S5E112: Creating A Culturally Rich Home Learning Environment with Amber O'Neal Johnston

Honey! I'm Homeschooling The Kids

Creating A Culturally Rich Home Learning Environment

Amber O’Neal Johnston is a writer, speaker, and Worldschooling Charlotte Mason mama who blends living books with life-giving books and a culturally-rich environment for her four children and others seeking to do the same. She recommends we offer children opportunities to see themselves and others reflected in their lessons and especially throughout their books, and she’s known for sharing literary “mirrors and windows” on HeritageMom.com and @heritagemomblog on Instagram.

I have followed Amber on social media for a while now and I wanted a chance to know her homeschool story a little more. "Charlotte Mason with an afro" tagline got me pretty quickly. Amber gave me a a chance to ask all of the questions around homeschool life, purpose and creating a culturally rich home learning environment.

In This Episode

Can you delve into literature, living books and classical history and find examples of people that look you? Do your children find their own likeness reflected back to them in the pages they turn?

Not every family can answer yes.

But Amber O'Neal Johnston's family is trying to bridging that gap to create an inclusive, culturally rich education.

In this episode Amber shared with me the reasons why they first chose to homeschool and why they continue to homeschool. Coming from a family of school administrators, I knew that her choice to homeschool came from deep within the heart, not just the mind. She explained that this was a decision they made for their oldest child. They were uncertain at first if she would fit into the mainstream classroom. After time passed and their family grew, they came to recognize that homeschooling catered to her individual intricacies. But it also highlighted the unique gifts that each of their children brings to them.

"It's not what we are going to exclude, it's who we are going to include"

Amber and I also explored how their homeschool has become a culturally confirming environment. The importance of raising black kids to love themselves became a central part of their learning life after her daughter told her that "you say that we study important people- and they are all white". She wondered where or if anyone that looks like her has a place in the past, present or future. So along with love and faith, this quickly became a guiding purpose in their learning life. Through the stories they read, the travel they embark on and who they are being in the world, they truly own their own learning.

It's "not what we are going to exclude, it's who we are going to include", Amber tells me. I certainly connect with that.

If you enjoyed this interview you can find Amber at her blog, HeritageMom.com and on Instagram @heritagemomblog. She offers a wealth of resources to families that are also looking for a more culturally confirming learning environment.

I also recommend checking out my episodes with Karema Akilah of The Genius School and Akilah S Richards of Fare of The Free Child. Although Karema and Akilah are Unschoolers, rather than Charlotte Mason homeschoolers, their purpose is similar. Raising black kids to love themselves. And support learners in their diversity and liberation.

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