Opening our world to the classics has been awe-inspiring. Charlotte Mason education includes not only learning about the classics, but also participating in them. As students learn about painters, they have lessons about learning to paint. As they learn about musicians, they practice music, and they participate in creating handicrafts throughout the week. The idea is that students should become producers, not only consumers.

As in so many subjects included with Charlotte Mason, I felt inadequate to be teaching my children about drawing, painting, or handicrafts. The one handicraft I am good at is quilting, so we started with that. Ana Lia took to it immediately, as she does with most creative outlets, and Eliam likes to sew squares together when his sister does. Other common handicrafts were activities I have never done, including crochet, soap and wood carving, sewing clothes, and macrame. Even though I had never crocheted anything, I decided that I was a good place to start. It seemed straightforward enough that I could learn it and teach it to the kids.

I bought some yarn, some hooks, and a few friends sent me instruction videos and patterns. Even in the early stages of simple, repetitive stitches I loved it. I had several flights without the kids over the next few months, and I practiced a very simple single crochet scarf. It was relaxing because I didn’t have any expectation of what it would look like or if it would even be usable. My goal was to get comfortable with the yarn, the hook, and the practice of crochet. 

After I finished my first skein of yarn, I wanted to try some new stitches and a larger project. I knew that learning to read crochet patterns would be one of the first steps and learning additional stitches would be the second. As I dove deeper into the wonderful world of crochet, I chose the pattern for a stitch sampler afghan. It would allow me to make a block out of a single stitch and then crochet the blocks together to make the larger blanket. It included all the natural next steps in my journey. I would learn to count stitches to ensure the blocks were all the same size. Each block had a different pattern, which would give me practice there, and I would learn how to trim and connect them all. I have only finished a single block, and I expect this project to take at least a year, but if there is one thing I have learned from Charlotte Mason homeschooling, it is that 20 minutes a few times a week adds up to substantial time investment by the end of the year. 

Drawing became the next endeavor that I undertook while I was also learning to crochet. In The Brave Learner, Julie Bogart says that she wanted to learn to draw as an adult. Because I have always wanted to know how to draw and I was supposed to be teaching my kids, I decided to follow her example. We purchased a small kit with pencils, paper, and a drawing instruction book that the kids and I could share. Another tip I learned from The Brave Learner was that when I wanted to do an activity, I could simply sit down and begin doing it. I didn’t have to instruct the kids to join me. They love to spend time with me, so as soon as I pulled out all the drawing materials, they wanted to draw too. We enjoyed working with the new types of pencils, and I drew the first sketch I have ever made that I actually liked.

Over the course of the following several months, I used all the paper that came in the original drawing kit. I enjoyed sketching so much that I bought a full sketch pad and a new set of charcoal pencils because the kids loved using the ones we already had, and I wanted a set that I could use without them being destroyed. Learning to draw has been a mind-opening endeavor. The most important aspect that I have learned through it is patience. If I try to rush through it, all the lines are wrong. I usually draw for about 20 minutes while Finiasi lays down for a nap and we listen to our read aloud audiobook. There are many sketches that I cannot finish in 20 minutes, so I work my way through one of them over the course of the whole week. I date each of the sketches so that I can see how I have improved as I practice.

This practice has improved my confidence in my ability to learn new things, especially as I consider learning new things that I don’t necessarily have to master. One of the best aspects of my job as a data analyst over the last several years has been the opportunities to learn new software and new skills, but one of the prerequisites of those skills is that I need to be good at them because they are part of my job. Drawing and crocheting are two new skills I can learn, enjoy, and still be average (or even bad) at them. I don’t have to spend hours upon hours learning in order to accomplish a specific goal. I can simply learn for the joy of learning.

There are so many ways in which our lives are currently set up to discourage these types of new pursuits. We are encouraged to be as busy as possible. As moms we are expected to have our children in a variety of extracurricular activities, which are not bad in and of themselves. However, if life looks like a race in the morning to get to school, then a race in evening to get home, do homework and eat dinner, get to soccer practice, get baths, and get in bed just in time to do it all again the next day, we have missed so many opportunities to connect through the day. We have missed opportunities to rest and to learn new things. 

If this is what your life looks like, it may be time to simplify. It may be time to reduce the number of outside activities in order to have more down time inside your home. In this down time, you can simply enjoy your children. You can decide to learn a new hobby if you want to. We got an opportunity to see what this looked like during the pandemic. I’m not recommending we return to lockdowns to spend time with our kids, but maybe we should carefully consider what we bring back into our lives after everything was stripped away. 

Consider if there was something that you really want to learn to do: play an instrument, speak a foreign language, play chess. You can learn only for the joy of learning. Find 15-20 minutes a few times a week, but do it consistently. Find a way to keep track over the course of a year and see how much you have improved practicing a new skill for only an hour a week. These are small ways to add joy to our lives that can be so often overlooked. It’s not a skill so that you can be more productive. It’s a skill so that you can be more joyful. You may even find that it adds a new layer to the ways you can connect with your kids.

Don’t be intimidated because you are “too old” to learn something new. This is the perfect time. Small steps lead to big results when pursued consistently.