CATCH THE VISION
Introductory Course
WELCOME!
You are about to embark on a journey of a lifetime in which learning and understanding will unfold layer upon layer and deepen over time. This introductory course is designed to help you start a daily habit of feeding your heart. Your bodies need to eat food every single day and your heart has the same requirement. Overeating or eating too fast causes indigestion. So allow yourself the time to reflect on what you're learning. There's no rush here. And the learning is never going to end. Even 5 minutes a day will begin to yield good fruit.
For some of you, the ideas presented here will go against everything you've ever thought about how children learn. For others, the ideas will resonate with beliefs you already carry with you. Either way, I hope you'll enter with an open heart and that you'll find something that will enrich your life and those in the sphere of your influence.
The course is designed after the same Pattern for Learning you'll learn about in Section 2. This Introductory Course is largely the 'Heart' part where you'll begin to catch a vision of possibilities and increase your desire to learn more. No one is going to tell you exactly what you should read or what you should get out of it--which is the same process you'll be encouraged to use with your children in the heart years. Rather, you'll find yourself taking from it what you are ready to take from it. If you go back through later, you'll find new connections and insights, not because the words or pictures have changed, but because you will have changed.
The one recommendation is that you go through the Sections in order. There is a flow to the ideas. You may want to print out the CTV checklist by clicking on the button below to keep track of where you have been and so that you don't miss anything. You will also find a button that will link you to the transcripts.
Keep a journal nearby to write down those impressions that come to you as you look for principles or as ideas strike your heart. Even the fine art has lessons for you. Remember--the more you write, the more you learn. Repetition is key to learning and writing thoughts down is part of that repetition process.
Finally, I invite you to join our Well-Educated Heart Facebook Group. You'll find lots of friendly faces and support there. Questions are welcomed and encouraged.
It's a joyful journey and I'm so happy to have you along.
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With love, Marlene
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Art credit: Soul of a Rose by John Williams Waterhouse
Art credit: The Last Load by George Coal
What is different about a Well-Educated Heart?
Art credit: Pioneers of the West by Helen Lundeberg
How do we grow joy?
Art credit: The Young Connoisseur by August Friedrich Siegert
What tools and resources do I have to work with?
Art credit: Freedom from Want by Norman Rockwell
Where do I go from here?
Art credit: Woman Walking Down Path by Edward Mitchell Bannister
"I wish to wrest education from...cheap, artificial teaching tricks, and entrust it to the eternal process of nature herself; to the light which God has kindled and kept alive in the hearts of fathers and mothers; to the interests of parents who desire that their children grow up in favour with God and with men... [Love is] the sole and everlasting foundation in which to work. Without love, neither the physical nor the intellectual power will develop naturally."
--Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827)