Charlotte Mason believes strongly in hands-on experimental science, but she reserved these types of lessons for upper elementary students beginning in year four. In today’s podcast, we’ll talk about why this is important and still good advice for today’s students.

Listen Now:

Charlotte Mason, Volume 6 (Amazon) (Living Book Press – use code DELECTABLE for 10% off!)

ADE Season 12 Reading Schedule

Life & Her Children by Buckley

Madame How & Lady Why by Kingsley

Story Book of Science by Fabre (Living Book Press) (Yesterday’s Classics)

Sabbath Mood Homeschool’s Form 2 Science Curriculum

The Sciences by Holden

ADE Special Studies Rotation

Sabbath Mood Homeschool’s Calendar of Firsts

Handbook of Nature Study by Comstock

Nature Notebooks:

• Stilman & Birn Alpha softcover 8×10
• Stilman & Birn Epsilon hardcover 5.5×8.5

ADE on YouTube

Emily
Welcome to A Delectable Education, the podcast that spreads the feast of the Charlotte Mason Method. I’m Emily Kiser and I’m here with…

Liz
…Liz Cottrill…

Nicole
…and Nicole Williams.

Emily
So by Form 2, your student should be well acquainted with the natural world. If you have been following Charlotte Mason’s progression of Science and Nature Study lessons, their interest has been kindled. They have made friends with all sorts of things that they have observed around them. 

So now it is time to awaken their interest to other natural phenomena that they’ve encountered, but they likely don’t know why things are the way they are. Like why steam rises, why it’s there in the first place, properties about sound or simple machines and things like that. In other words, they begin learning formal Science. 

So, Nicole, can you tell us what is covered at this age, the scope of their education? 

Nicole
Yes. 

The first lesson of the week continues to be Nature Lore, which we started in Form 1. This keeps that thread from Form 1 going and it leans towards something like a Biology, which it will later become. 

For this spot Charlotte Mason alternated between Life and Her Children by Arabella Buckley and also the Madame How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley. And in Life and Her Children, it’s the invertebrates that are covered in that book. So it’s starting with amoeba and then it’s going to the six-legged insects. It’s kind of working through that category of animals. And then Madame How and Lady Why is more of a Geology – volcanoes, things like that. 

It’s important to note that no child ever would have been in this form long enough to read both of these books. She alternated through, but no student would have gotten both of them. And I think it also is kind of worth noting that people love or hate these books. It kind of goes both ways. 

Today I really prefer to use The Story Book of Science by Fabre. 

Emily
We’ve got a copy of that right here.

Nicole
One of the things I like about it, well, beyond the fact that it’s Fabre and he writes so beautifully, is that he does bring both of those things into there. There are stories about animals, but there’s also a lot of Geology in there and you know, volcanoes and other natural phenomena, thunder, lightning, things that are really in the wheelhouse of kids at this age group. 

So the other type of book that was used was more for those formal Sciences. They’re finally going to get to do this now. And as you said, they are topics that are appropriate for this age. They represent what Charlotte Mason called the Philosophy of Common Things. Things like you said, sound, basic weather, magnets, simple machines, things that are going to be very observable by them. These are not abstract topics. They are things they’re going to already be questioning, or if we’re even just bringing them up a little bit, they quickly grasp right onto those. 

So Charlotte Mason used a book called The Sciences for this by Holden, and she talks about Holden in several of her books. I mean he’s–

Emily
“Grudgingly one of the good things to come out of America.” 

Nicole
Yes, that’s what she said. She did say that. 

So it was a single book, but it covered all these different topics, and she roughly assigned a topic of weather, say or Astronomy, Chemistry, for a single term. So she just assigned part of the book for that.

I don’t use Holden today, not because even though it is over a hundred years old, it’s out of date. You know, really a lot of the information, I’ve really studied it and it’s not bad. It’s just that the experiments are hard for us to reproduce. Yeah. And that was important to Charlotte Mason. We’ll talk about that more in minute. 

But instead I use several smaller, more up-to-date books that cover the same disciplines, and I still rotate them one discipline per term. 

