August 7, 2024
All Living: How the “Joy of Making” was Joy-Making and Life-Giving with Laura Young
The Charlotte Mason community has long published notes and reflections on its gatherings. Conference impressions, lectures, and even the discussion following them were included in the Parents' Review, the journal Charlotte Mason edited which was circulated around the community of educators in her time and in decades afterwards. These always served to give readers a taste of the conference and to share the conversation about ideas which took place. Today, it is exciting to be able to continue the conversations with virtual tickets and regional watch parties as well in the coming months. So it is with anticipation and gratitude and a sense of this long tradition in the Mason community that we continue to reflect together on "The Joy of Making," by publishing these conference impressions from Laura which she has so generously agreed to share with you all.
*Participants are encouraged to host watch parties in their communities at no additional charge!
Reflections on the Joy of Making
You are receiving this conference feedback in this format because when I took the conference survey, I clicked “done” too soon! I was so excited to share what a wonderful experience I had, but now I am glad that I have had some time to carefully and thoughtfully craft a much more articulate response than “It was great! Everything was wonderful!” I want to respond to y’all with the care and thoughtfulness that y’all took in crafting the “Joy of Making” conference! It was obvious to me how much time and effort, love and care was taken to bring such a nourishing feast of ideas to the Charlotte Mason community. I know it is a tremendous undertaking to plan, orchestrate and implement so many moving parts and moving people, but it seemed to me to run so smoothly and with a tremendous amount of joy! People seemed genuinely happy to be present at the conference and no one seemed hurried or stressed. The whole conference had a joy-making and life-giving vibe to it!
I apologize for the length of this “feedback,” but I would like to take just a few moments to gush over all the joy-made and life-given for me, share some of the joy-making and life-giving ideas the Holy Spirit brought to me over the course of the weekend, give some “feed-forward,” and close with gratitude.
A different kind of professional development
I taught in the public school system for seven years full-time and three years part-time; I have sat through a lot of professional development. Some of it was interesting, some of it was encouraging, some of it I did enjoy (and some of it was miserable and tear-jerkingly boring), but I would not have described it with the same word that I am going to use to describe “The Joy of Making.” I knew that a Charlotte Mason “professional development” would be unlike my public school experiences, but I did not know how it would be a joyful, mind-heart-soul experience! The word that the Holy Spirit continues to give me for my time at “The Joy of Making” is the word “nourish.”
Nourish (v.)
- To supply the means of support and increase;
- To encourage;
- To cherish; to comfort;
- To educate; to instruct; to provide growth in attainments
~Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828
When I got home, I just had to look up the dictionary definition of “nourish,” and yes, “nourish” is the perfect word to describe my experience at “The Joy of Making” conference.
There were so many ways that y’all supplied the means of support and increase during the conference. Through the joy and passion of the keynote speakers, the breakout session leaders, the fireside chat facilitators, the comfort of the music and the conference hymn, the encouragement of making the lanyard (which is something I will cherish), the Eve Anderson tea with Min, friendly faces and good conversation, and being in a beautiful setting (I may be partial on that one since I am from Kentucky), the whole weekend was encouraging, comforting, educative, and instructive. I experienced the Holy Spirit making in me a depth of joy and a giving of life. Here are some excerpts from some of my reflections...
Friday, July 25, 2024
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10
As I consider the joy of making, I think about these encouraging and inspiring words in the Holy Scripture brought to me by the Holy Spirit. We are His workmanship CREATED in Christ Jesus for good works. And I can just pause there and meditate on this connection He has given me. GOD’S JOY in making! How much joy did He have–speaking into existence and truly creating all the visible and invisible attributes of our world. And He didn’t just create a bare minimum world–He created a bountiful world that He declared to be good!
Saturday, July 27, 2024
“The Joy of Making” Our Atmospheres, Disciplines, Lives Is Joy Making!
When first coming to Charlotte Mason the mantra “Education is an atmosphere, a discipline and a life” sounded so lovely but I quickly realized it was a depth to be mined! And when the “Code of Education” Miss Mason discovered in the Gospels and then uncovers for us was added to that, I started asking myself even more “how” and “why” questions as I started to dig deeper into the philosophy gifted to her by the Holy Spirit.
At the close of this “Joy of Making” conference, I would like to layer “Education is…” and “The Code” with the idea that there is joy in making this education within the parameters of “The Code.” There is joy in making the atmosphere of our homes so that we offend not, despise not, hinder not our children; there is joy in making the disciplines of life so that we offend not, despise not, hinder not our children; there is JOY in MAKING our homes LIFE-GIVING where our children are offended not, despised not and hindered not.”
