advice I have heard for little ones is to stop talking to them nonstop and just let them do things, and especially to stop asking them so many questions and giving them choices for every single thing all day long. Much of the parenting advice today says that it is good to give kids choices, but for the little ones, I don't think they need as many choices as many people give them. I know I asked my first child so many questions and gave her multiple choices when she was just 2 and 3 years old, and I am seeing that maybe that wasn't the best idea in cultivating a peaceful and calm atmosphere.
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Helen
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Erin Lewis wrote:
I think that there is certainly power in positive thinking, and cultivating a positive attitude, even if you don't feel like it, is good for the atmosphere of the home and good for the children.
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I think this is a good observation Erin. We don't have control over our feelings. Feelings come and go. We do have control over our choices. A pattern of good choices creates virtue. The habit of virtue should have positive repercussions -- hopefully joy.
We should be honest with our feelings. We can admit inside that we don't feel a certain way. Then we can decide to show this feeling or we can decide not to show it. We can decide to show it to many people or to a select few. There are times and places to fake it and then there are times and places not to fake it. It's a discernment process.
Joy is also a fruit of the Holy Spirit. As such, God can bestow it upon us as the fruit of our virtuous choices.
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Ave Maria!
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Marcia
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I really see CM as an atmosphere of living relationships. Either living with a book that was written by a personal passionate about a theme or time period, or real life people. We find that older persons in our town are so full of thoughts and ideas and if just give them a question about something that interests us we are well onto rabbit trails for weeks. Those people who lived through the Depression and the Dust Bowl are in their 80's at least and now is our last chances to spend time with the real people who lived it and learned from it. Next we need to reach out (imho) to those who lived through WWII and are willing to share about it. The personal stories reach my children's hearts the most so we tend to reach out to those that are willing to share.
So what does this have to do with atmosphere? It meant that I needed to want to spend more time with people that have great experiences to share rather than with great classes or lessons that are targeted at Homeschoolers! I have to create a balance between home learning and learning from great people in our community.
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Marcia
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I wonder why
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Helen
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Marcia wrote:
So what does this have to do with atmosphere? It meant that I needed to want to spend more time with people that have great experiences to share rather than with great classes or lessons that are targeted at Homeschoolers! I have to create a balance between home learning and learning from great people in our community. |
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Marcia, thanks for the great observation!
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Helen
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In my spiritual reading, I came across an interesting quote on joy as the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Dom Dolindo Ruotolo
wrote:
| A first glance at the ensemble of these fruits [of the Holy Spirit] shows that the first three: charity, joy, peace, regard the soul's relations with God himself: charity is the love which unites us to God; joy is the gratitude and thanks for the infinite; divine goodness in which we live and move [cf Acts 17:28]; peace is tranquil rest in God, secure in the order of his Law, and hence, it is tranquility in our inmost self and with our neighbor. |
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This is from the book, Come Holy Spirit published by the Academy of the Immaculate.
I'm moving in the direction that atmosphere in the home has a lot to do with our relationship with God.
Do you think this idea fits in with CM's view of atmosphere? Or is this very different?
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MicheleQ
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Helen wrote:
I'm moving in the direction that atmosphere in the home has a lot to do with our relationship with God.
Do you think this idea fits in with CM's view of atmosphere? |
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Yes very much so!
Quote:
"To excite this 'appetency towards something'––towards things lovely, honest, and or good report, is the earliest and most important ministry of the educator.
How shall these indefinite ideas which manifest themselves in appetency be imparted? They are not to be given of set purpose, nor taken at set times. They are held in that thought-environment which surrounds the child as an atmosphere, which he breathes as his breath of life; and this atmosphere in which the child inspires his unconscious ideas of right living emanates from his parents.
Every look of gentleness and tone of reverence, every word of kindness and act of help, passes into the thought-environment, the very atmosphere which the child breathes; he does not think of these things, may never think of them, but all his life long they excite that 'vague appetency towards something' out of which most of his actions spring. Oh,wonderful and dreadful presence of the little child in the midst!