Emily
Like one topic like Chemistry or Weather… 

Liz
And is this because you can’t go to the local drugstore, pharmacy, or as they would say over there, chemist, and get these items anymore that are recommended for his experiments? 

Nicole
Yeah some of the times that is the case, or sometimes it’s just because of the way the experiment is described, it’s hard for a parent to follow and know what they’re supposed to be doing. There’s also the thing that I have a hard time with is that it’s a conversational book and I’m always kind of put off by those somehow.

So at this level students also begin experiments. That’s kind of what we’re talking about here, that Charlotte Mason said that they must be done. And we talked about in a previous episode that the student shouldn’t be doing experiments that are random. They’re not just picked up here and there. And we have a quote that Emily found for me that really explains this. It says, 

One thing is to be borne in mind: nothing should be done without its due experiment. (1.271)

Emily
And she says that right after she’s done a whole long quoting of the Holden book, and then another person that she thought went along with that. And so the way his book is laid out is you would read about a topic and then you would do an experiment to prove what you were reading or to observe what you had just read for yourself. 

Liz
And that’s what she liked about it.

Nicole
Right. 

And so we really take from that something that we really feel strongly about, that that experiment has to be related to what they have been learning about, what they’re reading about. It’s causing them to wonder and question. And now that experiment is going to develop those ideas for the students. 

Emily
And they get that firsthand knowledge. 

Nicole
Right. 

Emily
And I think also it’s not that we do experiments for experiment’s sake, right? It’s connected to the idea, which is just what we mean when we talk about the uniqueness of a Charlotte Mason curriculum or her principles, they are few and simple to understand. 

Nicole
And that’s not to say that a student can’t do any other experimenting ever, but for our lessons this is what we’re doing. We really are laying this out. 

And I just wanted to note that they’re simple and it’s the child’s first practice at following the procedures carefully, which is going to be very important and really watching that scientific principle come to life. And for many kids this is like one of their favorite things in the week. So even though there’s a whole aspect for moms but just…

Emily
Well I was just reflecting on, you know, for Form 2, they have a lot more responsibility. They’re reading more of their books, they’re having to do written narrations, which is not generally something the kids love. Some do, but most have a hard time with that. They start doing more Grammar and Dictation and all these language art skills that are so demanding on their level, but then they get Science experiments. And for my kids, it’s been just a sweet, like this is their favorite thing. 

Nicole
Yes. 

So also let’s talk about Nature Study. Special Studies continue right alongside all of this and they really deepen in Form 2. Now this child is studying more of individual species. So while those younger kids were just like all the birds, now we want them to really follow a robin that comes early in the spring and makes a nest, and the babies are born and keep tracking that, or keep tracking a plant like Queen Anne’s lace that grows up and opens and then it closes back again and it opens again because then the seeds are going to be dispersed. 

So there’s these transitions that are happening and we’re wanting them to look at that. And that’s just developmentally the next stage for these kids. It’s an important part. 

And then just finally I would mention that another thing we see on the programs is that students are starting to read biographies and a Science biography is an excellent addition to their free reading. 

This type of book doesn’t take the place of this Science spine is what I call it. Charlotte Mason didn’t call it that, but the book that we’re using for their formal Science is truly teaching them about a Science concept. 

Emily
Right. 

Nicole
It is not the same as a biography, but a biography does have its place. It has an important value. 

Liz
Are you saying they would do that in their leisure time? 

Nicole
Yeah. During their free reading time.

Emily
Did Charlotte Mason assign Science biographies in her programs? 

Nicole
Yeah. Yeah. Not a lot. But occasionally– 

Emily
I’d just like to gauge how many of those you might want to do in a year. 

Nicole
I think that one a year is good all the way through school. I think they’re reading biographies about other topics, history and such, but just getting one Science biography in a year would be great. 

Emily
It’s very inspirational. 

