Category Education Is

Posts and comments about Charlotte’s philosophy of education as an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.

Homeschool mom considering opinions

Ready-Made Opinions

We just returned from a trip to the store where, I will admit, I grabbed some ready-made food items. Yes, I could probably have made those items from scratch with a little time and effort, but that seems to be…

books and tree

Facts vs. Ideas

I remember sitting in our Charlotte Mason homeschool discussion group, explaining how a living book should give our children ideas, not just facts. One dear lady turned a puzzled look my way and asked, “What do you mean ‘ideas’?” That…

A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning

The Gentle Art of Learning, Part 3

We are honored to have Karen Andreola as a guest writer for today’s post. Her book, A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning, has been a source of inspiration and encouragement for so many of…

Mom with homeschool questions

Three Questions for the Homeschool Mother: How?

In the past couple of weeks we have looked at two very important questions for homeschool mothers: Why must the children learn? and What should they learn? Charlotte Mason believed that those questions needed definite and thoughtful answers if we…

Mom with homeschool questions

Three Questions for the Homeschool Mother: What?

It seems like What? is one of the main questions we homeschool mothers ask: What books? What math curriculum? What supplemental courses or classes? What outside activities? We spend a lot of time pondering the What as we pore over…

Charlotte Mason Method vs. Unschooling

We’re finishing up a series today on how the Charlotte Mason Method differs from other homeschool approaches you may have heard of. We’ve already discussed how Charlotte Mason is different from a traditional approach, unit studies, and the classical approach.…

Charlotte Mason Method vs. Classical Approach

So far in our series, we’ve looked at the three key questions that will help us discern the differences between homeschooling methods, and we’ve talked about how the Charlotte Mason method is different from a traditional curriculum and from unit…

Charlotte Mason Method vs. Unit Studies

When I started homeschooling more than thirteen years ago, I used a unit study approach because I thought it was my only alternative to a traditional curriculum. At the end of that year I heard about Charlotte Mason and knew…

Charlotte Mason Method vs. Traditional Curriculum

“What’s the difference between the Charlotte Mason Method and the traditional curriculum that I’ve been using?” Last weekend at the North Carolina homeschoolers convention we heard that question several times. It’s a great question. In this series we are discussing…