I suppose by now a few of you are convinced we are raising barbarians: chest-beating neanderthals. Being one of 2 females among 9 males, I tend to agree. There are some mealtimes when I wonder if our name might be Ponitpee instead of Rollins. And yes one of my sons did smash the ceiling fan right over my head while working on his golf swing with a golf iron in the dining room, sometimes referred to as the china room, in order to set it apart as the civilized room. It is true that all I did was look up and ask him to clean up the mess, please.
For the curious, this son is also sometimes referred to as the human tornado after someone asked us if the damage to our garage was caused by a tornado. Ha, we laugh at tornadoes!
In spite of all that my dh is quite a gentleman and we do try to instill gentlemanly virtues in our sons. Truthfully, you can't exaggerate Tim's (dh) gentlemanly qualities, although I have been known to mention that he is NOT perfect to silly women who think he might be.
On the Ambleside email list many girls ask if a Charlotte Mason education is distinctly feminine.
Absolutely not!!
It has been a wonderful thing in this masculine environment to listen to classical music, study beautiful paintings, read Shakespeare and Plutarch and Churchill.
The boys have thrived taking nature walks. I am sure nature walks were a godsend to my older boys when they were little. What if I had mistakenly kept them cooped up all day? Where would we be now?
Drawing has been another outlet that their masculine natures enjoy.
Poetry, a personal pleasure of mine, has been a part of every single day of their lives. So much so that even the poetry-resistant can be found quoting lines in our home. There is nothing like poetry and memory work for building a family culture.
A liberal arts education is a wonderful way to free a boy's mind, develop his body and encourage his masculinity.
If your son has a math and science bent, all the more reason to give him a strong liberal arts' base.
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