So as far as our lesson format goes, they have still three lessons a week, but two of them are about 20 minutes and one is longer – 30 minutes. And so the way you have scheduled this out, Nicole, is Nature Lore is one of those 20 minute lessons, and reading from their term topic Science book is the other 20 minutes. And then they have that 30 minute lesson, which about every other week, or about half the term’s lessons, is going to be experiments that tie into the book, and then the other half you would read for their Special Studies. And then of course they’re continuing their afternoon Nature Study, so they’re outdoors every day, hopefully at some point making a note or something brief in their nature notebook and then maybe one longer lesson a week for a nature walk, which could be the object lesson, maybe do that a different day or whatever. But that’s the whole scope of their Nature Study and Science at this level. 

So for these lessons, we’re still following the same basic format. We recall the previous lesson, we incite some interest, arouse some interest in what is going to be done that lesson, they read, often to themselves or aloud to you, and then they narrate. And then you might even have a very brief, you could even call it an object lesson if it came out of the text, that’s even a short experiment just to demonstrate some principle that they read about. And then obviously a couple days later they will have their longer experiment. 

At this point they can do some written narrations too, so maybe they’re writing their narration on their book but they’re also kind of starting what will become a lab book but it’s still just their narration time. Even after they do an experiment they’re going to narrate what they did, what they discovered…they might draw a diagram something that’s kind of like a seed Science notebook which is going to really pick up in the next form.

So first of all, I have to brag about Nicole. She has taken all of the guesswork out of this. So here’s, for example, one term Science book. You might read The First Book of Sound and learn all about sound waves. And so, what Nicole has done is she has made Science study guides. So it will tell you what to read for your Nature Lore, what to read for your term Science book, pick a Special Study, she’s brought all those things together. 

And then she will have the experiments in here as well. And what’s so nice is she gives you a list at the very beginning that is all of the experiment materials that you’re going to need so you can actually gather those and have those on hand. And then you just follow along and she tells you exactly what you need to do each week. 

So that makes it really easy to prepare. You just have to, even each week…so there’s the whole book, the term’s worth of materials, but then she breaks that down: Here’s what you need just this week. And so you could gather those and know right where they are. Make sure you have cabbage or whatever it is on hand that you need. And so then you would just need to prepare by making sure you have those experiments or supplies on hand. 

What I have done, and actually share these with my Nature Club, Natural History club, I have put together Science boxes. And so this is something my kids know. I put a little list in the lid of what’s inside. I don’t cross off the things that are household supplies that we might need to gather. And I just know I need to gather all that. So I can look at that at the beginning of the week. My kids also know where to find everything. And that just makes it really easy for us to succeed in doing the experiments, which I know is a struggle for a lot of families. 

Nicole
It really ruins it if you don’t have the stuff because it’s just over. You can’t do it.

Emily
Yep. 

And then of course, you’re gonna continue to prepare an object lesson at most once a week for something in their Special Studies or Nature Study topics. 

So the resources I have to recommend, of course, would be the Sabbath Mood Homeschool Living Science Guides. What is so beautiful about these is she takes an actual living book that, some of them do really explain different experiments and you do refer to those too, but you also make it so much easier because you list out what we need and the procedure and you remind us to have our child recap the previous lesson and what they need to do as a written narration. So that would be the first thing.

Also at this stage, and really you can start this earlier, I just forgot to show it. A Calendar of Firsts that you can keep as a family and just a place to note those things that you see the first of each season. And so you know next year when you come along, you can oh, this is when the robins were nesting last year. Maybe they’ll be building a nest now, and we can go out and look for those. 

Nicole
Yeah. 

Emily
The Handbook of Nature Study is still a very excellent preparation for object lessons for you. Do not be intimidated by the size of this volume, read the first 20 pages and then just look up whatever your Special Study is on. I just saw plantain as I was flipping through. So we have that growing all over our yard. I could do a little reading on that, prepare a couple object lessons, and we could do that if our Special Study was wildflowers.

