About the Authors

Richele Baburina

Richele Baburina believes that moms are born persons and writes about the “sweet spot” where the practical (and sometimes humorous) intersects with the profound in a Charlotte Mason education. Out of her life as a student of Charlotte’s philosophy of education and a homeschool mom wanting children to experience the beauty and truth of math, Mathematics, An Instrument for Living Teaching was born. Richele holds a degree in Russian and worked in the fields of cryptography and contract management despite her own high school math experience. She and her husband practice masterly inactivity with their two sons in the Midwest.

Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743–1825) and her husband, Rochemont, had no children of their own, but were able to adopt a nephew. Drawing from her experience with that nephew and with other children who attended their boarding school, Mrs. Barbauld wrote Hymns in Prose for Children, as well as several books on the education of young children.

Emily Kiser

Emily Kiser, oldest daughter of Scott and Liz Cottrill, attended college in Illinois where she fell in love with art history, oil painting, and children’s books. She now helps her mother run a homeschool lending library with thousands of out-of-print living books, and together they teach homeschooling families in their region more about Charlotte Mason. Emily loves to read, create, knit, and garden. She teaches art to homeschooled children and is very excited about the opportunity to create Picture Study Portfolios, hoping it will ignite a love of art history in future generations.

Lanaya Gore

Lanaya Gore met her husband Phillip at a Bible college where she received a BA in Christian Education. She enjoys being a minister’s wife and mother to four children (two who are homeschooling and two up-and-comers). Delightful Reading came about from the desire to teach her son how to read using Charlotte Mason’s method, and it has been a fun and successful venture.

She was delighted to discover CM’s philosophy before diving into
teaching her children and shares that excitement with families within her circle. Besides enjoying the journey of educating, Lanaya likes to knit, try new recipes, and blog.

Christie Groff

Christie Groff is a leader in the homeschooling community, having begun a thriving CM support group and co-op in 2009 with a friend. Christie has a passion to help others discover that homeschooling is about more than bringing school home—it really is “an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.” She is a lover of books, as evidenced by her growing collection; enjoys scrapbooking, organizing, being outdoors; and is learning a variety of fabric crafts. She lives with her husband, Nathan, and their four homeschooled children in North Florida.

Sharon Hofer

Sharon Hofer teaches hundreds of students every year in her art school in Nebraska. She studied under nationally-known portrait and watercolor artists, has been featured in art stores and magazines throughout the United States, and has used her talents to help Christian organizations and colleges. During the summer months she and her husband hold art camps and travel to Africa to teach art. Her primary passion is to encourage homeschooled students in the area of art.

Ruth Fosdick Jones (1909–1973) was born in Buffalo, New York. In 1933 she received a master’s degree in English from Mount Holyoke College. Mrs. Jones taught at several schools in New York and Massachusetts. She also worked in the royalty department at Macmillan & Co., New York. Her book, Boy of the Pyramids, received the Jack and Jill Magazine award for the best manuscript submitted in 1951.

Lorene Lambert

Lorene Lambert is a writer, teacher, and homeschooling mother living with her husband and three children in Spokane, Washington. She enjoys working with other homeschooling families while instructing their children in writing and literature, and the daily challenges and joys of home education. She has been using Charlotte Mason’s methods with her children for more than ten years.

Catherine Levison has been homeschooling with the Charlotte Mason Method since the 1990s. She is a wealth of information about the Charlotte Mason philosophy, and possesses a talent for helping homeschoolers apply CM methods in practical ways. She has written several books on Charlotte Mason, including A Charlotte Mason Education, More Charlotte Mason Education, and A Literary Education. You can contact her and learn about her speaking engagements on her Web site, Charlotte Mason Education.

Charles Morris (1833–1922) was a prolific history writer for children and adults. Some of his titles include The Greater Republic, The Child’s Story of the Nineteenth Century, Famous Men and Great Events of the 19th Century, True Stories of the American Navy, The Lives of the Presidents and How They Reached the White House, and The Child’s History of the United States.

Frances M. Perry was a prolific writer of biographies for young people, including stories about Daniel Boone, David Crockett, Robert Fulton, Eli Whitney, Samuel Morse, and more.

Edmund Selous (1857-1934) was a British naturalist and a strong supporter of observing nature without destroying it. He wrote a variety of books on natural history for both children and adults from 1899 through 1933.

Rebekah Shafer is the oldest daughter of John and Sonya here at SCM and a homeschool graduate. She loves to read, write fiction, play the djembe (an African drum), and make movies. You can follow her movie-making adventures at the Phantom Moose Films blog. Her most recent passion is spinning on a variety of spinning wheels. Take a look at her Maiden Yarn blog.

Ruth Shafer is the second oldest daughter of John and Sonya here at SCM. She has a real knack for proofreading and editing, has recently started to learn the violin, and takes beautiful digital photographs (some of which are featured on the book covers here at SCM). Ruth helps to maintain several Web sites, including Incredibooks and Phantom Moose Films, and does video editing for our DVDs.

Sonya Shafer

Sonya Shafer co-directs SimplyCharlotteMason.com and is a frequent speaker at homeschool groups and conventions. One of her main goals in creating this website and the resources you see on it is to communicate CM principles in a way that shows how practical and doable they are.

She and her husband John have been using the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling for more than twenty years (three daughters graduated) and live near Atlanta, Georgia.

Bertha Whitridge Smith wrote Only a Dog: A Story of the Great War in 1917 and dedicated it to “those devoted Americans who are giving their lives to the relief of suffering in Europe.” She was also the author of Traveller’s Tales, a collection of letters from various countries originally published in a newspaper as a serial.

Karen Smith

Karen Smith is married to our Webmaster-and-more, Doug, and homeschooled their four children near Rockford, Illinois. Anyone visiting her home would notice two things right away: her garden, which could feed a small army, and her book collection, which overflows into several rooms.

Karen embraces opportunities to minister one-on-one to younger moms and to share her enthusiasm for the sciences, nature, and outdoor living. Her goal in contributing to SimplyCharlotteMason.com is to show how practical and enjoyable the CM method can be.

Mary L. Whately (1825-1889) first visited Egypt for her health and intended just to start a school for girls there during her visit. Later she made arrangements to move there permanently and took up the work of educating the poor, spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, and ministering among the people of Egypt until her death in 1889. She wrote several books about life in Egypt, which were published in England and in the United States.