Fresh Minds and Focused Hearts

In her book Home Education, Charlotte Mason encourages homeschooling parents to keep their lessons short. She says,

The brain, or some portion of the brain, becomes exhausted when any given function has been exercised too long. The child has been doing sums for some time, and is getting unaccountably stupid: take away his slate and let him read history, and you find his wits fresh again. (pg. 24)

Along the same lines, Charlotte Mason also encourages parents to vary lessons so that each lesson is a mental break, or rest, from the one before.

The Ideas Behind Varying Short Lessons

Let’s say math and copywork challenge your younger student the most. Instead of assigning a certain number of math problems or amount of sentences to complete, you would limit both of those lessons to around ten minutes each. Also, rather than doing both of those lessons right in a row, you would take a mental break in the middle by doing a composer study or picture study. Charlotte Mason believes that our minds work the best this way; when we complete lessons in smaller time increments, our minds stay refreshed and ready to focus on the next task at hand. Finishing lessons in a short amount of time also teaches us to focus our minds quickly and on one thing at a time. We finish the lesson before our minds begin to wander.

Have you ever been doing a math problem, become frustrated that you can’t seem to arrive at the correct answer, and moved on to something else only to have the solution come to you? One of the ideas behind Charlotte Mason’s principle of short lessons is that our minds continue to work even after our set time for a task is finished. This explains why we can pick up where we left off without too much trouble. This also builds up our ability to remember information from previous lessons, projects, and texts.

This reminds me of the more modern idea of “mindfulness”–living fully in the moment in which you find yourself. More importantly, God calls His people to “work heartily” because they are serving the Lord Jesus Christ, not men (Colossians 3:23-24). God also calls us to do whatever we do for His glory. [1] Part of working unto the Lord and doing that work for His glory is knowing under what circumstances our brains function the best and “living to the hilt” each moment of our lives (in the words of Jim Elliot).

Slowing Down Motherhood

I have an unhealthy habit of completing one task at almost all costs before I move on to another. Dishes, laundry, blog posts, writing songs–I feel the need to finish one load, one story, one idea before I can drag myself away to do something else, often something more important or pressing. I will persevere through a task even if my mind is exhausted and I can barely focus. Some might view this tendency of mine as a good thing, and it can be a good thing, but not always and probably not even usually when it comes to motherhood. It means that my brain is consistently becoming fatigued before I can finish everything I need to accomplish during the day.

I do the same thing with books. I don’t pause to enjoy the beautiful imagery in a passage or the funny comment a character made. I devour the story like my children devour fruit snacks. I must know what happens next. Oh! It happened. Now what? On to the next chapter. I am a plot-driven monster looking for its next unsuspecting meal.

Overall, I struggle to convince myself that I need to slow down, be still, and savor what I’m doing or reading or writing. My attention wanders to the next task, the next sentence, the next measure, the next thought. Always what’s next, never what’s happening. And even though my mind wanders far afield of what’s in front of me, I continue to work on what’s in front of me until the task is complete, often to my own detriment.

Charlotte Mason’s philosophy that short lessons build better focus has helped me immensely in this aspect of motherhood. When you’re a mom, or parenting in general, your children, your home, and your work constantly pull you in different directions, sometimes so much that our duty and joy as Christians to do everything to God’s glory gets lost in the daily pile-up of chores and activities. Doing tasks in short time increments helps to stop this from happening as we keep our minds fresh enough to remember what our purpose in our work is.

For example, rather than trying to fold three loads of laundry at once, I break down the task by type. First, I fold my and Brian’s laundry. Then, I break up a fight between my two fierce little warriors. Second, I fold the kids’ laundry. Then, I play a game with the energetic little monkeys who are bouncing off the walls. Finally, I might fold a load of towels or whites or whatever else needs folding. Then, I take the kids outside for a time of refreshing physical activity. I don’t linger on one task too long and as I’m doing a task, I give that task my entire focus. If the kids ask me to do something, unless one of them is physically injured or crying uncontrollably, I finish what I’m doing and then move on to help.

I do something similar with my writing, except instead of breaking down the task by type I limit myself to one paragraph at a time, or one idea if I think the explanation will take more than one paragraph. For example, I wrote the paragraph above this one yesterday while the kids rested in the afternoon. First I read through what I’d already written, and then I added on to the text. Now, I’m writing this paragraph while the kids play. As soon as this paragraph is finished, I’ll move on to the next task, which happens to be lunch. Time to make a pizza!

Fresh Minds and Focused Hearts

The key to remember is that when you do set aside time to read a book, fold laundry, clean a room, or write your next great song, you give that activity your complete attention for a short amount of time. The amount of time will vary by project, but you’ll be able to tell when your brain has had just about enough. That is the time to switch activities. And, setting the goal to pray, sing a hymn to yourself or your kids, or recite a Bible verse between activities will help bring your attention back to Jesus.

Structuring my time this way takes an unbelievably large amount of discipline and self-control; convincing myself to stop when all I want to do is continue is one of the most challenging exercises for me. Discipline and self-control take practice, practice, and more practice. Only the Holy Spirit can give us the strength of will to commence our striving toward a life that values and delights in both. Motherhood is all about growth, and grow we do when we rely on Jesus.

I’m thankful for educational philosophers like Charlotte Mason who loved God, loved working with young people, and encouraged mothers to continue their own education and personal growth, however informal that may be. As mothers and parents, we often get lost in the day-to-day struggles of our very full lives. I encourage you, dear reader, as I encourage myself: slow down, consider how you can live each moment to the glory of God, enjoy the beauty of the world around you, and vary what you do throughout the day to keep your mind fresh and your heart focused on Jesus.

[1] 1 Corinthians 10:31