Emily
And then of course, nature notebooks. And I showed these on our last episode, but if you’re just tuning in because you have a Form 2 student only, we prefer the Stilman and Birn because they are sewn bindings. They lay flat. The paper is a nice quality. Mine is a soft cover Alpha series that’s like an 8×10 inch. Nicole’s is like five by eight-ish, and it’s the Epsilon series and it’s hardcover, but still lays flat. So those are the resources that you would want to have on hand to do all of these lessons. 

What challenges were commonly– 

Liz
Well, you guys have covered a couple of things, you know, that I have thought of or heard quite often. One of them though is what if my fourth or fifth grader is still a really weak reader and is not independent? 

Emily
Sure. 

Liz
And I will just say there’s not a huge quantity of reading here. They’re reading a very short amount. And this is just the form where you begin guiding your children to follow directions, so you’re gonna have to help them learn to follow the step-by-step, and this is where they’re forming their independence. It’s where it’s developing. So you may have to work with some weaker readers more at the beginning but most kids by wouldn’t you say by sixth grade are handling that guide and the books just fine.

Nicole
It’s really a good transition time where it is. During that first part of Form 2, you’re having to do more with them, but by the end, they’re gonna be more independent at it, presumably. 

Emily
Yeah. I was just gonna tell about something from the end of this year. I have two students, one in Form 2 and one in Form 3, that are doing experiments, and we do those as our last lesson on Fridays, just because then if it goes long or cleanup or whatever, it just makes it easy. 

Liz
Uh-huh. 

Emily
I was trying to help the older one get a bunch of complicated stuff together. And my younger student was like, Well, it’s my time for my experiment. And he just pulled out the book and he started gathering all the things and following the steps. He’s at the end of fifth grade.

Nicole
That’s great. 

Liz
Well and I do have a lot of moms, you know, that will let their children read the book that goes with the guide, but they just skip all the experiments. And that is just a huge disservice because that is where they’re learning, they get to actually get their own hands involved. And they’re not complicated experiments and activities at all. 

Emily
It really makes it tangible.

Liz
It does. 

Nicole
I’m thinking of Charlotte Mason’s books and things. 

Emily
Yes. 

Nicole
This is one of the things. 

Emily
Yes. Yeah. 

Nicole
That’s important for your education. 

Emily
Right. 

Liz
And you don’t want your children to always be just reading and not getting involved.

And related to that is just moms wanting to just get a book of experiments, because they feel like they’re learning directions and how to handle equipment and measure things. 

Emily
Or they just like it. 

Liz
Yeah, or it’s appealing. And I would say those books may have their place as an activity for your children to do at other times. But like Emily said, you know, the experiment needs to enhance or develop the ideas that they got from the book.

Emily
Yeah. 

Liz
And so random experiments are not what it’s all about. It’s not just doing experiments, it’s about doing experiments about machines or electricity. Whatever idea they had just read about. 

Emily
We’ve covered a lot of ground so far in our Science series, but there’s still more to come. Next time we’re gonna look at the next stage, Form 3, or what we call middle school here in the United States.

What do Science lessons look like once formal schooling begins? Join us on the podcast in today’s episode as we explore the next step in our children’s education and how Science and Nature Study play an integral role for lower elementary students in years one through three.

Listen Now:

Charlotte Mason, Volume 6 (Amazon) (Living Book Press – use code DELECTABLE for 10% off!)

ADE Season 12 Reading Schedule

Eyes & No Eyes series by Buckley
(Yesterday’s Classics) (Living Book Press – use code DELECTABLE for 10% off!)
Individual books in the series from each publisher on Amazon:

• Wild Life in Woods & Fields (Yesterday’s Classics) (Living Book Press)
• By Pond & River (YC)
• Plant Life in Field & Garden (YC) (LBP)
• Birds of the Air (YC) (LBP)
• Trees & Shrubs (YC) (LBP)
• Insect Life (LBP)

Nature Lore by Dallas Lore Sharpe:

• Fall of the Year (Yesterday’s Classics) (Amazon)
• Winter (Yesterday’s Classics) (Amazon)
• Spring of the Year (Yesterday’s Classics) (Amazon)

ADE Special Studies Rotation

Sabbath Mood Homeschool’s Nature Explorers:

• Rotation A
• Rotation B

Sabbath Mood Homeschool’s Calendar of Firsts

Nature Notebooks:

• Stilman & Birn Alpha softcover 8×10
• Stilman & Birn Epsilon hardcover 5.5×8.5

Last Child in the Woods by Louv

ADE on YouTube

Emily
Welcome to A Delectable Education, the podcast that spreads the feast of the Charlotte Mason Method. I’m Emily Kiser and I’m here with…

Liz
…Liz Cottrill…

Nicole
…and Nicole Williams.