A Child draws Inspiration from the Casual Life around him––That he should take direction and inspiration from all the casual life about him, should make our poor words and ways the starting-point from which, and in the direction of which, he develops––this is a thought which makes the best of us hold our breath.
There is no way of escape for parents; they must needs be as 'inspirers' to their children, because about them hangs, as its atmosphere about a planet the thought-environment of the child, from which he derives those enduring ideas which express themselves as a life-long 'appetency' towards things sordid or things lovely, things earthly or divine."
--Charlotte Mason (Parents and Children pp.36-37) |
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Michele Quigley
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MicheleQ
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More on Atmosphere. CM strongly believed that a child's environment should not be contrived:
Quote:
"The theory has been,––put a child in the right environment and so subtle is its influence, so permanent its effects that he is to all intents and purposes educated thereby. Schools may add Latin and sums and whatever else their curriculum contains, but the actual education is, as it were, performed upon a child by means of colour schemes, harmonious sounds, beautiful forms, gracious persons. He grows up aesthetically educated into sweet reasonableness and harmony with his surroundings."
"Let us hear Professor Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose, the Indian scientist, on one of his conclusions concerning the nervous impulse in plants, 'A plant carefully protected under glass from outside shocks looks sleek and flourishing but its higher nervous function is then found to be atrophied. But when a succession of "blows" (electric shocks) 'is rained on this effete and bloated specimen, the shocks themselves create nervous channels and arouse anew the deteriorated nature. Is it not the shocks of adversity and not cotton wool protection that evolve true manhood?'
"It is not an environment that these want, a set of artificial relations carefully constructed, but an atmosphere which nobody has been at pains to constitute. It is there, about the child, his natural element, precisely as the atmosphere of the earth is about us. It is thrown off, as it were, from persons and things, stirred by events, sweetened by love, ventilated, kept in motion, by the regulated action of common sense. We all know the natural conditions under which a child should live; how he shares household ways with his mother, romps with his father, is teased by his brothers and petted by his sisters; is taught by his tumbles; learns self-denial by the baby's needs, the delightfulness of furniture by playing at battle and siege with sofa and table; learns veneration for the old by the visits of his great-grandmother; how to live with his equals by the chums he gathers round him; learns intimacy with animals from his dog and cat; delight in the fields where the buttercups grow and greater delight in the blackberry hedges. And, what tempered 'fusion of classes' is so effective as a child's intimacy with his betters, and also with cook and housemaid, blacksmith and joiner, with everybody who comes in his way? Children have a genius for this sort of general intimacy, a valuable part of their education;"
"We certainly may use atmosphere as an instrument of education, but there are prohibitions, for ourselves rather than for children. Perhaps the chief of these is, that no artificial element be introduced, no sprinkling with rose-water, softening with cushions. Children must face life as it is; if their parents are anxious and perturbed children feel it in the air. 'Mummie, Mummie, you aren't going to cry this time, are you?' and a child's hug tries to take away the trouble. By these things children live and we may not keep them in glass cases; if we do, they develop in succulence and softness and will not become plants of renown. But due relations must be maintained; the parents are in authority, the children in obedience; and again, the strong may not lay their burdens on the weak; nor must we expect from children that effort of decision, the most fatiguing in our lives, of which the young should generally be relieved. "
Charlotte Mason (Towards a Philosophy of Education pp 95-97) |
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Michele Quigley
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JennGM
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Helen wrote:
In my spiritual reading, I came across an interesting quote on joy as the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Dom Dolindo Ruotolo
wrote:
| A first glance at the ensemble of these fruits [of the Holy Spirit] shows that the first three: charity, joy, peace, regard the soul's relations with God himself: charity is the love which unites us to God; joy is the gratitude and thanks for the infinite; divine goodness in which we live and move [cf Acts 17:28]; peace is tranquil rest in God, secure in the order of his Law, and hence, it is tranquility in our inmost self and with our neighbor. |
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This is from the book, Come Holy Spirit published by the Academy of the Immaculate.
I'm moving in the direction that atmosphere in the home has a lot to do with our relationship with God.
