What if your homeschool didn’t feel like a checklist, but a life-giving journey? In this Best of Homeschool Super Heroes Workshop episode, Julie Ross shares the tools of a Charlotte Mason education and how they can bring peace, beauty, and connection to your home.

You’ll learn how to apply these tools—atmosphere, discipline, and life—in a way that nourishes both your children and yourself. This gentle philosophy isn’t about replicating school at home; it’s about building something far more meaningful.

Here’s what you’ll take away:

✅ What it really means to create a homeschool “atmosphere”

✅ How habits form the foundation of discipline (without nagging)

✅ Why ideas are the most powerful food for the mind

✅ How to foster solitude, attention, and curiosity

✅ The secret to cultivating beauty and truth in your home

This week only, you can grab my Charlotte Mason Tool Kit for 50% off as a way to put these ideas into practice without overwhelm.

Mentioned Resources:

Charlotte Mason Tool Kit - SAVE 50% with code: CM50

Show Notes:

Welcome to the Three Tools of a Life-Giving EducationHey, hello everyone. Welcome to the three tools of a life-giving education. I'm so excited to talk to you today about these amazing tools that we have for free.

Charlotte Mason said, "Education is an atmosphere and a discipline and a life more important than the curriculum you're using." That's just one of the tools. Any resource you use can be shaped and guided according to these three tools to give your children a life-giving education.

Before we dive into today's talk, I just want to introduce myself. I'm Julie Ross. I'm the creator of the Charlotte Mason curriculum, A Gentle Feast. I'm a homeschool veteran of over 20 years. I have five kiddos—one has graduated recently from college and then the other will be a senior in college in neuroscience next year. And then I have three teenagers that I'm still homeschooling.

So I've been homeschooling for a while. Before that, I was a public school educator and I helped start a private Christian school. So I've been in the educational space for about 30 years now. And I'm also a certified Christian life coach. So I'm going to bring in all my experience as a teacher, as a homeschool mom, as a coach, and bring that all in and hopefully give you a really practical look at how these three tools of a Charlotte Mason education can help transform your homeschool.

Tool #1: Education Is an AtmosphereSo let's start off with the first one. Education is an atmosphere. What in the world does that even mean? That seems so bizarre. Atmosphere, what does it have to do? How is that a tool to help guide our education?

I would say this is in fact one of the most, if not the most important tool. Charlotte Mason said, "Therefore, we are limited to three educational instruments: the atmosphere of environment, the discipline of habit, and the presentation of living ideas." Going back again to the motto, education is an atmosphere, discipline, and a life.

So, what are we talking about when we're talking about the atmosphere of your home or the home environment? This is from a Parents' Review article. That's the magazine that Charlotte Mason edited. And this author wrote, "There are many important aspects of home life, from first training to highest education, but there is nothing in the way of direct teaching that will ever have so wide and lasting an effect as the atmosphere of home."

And the gravest thought concerning this is that in this instant, there's nothing to learn and nothing to teach. The atmosphere emanates from ourselves as the parents. It literally is ourselves. Our children live in it and breathe it and what we are is thus incorporated into them. There is no pretense here or possibility of evasion. We may deceive ourselves in the long run. We never deceive our children. The spirit of home lives in what is more—home atmosphere is accentuated in them. Atmosphere is much more than teaching and infinitely more than talk.

And when I first read this quote, I was unbelievably convicted. Because the atmosphere of my home at the time was not what I wanted. It was not what I wanted my homeschool to be like. I felt like I was a drill sergeant constantly giving out orders, constantly wondering like why is this not done? This was supposed to be done minutes ago. Everybody get in the car. We got to go to this and we were just hurry hurry hurry stress stress stress stress.

And I was like, this isn't why I homeschooled. This isn't the atmosphere I want to create. Because Charlotte Mason is saying here, this atmosphere that you might not even realize is what is going on in your home is going to have such a lasting effect on your children.

What Atmosphere Do You Want to Create?I wanted my children to feel like school and learning was just part of life and it was this beautiful atmosphere. I wanted us to have deep connections. I wanted my kids to be curious. I wanted them to have time to be creative. And I realized that by me being stressed out all the time, I was actually hurting my children and creating an atmosphere of our home that was not conducive to learning.

