30. CM Mama in the UK: Meet Alberta Stevens

Welcome back to our Charlotte Mason mamas around the globe series!

Today Erika gets to interview a very good friend of ours all the way from the UK! Alberta Stevens is a proud boy mom (or mum, as she would say it), who beautifully implements the Charlotte Mason philosophy in her multicultural home in London. Originally from Sierra Leone, she’s passionate about spreading a life-giving and culturally diverse feast to all families through the wonderful resources she creates, as well through her podcast, "Homegrown Sunshine." She is a kindred spirit who inspires us with her work for the Lord. We are honored to have her share with us today.

WHERE TO FIND ALBERTA STEVENS

Instagram @homegrown.sonshine

Website: https://homegrownsonshine.co.uk

Podcast: Homegrown Sunshine (wherever you get your podcasts)

QUOTES

"In my home, there's 3 cultures, really.  It's British, it's Sierra Leonean, but it's predominantly Christian. That is the biggest part of my identity and Charlotte Mason gives me the space, the tools, the words and, also, the 'how to' to make those things come together and make a life out of it."

PRINCIPLES

1. Children are born persons.

17. The way of the will: Children should be taught, (a) to distinguish between 'I want' and 'I will.' (b) That the way to will effectively is to turn our thoughts from that which we desire but do not will. (c) That the best way to turn our thoughts is to think of or do some quite different thing, entertaining or interesting. (d) That after a little rest in this way, the will returns to its work with new vigour. (This adjunct of the will is familiar to us as diversion, whose office it is to ease us for a time from will effort, that we may 'will' again with added power. The use of suggestion as an aid to the will is to be deprecated, as tending to stultify and stereotype character, It would seem that spontaneity is a condition of development, and that human nature needs the discipline of failure as well as of success.)

PNEU MOTTE: I am, I can, I ought, I will.

SCRIPTURES

"For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do." Romans 7:15

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:37-39

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Leah Boden
"The Well-Trained Mind" by Susan Wise Bauer
Ambleside Online
"Teaching from Rest" by Sarah McKenzie
Alberta's blog post "DIVERSITY"

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