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Practical Mother Culture Ideas for Homeschool Moms

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Over the last several weeks, inspired by an 1892 Parents’ Review article, I’ve been diving deeper into the idea of mother culture. In the first post, I gave an overview of what it is. Then, I talked about how to get started with it, followed by what it looks like. This week’s post will give you other ideas for including mother culture in your life!

Book Groups

In the last post, I wrote about the habit of reading and three different types of books you can be reading at a given time. If you need a bit of motivation or encouragement on the reading front, I can’t recommend book groups enough! As the name suggests, these are groups for individuals to read books together and then meet and discuss what they read. You can find these all over the place, including online. One that has been mentioned to me specifically is Well-Read Mom, which offers groups both online and all over the US. The benefit to book groups is that there is some accountability to read at least a small part of a book by a certain date, opportunities to make new friends with like-minded people, and a way to give yourself a kind of mom’s night out!

If you’re looking for a book group to help with spiritual formation, Renovaré also hosts book groups throughout the year, sometimes hosted by the author of the book being read!

There are also many Charlotte Mason book groups that are reading through her volumes together. I remember when we first moved to our current home in 2016, one of the first things I did was join a local Charlotte Mason book group. I ended up meeting women who have remained some of my closest friends to this day. We also discussed the books we were reading together, which helped me digest the information and motivated me to actually get the readings done because I wanted to participate in the discussion.

If you don’t have a Charlotte Mason book group in your area, another option is an online group. Back in 2020, I took part in the Idyll Challenge, hosted by Charlotte Mason Poetry. Over the course of two years, we read through all six of Charlotte Mason’s volumes. It may sound daunting at first, but it ends up being just about 30 pages each month (or a page a day!), and then once a month, we met on Zoom to discuss what we read with others who were also taking part in the challenge. It’s a simple idea, but it is very effective. Prior to this, I had read bits and pieces of the volumes through the in-person group I had initially joined (and ended in 2019), but I came to that group late, so I missed a few of the volumes. Because of the Idyll Challenge, I finally got through all of them, so I highly encourage you to look into it if you have a goal of reading all six volumes.

And, if none of the options above are open to you, I have a few friends who have started impromptu book clubs through Voxer or Marco Polo in the past. They read through a book together and respond whenever they can, which is a great way to keep growing with others even if you don’t have time to meet with a group!

Classes

Another option you can consider is online or even in-person classes! Many community colleges and city parks and recreation departments offer short courses on various topics, some of which even only meet for one day. A local one I was interested in not too long was an introduction to beekeeping, which was a single, 2-hour class that met one Saturday morning. These types of classes or courses would be something you’re interested in and would like to learn more about, but the topic is something better learned with hands-on instruction.

If you are interested in art classes, there are many online options for art creation. We’ve used Creating a Masterpiece for our school lessons in the past to learn various art media, and I did the lessons right along with my kids. Another option we’ve used for the last year is Lily & Thistle’s Nature’s Art Club, which teaches drawing, colored pencils, and watercolors. She also offers a free course specifically geared toward mothers called “The Art Habit for Moms.”

Museums

On the topic of art, you can also visit local museums and see if they have exhibitions coming that interest you. Several years ago, a group of moms along the Front Range here in Colorado who, for the most part, only knew each other online decided to meet in Denver one day to visit the Denver Art Museum and have a meal together afterward as a form of mother culture for themselves.

Of course, this extends to non-art museums as well—it could be science museums or history museums. Museums also sometimes offer free talks by experts on a given topic that are open to the public. Or, if you’ve never visited your local museums before, take a day to wander through and become familiar with their permanent installations.

Handicrafts

Mother culture can even look like making things. A few years ago, I decided I wanted to start embroidering, so I added a few kits to my wishlist and received them for my birthday. I’ve only finished one of them so far, but it’s something that I sometimes do in the evenings while we’re watching TV, or even while I’m listening to audiobooks. If some other hand-related craft appeals to you, like knitting or crochet, those are also worthy pursuits!

Another goal I gave myself a few years ago was learning how to pressure can. I got myself a book about it and the proper equipment, and watched a few YouTube videos about high-altitude canning. Then, one afternoon, I pressure-canned my first jar of carrots. Whatever you choose doesn’t necessarily have to be related to your home—you can really choose anything! If you want to learn how to hang glide or anything else you have thought might be enjoyable, I encourage you to look into those things. Find books about them, find people interested in showing others how to do them, find mentors, and allow yourself that time to do those things.

Find the Time!

Once you have decided, “OK, I’m going to give myself permission to have this time for myself!” it starts opening a whole new world of possibilities for you. Once you step out there and learn a little about this, it opens the door to learn a little about that. And then you decide that you want to learn about this other thing, and it snowballs from there. It’s been neat to see how it has grown in my own life and the lives of the moms around me who also practice mother culture.

I also appreciate the fact that it’s a good example for my kids. In a day and age when so many people are glued to screens so often, I think kids need to see someone who desires to grow themselves in ways not related to a screen. We can provide more examples of how we can better ourselves and grow into the person God created us to be.

So, this time is beneficial not only for you as a mother but also for those around you. Make it a priority, and you will reap the rewards!


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