About twenty-five years ago, when I started homeschooling, I didn’t have the Internet. (I’ll pause here for a minute to let that sink in.) . . . I heard about Charlotte Mason at a state homeschool conference and immediately went looking for any books I could find about her methods. One of the first books […]
I can’t state this better than Charlotte Mason already did— “Children must have books, living books; the best are not too good for them; anything less than the best is not good enough” (Parents and Children, p. 279). Living books are a hallmark of a Charlotte Mason education. They are not used in every subject, […]
Joan wanted a garden. In her mind this garden would provide colorful, fresh, healthful vegetables for her family. She could picture the lovely yellow peppers, delicious sweet onions, and bright red tomatoes. In fact, she could almost taste the fresh salsa! But Joan was new to this whole gardening thing. She knew it involved putting […]
Using Language Well, Book 3, focuses the spotlight on analyzing sentences. We recommend it for grades 7 and 8, and it is available now! Learning how to analyze sentences is an important skill for your student to have in order to continue to grow in her ability to communicate well. When she analyzes a sentence, […]
Narration is such a powerful tool when done correctly. The foundational way is simply to retell what you read or heard in your own words. If you’re just getting started with narration, you may need to start with reading only a paragraph or one page in order to retain all of that information, process it, […]
A slip of paper. That’s all. A slip of paper. I find it very interesting that the word schedule comes from the Latin for “a slip of paper.” Can you imagine? When Charlotte Mason homeschoolers talk about schedules, somehow it takes on much more significance than a slip of paper. We read books about how […]
I am so happy to announce that the 2019 calendar journal is available, because it combines four things that I like to keep near me during the year. In some ways the year seems to fly by; but in other ways, there is a lot of time and life that passes between January and December. […]
We’ve been talking about how to make the transition to the Charlotte Mason method in your homeschool, easing into it little by little. We’ve talked already about Stages 1–3: The Basics, Once a Week, and Everyday Subjects. I recommend that you read those posts if you haven’t already. Today we want to do Stage 4. […]
During the past few weeks we have been sharing that there is more to nature study than just spending time outside. The well-rounded science education that Charlotte Mason described for her students included outdoor field work, living science books, natural object lessons, and special nature projects—all documented in each child’s personal nature notebook. Today we […]
I hope you have been enjoying our series on nature study. We have talked about why Charlotte Mason included nature study in the curriculum line-up, when we should do nature study, the big picture of what it looks like, and some specifics on creating a nature notebook. Today we’re going to discuss what we need […]
“Where do I find a nature notebook?” “What does it look like?” “How do we go about creating a nature notebook? Is there a template somewhere?” Questions like these cross my desk regularly. So let’s reveal the secret of the mysterious nature notebook. The secret is: it’s empty. That’s right. When you first get a […]
On a recent conference trip to the Seattle, Washington, area, we had a couple of free hours on Thursday morning before we had to set up our booth. The weather was beautiful that day: high 70s and sunny. (We found out that those days are rare; and it was a good thing we took advantage […]
227,000. That’s a lot of homeschoolers. When you see that many home educators reading one particular blog post series, you take notice. Which series is everyone reading? Subject by Subject the Charlotte Mason Way. I wrote that series because it would have been helpful for me when I started homeschooling more than 20 years ago—a […]
We are excited to announce that this year’s personal calendar journal is written by Karen Andreola. Many of you know Karen as the beloved author of A Charlotte Mason Companion. Her gentle and practical wisdom has lighted the way for thousands to enter into Charlotte Mason’s philosophy and enjoyable methods. Karen has written twelve encouraging […]
(The Naturalist’s Notebook: An Observation Guide and 5-Year Calendar-Journal for Tracking Changes in the Natural World Around You by Nathaniel T. Wheelwright and Bernd Heinrich, Storey Publishing, 2017.) I’ve discovered something about nature study. It’s not a static activity. By that I mean, it’s not just one-dimensional: go outside, observe, record in your nature notebook. […]
You want to give your student interesting and specific narration prompts for each chapter he reads, but sometimes you just don’t have time to pre-read all of the books on the schedule. Or maybe you have time but you’re not quite sure how to raise the bar on the types of narrations you are asking […]
For many years we have longed for a truly Charlotte Mason math curriculum. But since none was available, we settled for finding programs that at least included some CM components. So you can imagine how excited we are to announce The Charlotte Mason Elementary Arithmetic Series! The name holds much history and significance. The—Author Richele […]
My husband and I used to ride tandem bicycles around Chicagoland. We would throw on our biking clothes and go for miles on the Rails to Trails paths. During our bicycling days, I learned two very important lessons. First, I’m most apt to lose my balance when I’m riding uphill. Those climbs can throw off […]
For many years we have encouraged families to memorize Scripture with a simple and effective system. In just five or ten minutes a day you can continually learn new passages plus review every verse you’ve learned. Many of you have let us know how much that system means to you and how the habit of […]
Today we are pleased to announce four new artists have been added to our collection of Picture Study Portfolios. You may recognize some of their names: Raphael, Cassatt, Rubens, and Homer. Raphael is known for his portrayals of cherubic angels and peaceful Madonnas, but there is more to his work than that. He also composed […]
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