- The opposite of atmosphere is smothering..
- The opposite of discipline is chaos.
- The opposite of life is death.
- The opposite of offend not is honor/respect.
- The opposite of despise not is cherish.
- The opposite of hinder not is support.
What a tremendous responsibility we have set before us.
I can’t help but think that Jesus’ joy includes the relationship that He set to right–His JOY is to bring us into relationship with God, both now and forevermore! And His joy in doing something for us that we CANNOT do for ourselves! Offer us salvation AND righteousness? Bountiful!
Finding joy in the “small” things (that are not small AT ALL)–the joy of bringing up my child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, the joy of making/crafting the atmosphere, discipline and life the Holy Spirit guides and counsels my family into; the joy of respecting, cherishing and supporting my child–all of these are joy-making and life giving for my whole family and for my legacy and for the Lord!
Sunday, July 28, 2024
The JOY of making–the Journey of making; the Others of making; the Yearning of making
Jesus came to give us life–full and abundant life! Both now and forevermore! Charlotte Mason captures this vision when she writes that “Life should be ALL LIVING!”
And these are just a few of the joy-making, all-living ideas brought to me by the Holy Spirit as a result of “The Joy of Making” conference. I am still bubbling with more ideas and with a desire to fill these ideas out even more! So the joy-making and the life-giving continues!
Feed Forwards
I went to Heather Johnson’s breakout session about nature journaling, and she shared an idea that is sticking with me. That idea is the phrase “feed forward” instead of “feedback” (I think Heather cited John Muir Laws for this idea, but I forgot to write it down); I took the concept to mean to discuss ideas with students that continue and deepen the conversation. I hope this next section is viewed as just that–a continuation and deepening of the conversation about the conference from a participant’s perspective (with the help of John Muir Laws’ “I notice…I wonder…It reminds me of)!
I noticed that there were groups of moms who attended the conference together. I LOVE this and hope to bring along some of my friends to future conferences. I wonder what it would look like to have “conference cohorts”--randomly assigned groups of 20 or so who gather after keynote speakers/breakout sessions to narrate and discuss ideas. These groups could somehow be randomly selected, assigned and maybe even named before the conference.
It reminds me of how refreshing it was when I discovered Charlotte Mason-ers in my own community and how making connections to other like-minded, kindred Charlotte Mason spirits all over the country and in different school settings is life-giving and joy-making because of the support and encouragement and ideas we can offer and share with each other!
I love that my husband attended the conference with me! I noticed that there were not a lot of husbands/men in attendance. I noticed my husband enjoyed the sessions he attended. However, he is the very definition of a kinesthetic learner! I wonder what it would look like to have an excursion/outdoor adventure group for the weekend? Or offer a Friday morning excursion? Or more hands-on learning sessions? (Or a “My wife is always talking about Charlotte Mason” support group"). Of course, these classes would not have to be exclusive to just dads/husbands/men. It reminds me of how different my husband and I are, but amazingly we are a harmonious whole! It also reminds me of how important husbands/fathers/men are in the educational life of our children and they enjoy nourishment for the home education journey also!
I noticed how beautiful the prayers prayed were! I was in tears at several points during many of the sessions and especially during the prayers and the songs! I loved that we had the conference hymn to look forward to each morning and I wonder if there could be a conference prayer that we could pray each day as well. I attended an online conference back in the winter and that conference had a conference prayer that was said at the beginning of each session. It was not a long prayer, but it did help focus my mind on the One who brings us all this truth, beauty and goodness!
Finally (yay!)...
I am so grateful to everyone at the Charlotte Mason Institute who works diligently to further Charlotte Mason’s Holy Spirit inspired ideas and discoveries to a wide variety of educational settings. Y’all have a passion for this fine lady and the work the Holy Spirit did through her surrendered life to the One Who gives us life and life abundantly–our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Thank you for the mission field you are serving on and in to bring Him glory through Miss Mason’s educational principles. The work y’all do is of eternal value and importance. And as Susan Schafer Macaulay writes of Charlotte Mason in her endorsement of the reprint of Miss Mason’s volumes by Simply Charlotte Mason, “Welcome back, my dear valued mentor, Charlotte Mason! Our children need you as never before.” So thank y’all for everything you do to nourish the Charlotte Mason community in joy-making, life-giving ways!
