Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast. I'm Sonia Schaefer. Wouldn't it be nice to have someone who acts as your coach throughout life?

Someone who counsels you and shows you the best way and encourages you in your own personal growth.

Someone whose heart it is to help you improve your relationships and your work

and your daily life, a life coach. That's what we want. And I think we have one in Charlotte

Mason. One girl who came to Charlotte's teacher training course in the Lake District of England

summed it up beautifully.

Years later, she recalled,

On my arrival at Ambleside, I was interviewed by Miss Mason, who asked me for what purpose I had come.

I replied, I have come to learn to teach. Then Miss Mason said,

My dear, you have come here to learn to live. I've never forgotten those precious words

which have helped me with my children. You see, having a life coach is not a selfish thing to do. What we are really desiring is to become

the best version of ourselves so that we can continue to improve how we serve our families

and our communities and our countries and the world.

So if Charlotte were our life coach, what would she model for us and inspire us to do to

keep growing in the art of living?

I've been thinking about that question lately.

And I want to share with you ten ideas, both encouraging and challenging,

that stood out to me as I reviewed her life. When you put them all together, they give us a glimpse

of the atmosphere that surrounded Charlotte, the ideas that ruled her life, and that she encouraged others to grow in as well.

Some of them she outright stated in her writings. Others were related to us by those who knew her

personally and spent time with her. And some I've pulled from her daily life and example.

So if Charlotte Mason were your life coach, I think these are ten ideas that she would encourage

...