Family charisms

One aspect of blogging I particularly enjoy is the insight into how families develop their own special gifts - what you might call their family charism. This may be a common love of a particular subject, a shared hobby or talent, a special character given to a homeschool by the family's circumstances or location, or a style of homeschooling with which both the family as a whole and the individual children bloom and flourish. Families that develop their own charism play to their strengths. The enthusiasm that shines through in these blogs often inspires me to add a dash of their special ingredient to our own lives - for example how could anyone read Cottage Blessings and not want to attempt at least the occasional craft?

Take a tour round some of these blogs and relish the possibilities ...

Literary families: KarenEdmisten and Here in the Bonny Glen, totally at home in the world of words and books

Sporting families: talented soccer players at Real Learning; baseball at the Gypsy Caravan

Beautiful crafts: Cottage Blessings

Nature study: enjoy the squirrels at By Sun and Candlelight (and not a blog, but don't miss Wild Monthly at MacBeth's Opinion)

Educational styles: lapbooks and unit studies with Lapaz Farm Home Learning; thematic unschooling at Living Without School

Location, location: life at sea on the S/V Mari Hal-O-Jen; and I'm looking forward to hearing about homeschooling in Austria when St.Athanasius Academy arrives in Europe

Many of these families could easily fall into more than one category, and the list could go on and on ...

As for our family, what is our charism? I'm not sure I know yet. I think we are still at the stage of growing into our gifts. Music and dance? With a dash of science and technology thrown in? Before my daughters got old enough to develop their own gifts I would have predicted literature and history, but it seems they have other ideas ...