Emily
We are in the middle of our series on Natural History, the word that Charlotte Mason most often used for Science and Nature Study. So we’re focusing in today on just Form 1, which is the first three years of formal education. So years or grades one, two, and three. Or children about six to nine years old.

So, Nicole, would you explain what the scope and sequence of lessons looks like for just these years? 

Nicole
Yes. 

So, Form 1, students begin with Nature Study and Nature Lore. So they’ve been doing Nature Study already, but Nature Lore is a new one here. And they are not introduced to the formal Science subjects, nor do they do lab experiments at this time. 

The two kinds of books, the Nature Lore books that were instrumental in these lessons, there are two of them. The primary one is Arabella Buckley’s books, and Arabella Buckley’s Eyes and No Eyes series in particular. 

Emily
Let me just hold those up right here. They’re in reprint by a couple different companies we recommend – Yesterday’s Classics and Living Book Press. 

Nicole
Yes. And Buckley’s books are special because she approaches plant and animal life with a genuine scientific eye. It is different from anything else out there really, and they are older, but again, it’s the common information that is the stuff the kids need to know. 

Some people have a little bit of trouble because she will start with a hook that is about maybe a bird that’s in England, but we have the same families of birds, just figure out what’s local to you. 

But immediately after that, she goes into more of the scientific information about the plant or animal or whatever she’s discussing. And and again, we just don’t see that in anything else. So really these are the Science books for kids this age, so it’s very important. 

Emily
Because it’s giving them those bigger ideas that they might not even be asking themselves when they see something outside. 

Nicole
Right. 

Emily
And at the end of each chapter, pretty much exclusively or across the board, she has a little prompt of what they should go out and try and find. 

Nicole
Yes. 

Emily
And my kids will often bring those up or – I have my last child doing this stage this year, it’s sad! But they’re always like we should look for such and such or mom, I found this. And those really hook them. 

Nicole
Yes. And these are really preparing the child for the formal Science lessons that are to come. I know we’re talking about nature things, but we’re doing them in a scientific way that’s setting that groundwork. 

So alongside Buckley, the second Nature Lore book is read every week. And here I like the Christian Liberty Nature Reader, which you have there. And book one is the one I like to use. And then Dallas Lore Sharpe’s seasonal books. So you’ve got Fall of the Year, Winter, Spring of the Year, and then there’s a summer one also. And these can be really valuable because it was important to Charlotte Mason that they study nature that is seasonal, that they’re looking at it from that perspective and getting to know the year. 

And then there is a third type of book that is more assigned related to their Special Study every year, but that’s going to change and Charlotte Mason would have used a flyer or pamphlet in this category but we have lots of books that we can just plug in. 

Emily
Just tell us a little bit about what a Special Study is for Form 1 students. 

Nicole
Yes. Special studies in Form 1 is going to be a deliberate study of something but it’s going to be broad. So we’re gonna look at wildflowers in general and and I in particular will look at you know maybe the Aster family of flowers but that’s still a hugely broad category of flowers. 

Emily
And at the same time, they’ll look at birds or trees or something like that. 

Nicole
So they’d have two or three of these topics every term, and they can either run one after another or they can run concurrently. And we would read a book about it, and we would do an object lesson about one of these things, and we’d go out and look for them and have a goal on our nature walk to find one, maybe enter something into our nature notebook about it. So there’s some things that go along with it, but it’s really a deliberate study of nature that they’re doing at this time rather than how we talked about in the Early Years, we see something interesting and let’s look at that. 

