Home Ed, home school, unschooling, world schooling, interest lead schooling so many terms to suit so many differing ideals and approaches. For us as a family we do Hearth education this for me captures the root of a happy childhood to evolve from. Just the word Hearth contains the words Heart and Earth and the Hearth is the Home and home is where the heart is after all.
You have warmth, food and connection to the surrounding environment a place to gather, share stories and still time, it holds the fundamentals of good family values and a feeling of security and self sufficiency. Basic fundamentals of living are vital foundations to a Soul. So many people seek out the comfort of a working hearth when they don’t have one by playing YouTube videos of wood stoves gently popping and cracking, check out the views these videos reach as well as ASMR videos of basic slow living lives. You won’t find a video of the tinking gurgling noises of a gas central heated radiator or clumsy storage heater. Somewhere in history we became robbed of fire and promised the sterilised wonder of gas and electric but the soul seeks out the comfort and peace of the wood burning stove and it’s hearth it’s a instinct of deep genetic memory.
I remember my time working at a pub and when my work mate and I finished working we’d get a drink and sit on a sofa in in front of the pubs burning wood stove and we would both laugh as our muscles relaxed and peace restored we shared the same feeling of how rewarding it was to have such comfort, it was so nurturing and warm we felt life was so good we giggled with joy, we felt that basic instinct for the hearth being fulfilled.
Of course the hearth is foundation of basic life fundamentals, from this will stem nature studies, life cycles, botanical apothecary, home economics, story telling, self care and mental well being, home steading, gardening, self seficiantcy and off grid living. Basic life skills that will never be addressed in a main stream school.
With this all in mind it also prides a secure environment to learn in, a place of comfort and little distraction to deep dive into subjects that interest you and bring a love of learning and a wonderful life skill of self lead learning with it.
Every day amazes me at how accurate this is to be true.
I will continue to blog about Hearth education and the wonder of it all, if you would like more blogs on what and how this works for us please visit my Patreon page and join the growing heath ed community.