Do you think this idea fits in with CM's view of atmosphere? Or is this very different? |
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Helen, I've been moving in a similar direction, especially starting with interior peace and it should all fall into place after that. The book I just finished reading was Searching for and Maintaining Peace: A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart by Father Jacques Philippe.
So much of the child's education hinges on the parents, doesn't it? Every time I need to look at reframing our school work and days, my first look is at me and ordering my spiritual life. If things are falling apart it usually starts with me!
I love those quotes, Michele! It shows how atmosphere isn't nor should be contrived. I think the Simplicity discussion also points to this, that again, it's from the interior, not externally forced exercises or contrived atmospheres.
"learns self-denial by the baby's needs"
I also can see the connection of respect for work and suffering and self-discipline, and how this is part of growing up and the atmosphere in the home. Taken a further step, it's a blessing and a joy as a Christian. You have to have the cross to become saints!
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Helen
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JennGM wrote:
| I also can see the connection of respect for work and suffering and self-discipline, and how this is part of growing up and the atmosphere in the home. |
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Yes, Michele's CM quotes caused me to reflect on the atmosphere in my home growing up. I probably remember the times of suffering more strongly. Nobody was laughing with joy but there was acceptance of God's Will. I know this because my parents went to Mass every Sunday.
Maybe in our circles, Catholic homeschooling circles where many go to Church every day, we forget how important going to Mass every Sunday is. Maybe we take it for granted but we are setting a Catholic atmosphere, despite our ups and downs, trials and joys, when we remain faithful to the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
(This reminds me of the thread Liturgy as the basis)
Thanks for the quotes Michele!
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Ave Maria!
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CrunchyMom
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I love Charlotte Mason--such wisdom! Maybe I just think that because she articulates my instincts, lol!
I love how she wrote
Quote:
| nor must we expect from children that effort of decision, the most fatiguing in our lives, of which the young should generally be relieved. |
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Isn't it such a contrast to the tendencies of modern society regarding children? They are neither expected to learn sacrifice or anything else learned through the "hard knocks" of family life, but we ask them to make all kinds of decisions in the name of freedom and individualism!
JennGM wrote:
| It shows how atmosphere isn't nor should be contrived. I think the Simplicity discussion also points to this, that again, it's from the interior, not externally forced exercises or contrived atmspheres. |
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This reminds me of something you wrote some time ago on your blog, Helen. You spoke of a priest telling you that mothers don't have to go and invent or seek other methods of mortification, the opportunities for self sacrifice are all right there.
Sometimes it does seem a temptation to contrive an atmosphere where we seek to create opportunities for holiness that appeal to us rather than accept the ones God lays in our path.
So, how do you discern a "contrived" atmosphere from an effort to create a routine or daily rhythm which children do seem to thrive on? I'm sure there is a difference, but I also imagine it to look a lot alike at times(much like the minimalist/simplicity contrast on the other thread).
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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JennGM
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CrunchyMom wrote:
| So, how do you discern a "contrived" atmosphere from an effort to create a routine or daily rhythm which children do seem to thrive on? I'm sure there is a difference, but I also imagine it to look a lot alike at times(much like the minimalist/simplicity contrast on the other thread). |
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I was thinking of the minimalist/simplicity contrast, also.
A daily rhythm or routine isn't the contrived part for me, at all.
Because true peace comes from within I do think that means atmosphere will be unique to each family. There are ideas of creating an atmosphere, but how it looks and carried out will be different for each family. There should be no prescribed way that "this is how peace in the home is made", or "to be creative you must do such and such".