Emily
By the way.

Nicole
Very by the way, now we’re getting more deliberate about it, but in a broad way. 

So this pairing of the books that I mentioned really reflects the pairing that Charlotte Mason that we see in her own programs. It always gave Form 1 two streams of Nature Lore at once. Streams is a word we use. It’s not something Charlotte Mason used, but we’re gonna see that all the way through the Science subjects we do here. 

But the pattern that I see is that one was always more general, often about a region or a habitat. And then the other one was more about a specific group of plants or animals. You might have the hedgerow and birds, something like that. So you have this kind of pairing. The two do not need to relate to one another and they don’t need to coordinate with the term Special Studies. That’s the point of it. It’s more of a breadth, if I’m saying that word correctly. 

Emily
Yeah, to have a wide scope and really in Form 1, we’re trying to get them to intentionally look at everything they can come into contact with. 

Nicole
Yes, start really noticing, right? 

So nature walks, seasonal special studies, like we talked about, doing object lessons at this time. If a nature notebook hasn’t been started already, definitely starting that now. Making entries in there as often as possible. We’re really again, like you just said, trying to expose them to a lot of ideas, letting them make connections between a lot of things. And really, in some ways, this could be thought about as the experimental side of their Science, you know, when they’re out looking for things and paying attention to what they are noticing. 

Emily
Right, the Nature Study part.

Nicole
They’re learning really to observe something and ask questions, through the object lessons we’re teaching them to ask questions and then observe some more. And that is really what the scientific method is founded on. So this is really the beginning for them. 

Emily
Yeah. So the lesson format at this stage is three lessons a week, about 10 minutes. So they’re really short. And then of course afternoon Nature Study time. So the afternoon time, something every day. They’re spending hours outside every afternoon, and a part of that time is for Field Work, Charlotte Mason said. so we might do an object lesson. And then having a goal of about once a week to go on a longer nature walk out in nature maybe even beyond your backyard. 

So each of those three morning lessons though would be a different book. So you might do Dallas Lore Sharpe on one day and an Arabella Buckley book on another day and then something about your Special Studies on a third day. Or a Buckley book and The Christian Liberty Nature Reader on different days and then something on your Special Studies that third day. 

Charlotte Mason said that the real use of naturalist books at this stage is to give the child delightful glimpses into the world of wonders he lives in, to reveal the sort of things to be seen by curious eyes and to fill him with desire to make discoveries for himself. 

We in education circles, especially home education circles, we hear a lot about ordering our affections or teaching ourselves what we need to love. And I think of this as that’s what we’re doing with these books is we’re teaching our children what to look for and what to care about. 

Liz
Whetting the appetite.

Emily
Yeah. 

So then an individual lesson is like a typical book and narration lesson where you first want to recall what you had read about last time and say some tiny little thing that would just whet their appetite or arouse their interest in what you’re gonna be reading about that day, and then a short reading, which is less than half of the lesson time, maybe three or four minutes of that 10-minute lesson. So a very small amount of reading and then narration. 

And then those lessons, the object of them, the goal of them is to get them to be interested in something that they’re gonna look at outside, something that they might want to pursue more closely in an afternoon outside time. 

So in their afternoons, Charlotte Mason gave us some specific instructions that I just want to reiterate today. She said:

The teachers are careful not to make these nature walks an opportunity for scientific instruction, as we wish the children’s attention to be given to observation with very little direction. 

So they’re still trying to find out for themselves. And so the ideas are planted from their Nature Lore books that they read in the morning. And then just like you said, this is kind of their experimentation time, Nicole. They’re seeing if can I actually observe that for myself? And she goes on to say,

The nature-walk should not be made the occasion to impart a sort of Tit-Bits miscellany of scientific information. (3/237)

So I think that also takes a lot of pressure off of us as the teacher, where we feel like, we’re going to have to be saying so much stuff, or I remember reading the handbook of Nature Study and thinking, how do I remember all this stuff to tell? Well, you’re not supposed to. But again, we’re still following the child’s lead, just like in the early years, when if they have questions, we can say, well, let’s go figure it out together, or that might be the time if you do happen to know something else to say that right then.