And so if this quote really convicts you as well, I have some hope. So basically what she's saying is that education is an atmosphere. Our children are breathing it. We can't see it, right? And that these become the ideas which rule their lives. They're getting this from us.

So, we are the thermostats of our homes. We're setting the temperature. We are either making it really hot, really stressful, really high pressure environment, or we can make the atmosphere of our home peaceful, joyous. Isn't that what we all want, right?

So, what words would you use to describe the current atmosphere of your home? This might be something you've never even thought of before. Because before I read Charlotte Mason's teaching, I never—all I was thinking about was like our to-do list and am I choosing the right curriculum and what does our schedule look like and never considered how I was showing up and how that was affecting the temperature of our home. What word would you describe the atmosphere of your home?

Common Homeschool Thoughts That Create StressAnd I want you to think about if you've ever had these thoughts in your homeschool: We are so far behind. My child is so difficult. It shouldn't be this hard. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm going to mess up my child. We are constantly butting heads about school. My child is not working up to their potential. I'm overwhelmed.

Have you ever had any of these thoughts? I'm guessing most of us who are listening to this have. I know I have had all of those. That's why I wrote them down.

If we want to change the atmosphere of our home, we have to be willing to get really honest with ourselves, be willing to pause and to ask ourselves, what am I thinking about my homeschool on a regular basis?

How Your Thoughts Create Your AtmosphereWhen I read these words to you, how does that make you feel? For me, I feel like I have a weight like right here. Like I can't breathe. I feel all shame, guilt. You might feel afraid, discouraged, disappointed.

And when we have these feelings, which are coming from what we're continually telling ourselves, our continual thoughts and stories, and we have these feelings, it affects the way that we show up. And we're not showing up as our most calm, peaceful, loving selves. And that's creating an atmosphere that we don't want.

So in order to create the atmosphere that we do want, we have to look at taking our thoughts captive and by telling ourselves a different story.

Charlotte Mason put it this way: "Let not the nervous, anxious, worried mother think this easy, happy relation with her children is for her. She may be the best mother in the world, but the thing that her children will get from her in these moods is a touch of her nervousness, most catching of complaints. She will find them fractious, rebellious, unmanageable, and will be slow to realize that it is her fault. Not the fault of her act, but of her state."

So, not the fault of the actions, even though those do have such a great effect, but it's coming from your state, your thoughts. What are you feeling on a regular basis? And are your children catching that?

I used to think my children complain all the time. And then I realized, oh, I'm the one complaining all the time. Why is it taking you so long to do that? That should have been finished already. I can't believe you don't understand that. Why do I always have to come back up after you and clean up? And then I wondered why they had bad attitudes. Right?

I had to turn the mirror around and look at myself and say, "What am I producing in this atmosphere? How am I showing up?"

Changing Your Thoughts to Change Your AtmosphereAnd like I said, we can focus on our actions and be like, I just need to respond in anger less. I just need to respond with a more gentle voice. Yes, that's all true. But we can't just will ourselves to change our action without changing our state, without changing the thoughts that we're thinking on a regular basis.

So change your thoughts and change the atmosphere of your home. It sounds easier, really. It sounds a lot easier than it actually is. But when you get into the practice of it, most of us don't even know what we're thinking ever. We just live our lives on autopilot. So, we're just always in reaction mode.

So, taking the time to pause and say, "What do I actually think on a regular basis? What am I telling myself about myself as a homeschool mom or about our homeschool, about my kids, and how is that affecting my mood and then my actions?"

So, how do we change our thoughts? So, first of all, be mindful throughout the day. Start to take notice, which means you actually have to have margin in your day to pause. Think on purpose. Tell yourself what you're going to think instead. And I'll give you some hints for that in a sec

Id. d’épisode : 1000742275050

GUID : 08957fc9-0f30-44ac-8082-135a4f6ae259_ycz4kXbYTp

Date de publication : 22/12/2025 à 07:00:21