One example that keeps coming to my mind is the repeated prescription that elmination of toys and purchasing certain types will bring about certain changes within the home. To me that's an external pressure to make a change to evoke an atmosphere. And it requires purchase of material goods to reach that goal. Continuing the idea that Helen brings up, it seems that material goods cannot create an atmosphere. Can they be tools along the way? Seems like yes, but not the main means.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Erin Lewis
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JennGM wrote:
| One example that keeps coming to my mind is the repeated prescription that elmination of toys and purchasing certain types will bring about certain changes within the home. To me that's an external pressure to make a change to evoke an atmosphere. And it requires purchase of material goods to reach that goal. Continuing the idea that Helen brings up, it seems that material goods cannot create an atmosphere. Can they be tools along the way? Seems like yes, but not the main means. |
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I can see that buying certain toys and materials may be an attempt to create a "contrived" atmosphere... and one which may not be feasible for families who have a limited budget for that sort of thing. It could approach the point of materialism, wanting to have specific (expensive!) toys and learning tools for the children. I do think the elimination of toys that cause problems can be a good thing towards creating a more peaceful atmosphere. Personally, I dislike toys that make noise for no reason - the push a button and they light up and beep kinds - so I try to move those out of my home soon after my kids receive them, or, if they serve a purpose still after the batteries die, then we might keep them around longer. ;) I think having less "stuff" is something that can make a more orderly, calm atmosphere. I am working on this myself... I love the idea of less toys and having them be good quality and open-ended, but then there is the issue of expense in buying better quality toys. There is also the issue of extended family wanting to buy a lot for the kids for Christmas. And there is the issue of my own sentimentality/pack rat tendencies that I grew up cultivating... I saved everything, and my parents never made us donate or dispose of old toys. On the one hand, I feel like I had a lot of supplies around to be creative with (for instance, my parents didn't put away baby toys once the babies were all older, but I could use a stacking ring from a baby toy to make a tire swing or an inner-tube for a little doll). So I am trying to find a balance between being a minimalist and letting my kids enjoy the variety of things they have... it is hard! I sometimes feel mean purging their old toys, but then, we also have a smaller house - my house growing up had a huge rec room in the basement where all the extra toys could be kept! We have no basement or playroom in our home now.
And I don't know if it is okay to mention the W-word seeing as the big thread on it was closed, but I see some overlap in the philosophies of it and CM... like the quote about foisting decision-making on little ones posted by CrunchyMom above, and having daily rhythms/routines... and that just makes me feel better that these are not ideas that are unique to one educational philosophy; no one philosophy can stake a claim in them as being "theirs."
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CrunchyMom
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JennGM wrote:
CrunchyMom wrote:
| So, how do you discern a "contrived" atmosphere from an effort to create a routine or daily rhythm which children do seem to thrive on? I'm sure there is a difference, but I also imagine it to look a lot alike at times(much like the minimalist/simplicity contrast on the other thread). |
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I was thinking of the minimalist/simplicity contrast, also.
A daily rhythm or routine isn't the contrived part for me, at all.
Because true peace comes from within I do think that means atmosphere will be unique to each family. There are ideas of creating an atmosphere, but how it looks and carried out will be different for each family. There should be no prescribed way that "this is how peace in the home is made", or "to be creative you must do such and such".
One example that keeps coming to my mind is the repeated prescription that elmination of toys and purchasing certain types will bring about certain changes within the home. To me that's an external pressure to make a change to evoke an atmosphere. And it requires purchase of material goods to reach that goal. Continuing the idea that Helen brings up, it seems that material goods cannot create an atmosphere. Can they be tools along the way? Seems like yes, but not the main means. |
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I think that it is sort of a chicken or the egg argument with the toys. Trying to make your home contrived to look like a Pottery Barn Catalog instead of a Toys R Us catalog is just another manifestation of the same beast. But actually LIMITING what comes into your home and being intentional about what you bring into your environment can certainly be effective tools in creating the atmosphere of learning.
My husband checked some lego coffee table books from the library, and while they were in the house, that was ALL my kids looked at, even though they otherwise would spend hours looking at more worthwhile things. It is hard for the worthwhile to compete in the face of the more stimulating options.
I DO prefer the atmosphere in my own home with toys that do not make noise. Banging wooden hammers are plenty loud enough for me!
Perhaps one of the keys to "atmosphere" that comes out of "environment' is silence.