So your teacher preparation at this age is really to look at the main idea in their Nature Lore book. Maybe you’re gonna find a specimen or a picture…maybe it’s talking about a bird that is in England and you could find another similar bird from the same family that we have where we live and maybe find a picture. Maybe it’s some plant that you really could find a specimen of and bring it in for something. 

I remember doing this with my son and it was a whole lesson on what they call, what do they call squash in England? 

Nicole
The gourd, or… 

Emily
The gourd and then there’s another word. 

Nicole
Yeah. It’s not coming to me. 

Emily
Whatever that is. I feel like it’s the French word, right? And it’s just been anglicized. But I actually brought a zucchini out and we cut it open to look at the same things because that’s what we have here and we just use a different word for it. 

Nicole
Yeah. 

Emily
So you might want to do that occasionally, not every time, right? And then your other objective is to prepare an object lesson at most once a week, right? So this is not something that takes a lot of time. I’ve already showed you a lot of the books that we have used at this stage. And I want to tell you that Nicole at Sabbath Mood Homeschool has lists on all the Special Studies topics. We’ll also include a link to our Special Studies rotation so you can get an idea of what categories of things to look at each term for their Special Studies. 

And then Nicole has actually finally, I’m getting to use now with my last child, produced a guide to Special Studies, and Nature Study really. So it’s called Nature Explorers. And through here, you use that rotation. There’s book recommendations, but you also have prepared object lessons. So we get to watch you and follow along and do the object lesson with you, and then you give us goals or things to look for on our nature walks, nature notebook prompts and all of the things. So if Nature Study has seemed…undaunting? Daunting to you, you will be undaunted if you use Nature Explorers. 

Another resource that you would want to have at this age is a nature notebook. I, well both Nicole and I, love the Stillman and Birn series. The paper is archival. The books lay flat, which is so important when you’re trying to paint or draw or write. And the paper is thick enough that they’re not going to bleed through if you’re writing on one side and you have a drawing or vice versa, and it can take a watercolor drawing without warping. 

So I prefer the Stillman and Birn Alpha series. I get the soft cover kind that’s about an 8×10. Nicole, you like a smaller, it’s more of a five by eight, five by six…yeah, about 5×8. And it’s the Epsilon series with a hard cover, but again, still lays very flat and it’s sewn together. So these books are gonna last a lifetime. 

So what I do with my kids is they can keep nature notebooks, but they get less expensive materials and then they turn six and they graduate to getting an actual nature notebook and their own watercolor palette. And it’s like kind of a rite of passage in our house. 

So those are some resources that we can recommend for you. 

Liz
And you know, when I think of problems and questions that moms bring up, I thought of one while you were doing this, which is simply that most or a great deal of children this age can’t write, you know, and so you’re going to have to let them dictate to you. And you can put the words down in their nature notebook if you want to, right? 

Emily
Yeah, yep. 

Liz
Another thing that a lot of people feel is that nature isn’t enough and that there is a lot of homeschool Science curriculum out there for very young children. So what’s wrong with letting them do those books, actual Science books that have experiments and them and all that kind of thing? 

So many young textbooks though, I feel as we’ve looked them over, are very watered down and they talk down to children, which is what Charlotte Mason didn’t like about textbooks, and that the nature books really promote much more exciting exploration. Children are really more interested in the real world than just what’s on a page. And they develop  their curiosity a lot more, I think. 

And related to that, a lot of moms wonder what is wrong with having their second, third graders participate with older siblings doing their same Science experiments and labs with them. And I would just say that the caution there is…well there’s a couple of them. 

First of all, the child is enjoying the activity because like I said, they’re very interested in things, but they have not learned the associated or informing idea for which that experiment applies. And so it’s just a disconnected experience for them. 

Emily
Yeah. Also adamant we should not do it, right?

