Category Living Books

Posts and articles about identifying and using good living books that are full of ideas to help your children learn effectively.

How to Use Living Books Charlotte Mason Education

5 Ways NOT to Use a Living Book

Let’s talk about living books. Now, I can almost hear you saying, “Living books? Again? We talk about them all the time!” And that just proves my point. In a Charlotte Mason home school we spend a lot of time…

How to Find Charlotte Mason Living Books

5 Ways to Find Living 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…

Living ideas

The Power of an Idea

Last week we talked a bit about how living ideas feed the mind. You will hear that phrase “living ideas” often in a Charlotte Mason approach to learning. Sometimes it’s hard to grasp the concept of a living idea as…

Mountains

Getting the Spine Book Straight

If you’ve been around Charlotte Mason homeschoolers for any length of time, you have most likely heard the term “spine” book. While it may seem like such a term would refer to a type of science book, it’s actually more…

Another Example of Facts vs. Ideas

Every weekday evening that I am home, I watch an episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood with my youngest daughter. (Thank goodness for Amazon Prime!) From the time my girls were little, Mister Rogers has been a staple around our house.…

5 Steps to Successful Narration

The Power of a Good Story

Last week we started a new series, 5 Steps to Successful Narration. Do you remember the five steps? Don’t worry, we’ll review them often as we talk our way through them over the coming weeks. It’s tempting to think that…

Toy car

Twaddle Too Often

I still recall the time many years ago when we scraped the bottom of our newlywed bank account to buy a gift for a little boy. We got him a sturdy but simple toy car. No flashing lights, no screeching…

Past the Outer Court

(This article by Sonya Shafer was originally published in The Old Schoolhouse magazine, Summer 2011 issue.) Here is the story of two girls. We will call them Jan and Emily. Both are about nine years old. Jan is reading her…

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…