If one is always looking to be stimulated, television, noisy toys, and an environment full of visual stimulation does distract one from thinking about things like one does when there is silence. Look at monastic orders with strict rules for silence. It is in discipline over the environment that they create the atmosphere most conducive to study, prayer, and contemplation.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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JennGM
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CrunchyMom wrote:
| If one is always looking to be stimulated, television, noisy toys, and an environment full of visual stimulation does distract one from thinking about things like one does when there is silence. Look at monastic orders with strict rules for silence. It is in discipline over the environment that they create the atmosphere most conducive to study, prayer, and contemplation. |
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I guess what I'm not voicing well is that yes, having a discipline over the environment does create an atmosphere, but that atmosphere can only be truly had if it starts interiorly first. Does that make any sense? Kind of like the internal/external worship. If it's all external, then it's just going through motions. If the external is in cooperation of the soul, of the interior disposition, it is truly going to be the atmosphere. And I guess I'm saying interior comes first, and the external follows, or the external is a reminder of the internal? I know it sounds a bit idealistic...
But like your monk example, Lindsay, they enter into the order with the interior disposition to then have the external reminders and discipline.
But the external does help refine and remind....
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CrunchyMom
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I guess that is what I meant about a chicken or the egg situation. I think what you say is true, but I'm not sure if it is true in the same way for children as it is for adults. Without outside influence or guidance, children don't seem interiorly motivated to create an environment conducive to silence or order of their own accord.
I wonder if a child raised in a more "contrived" environment which allows them the "silence" is not more likely to recognize his natural inclination toward God than one in constant "noise."
When I hear the statistics for the numbers of hours people watch television, etc..., I wonder if environment does not have an influence on whether or not we ever even look at ourselves interiorly. I'd wager that a great many people in our culture have never even encountered themselves, let alone God, because they are always "plugged in" to a distraction.
So, in regards to children, do they *start* with an interior life, and we as parents/educators cultivate that? It would seem so. It seems pretty precarious, though, since from the beginning, they are easily drawn into mindless amusements outside themselves. So, if that connection to the interior (which is where we encounter God) is lost, our environment can directly influence our ability to find it, or our child's ability to discover (and rediscover) it on their own.
Charlotte Mason says
Quote:
| In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mother’s first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it spent for the most part out in the fresh air (Vol. 1, p. 43). |
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To get back to the chicken/egg thing, for some, and interior love of God will motivate them to create a beautiful cathedral. For others, being inside a beautiful cathedral will be what draws them to an interior encounter with God.
I think where it gets confusing for me is whether we are talking about *us* or *our children.* Must *we* be interiorly motivated in creating an environment to influence the atmosphere of a child's education positively?
__________________
Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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JennGM
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| Posted: March 10 2010 at 11:45am | IP Logged
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CrunchyMom wrote:
| I think where it gets confusing for me is whether we are talking about *us* or *our children.* Must *we* be interiorly motivated in creating an environment to influence the atmosphere of a child's education positively? |
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I am talking about us, because it does come from us. It starts with the parents. I guess I've been keeping in mind what Helen wrote:
Helen wrote:
In my spiritual reading, I came across an interesting quote on joy as the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Dom Dolindo Ruotolo
wrote:
| A first glance at the ensemble of these fruits [of the Holy Spirit] shows that the first three: charity, joy, peace, regard the soul's relations with God himself: charity is the love which unites us to God; joy is the gratitude and thanks for the infinite; divine goodness in which we live and move [cf Acts 17:28]; peace is tranquil rest in God, secure in the order of his Law, and hence, it is tranquility in our inmost self and with our neighbor. |
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This is from the book, Come Holy Spirit published by the Academy of the Immaculate.
I'm moving in the direction that atmosphere in the home has a lot to do with our relationship with God.
Do you think this idea fits in with CM's view of atmosphere? Or is this very different? |
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to & ds1 '03 & ds2 '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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CrunchyMom
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I see. I guess I think that charity, kindness, and respect for our children as persons are ineriorly motivated.
As a Christian, I'm sure that it was Charlotte Mason's own relationship with God which influenced her to explore ideas regarding education as she did.
But, I do think that an atmosphere (and environment) which is more healthful, conducive for learning, and better for a child's soul *can* exist without the teacher or parent being a Christian or having rightly ordered motivations.
It will still be incomplete, but it isn't a complete wash, either, if that makes sense.
__________________
Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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4Real Forums : Philosophy of Education
Topic: Atmosphere in the homeschool
