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Up to this point in our series on teaching your child to read, we have been talking about informal play activities. Once your child can read several dozen words from those activities, it’s time to start actual reading lessons. Charlotte…
Last week we talked about how to introduce the alphabet to your child through fun, informal play activities. Once your child knows his alphabet and the sounds the letters make, you can begin to put those sounds together to make…
I well remember trembling when, as a young homeschooling mom, I realized that it was up to me to teach my child to read. My imaginative mind started racing down the path of worst case scenarios. As if on cue,…
Isaiah 9:6 has been sitting in the Daily section of our Scripture Memory box lately. For unto us a child is bornUnto us a son is givenAnd the government shall be upon his shoulderAnd his name shall be calledWonderful CounselorMighty…
What do you picture in your mind when you read the word “obstacle”? How large of an obstacle do you imagine? Obstacles can be of various sizes, you know. For example, you might encounter an empty tissue box sitting on…
My daughter just showed me a little mouse that she knitted today. It’s the cutest little thing, with a tiny knit hat and pink ears peeking over the top. She found the pattern and decided to knit it just for…
“What’s the point?” I often ask myself that question, especially when it comes to various demands on my time. If someone tells me I should add a certain activity to my already-full schedule, I want to know why. Tell me…
Our family is preparing for a large family reunion this week. One of the biggest parts of that preparation is planning the menus and gathering the ingredients for our time of feasting. But even as we walk the grocery store…
There is one question we see a lot when talking about elementary science lessons: “But is it enough?” Charlotte Mason used nature study and living science books with narration to teach science in the younger grades. We CMers want to…
Why is it that one fault can be so glaring we can’t see past it? It becomes easy to stare fixedly at the bad attitude or the sloppy work or the once-again-forgotten chore or the disorderly room and never look…
On Monday it seemed like most of my friends on Facebook were saying the same thing, “Can you believe it’s November already? Where has the year gone!” 2011 is fast approaching, and our latest calendar journal, The Way of the…
“You mean I don’t have to teach English grammar all year long in every grade?” Esther was astonished. “You’re already teaching the correct way to use words every time you have the children read or write or tell or listen.…
If you have been following our Language Arts series from the beginning, you will remember that Charlotte Mason approached language arts in a balanced two-pronged way: first, she integrated many language arts skills into regular school subjects; and second, she…
In studying to put together our new book, Hearing and Reading, Telling and Writing: A Charlotte Mason Language Arts Handbook, I was once again amazed at the way Charlotte could take a simple idea and pack it full of benefits.…
People often ask me what curriculum I used to teach my children to read. I didn’t use one. We just played with letters and their sounds, and eventually, when they were ready, I showed them how to put those sounds…
If I were to ask you to write about your favorite kitchen appliance, your brain would begin working right away. In fact, you’re probably picturing your favorite appliance in your mind’s eye right now. Your mind would think of all…
Narration is a cornerstone of Charlotte Mason’s language arts program. She wrote extensively on the subject, giving lots of helpful and practical tips. In one sense, narration is simple; in another sense, it is an art form. So it’s no…
If your school experience was anything like mine, you most likely sat through a multitude of vocabulary worksheets and reading comprehension worksheets in every grade. Plus, you probably had a separate class for Literature in junior high or high school.…
As we mentioned last week, Charlotte taught all the language arts skills in just a few power-packed subjects. One of Charlotte’s main strategies was to integrate language arts studies into other subjects, rather than pulling them out as separate skills.…
We all know how hard it is to find a good living book that relates American history from 1900–2010. Well, we would like to do something about that, and we would love for you to join us. Here’s the idea.…