Liz
And Charlotte– Nicole, not Charlotte Mason. Nicole points out too that it’s gonna mean a lot more work for you because every time you have that child grow into those grades, you are going to have to find a new experiment that relates. And there is a lot of work, as Nicole well knows from producing this curriculum, into finding appropriate experiments. 

And related to what you were saying about the Arabella Buckley books, I hear a lot, you know, about why should we read these books about English birds or plants when we don’t have these species where I live? Or even within the United States, you know, people in Seattle will complain about having to read a book that shows something in Georgia or something like that. 

And like she said, all birds do have common characteristics. and Charlotte Mason also said that children learn so much by contrast, by seeing differences that’s what sticks out to them anyways. so they can notice how the bird in their backyard differs from the one they were reading about, but they still have common characteristics. And really what we want them to see is, you know, how does this caterpillar’s mouth work? They don’t have to necessarily be seeing the same exact thing.

I and I think of the book Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. He points out, I believe in that book, that most famous scientists and inventors had extensive exposure to nature as children. Experience is so important to sparking interest and later they really will want to know more about stars or cells or things like that.

Emily
Thanks for listening today. We hope you’ll tune in next week as we continue our look at Science and Nature Study in a Charlotte Mason education by turning our attention to Form 2 lessons, which is grades four through six, when new vistas open up for our students.

“Never be with indoors when you can rightly be without” is a common quote we hear in Charlotte Mason circles. But what are we supposed to be doing in all these hours outdoors? In today’s podcast episode we discuss the invaluable groundwork for Science that is laid in the early years before formal lessons begin.

Listen Now:

Charlotte Mason, Volume 6 (Amazon) (Living Book Press – use code DELECTABLE for 10% off!)

Also referenced in this episode is Volume 1 – (Amazon) (LBP, same code applies)

ADE Season 12 Reading Schedule

List of Nature Lore Books from Sabbath Mood Homeschool

Handbook of Nature Study by Comstock

ADE on YouTube

Emily
Welcome to A Delectable Education, the podcast that spreads the feast of the Charlotte Mason Method. I’m Emily Kiser and I’m here with…

Nicole
…Nicole Williams…

Liz
…and Liz Cottrill.

Emily
And last week we looked at the overview of Science, so let’s zoom in and really look at its development at each stage of a child’s life. 

First, the book of Nature is one that we do not wait until formal lessons to introduce the child to. We want them to know intimately the wonders of the world around them from a very young age. 

So, Nicole, can you tell us what Science and Nature Study look like in the early years before a child starts school? 

Nicole
Yes.

Emily
Before. So, like you can start this at day one. 

Nicole
Yes, yep. 

So the early years is really where, like you say, the child’s scientific education starts. And the scope and sequence is simple. Get them outside. And let nature do the teaching. Most of the hours are simply for free play, and just letting them discover the things for themselves with the parent practicing what Charlotte Mason calls masterly inactivity. This is where we see a lot of her explanation of it, even though that is a broader thing, but it’s kind of begun here. You, keeping to yourself, letting the children commune with nature on their own terms. 

Then here and there in the day you weave in a few little activities, and there’s no rigid sequence to these. It’s more of a menu for you to draw from as you see something is needed. There are five of them to keep in mind. 

The first is called Sightseeing, and this is where you send the children off to notice everything they can about a spot, say “a hedge or a brook, a cottage on the hill,” she says. I don’t know if you have cottages on your hills, but something like that. And then they are supposed to come back and tell you everything they can remember. And so in 10 or 15 minutes, you’re training their powers of observation and their vocabulary. A lot of this early stuff is them trying to find words to explain what they are seeing. And really the habit also of telling back accurately. There’s this whole thing that she talks about in volume one that’s about no, there’s not a thousand of those, tell me what you actually saw and just being…she has as truthful in it, but it has more to do with accurately describing what they see.

So the second thing is Picture Painting. And this is where the child, and you do it with them, but you look at a bit of landscape and you’re really committing that to memory. So the child looks at it and closes their eyes and looks again, you know, I can’t remember what’s over here. 

And then she says the parent can help a little bit. So like if you’re looking at a lake, you might point out I see the reflection of the trees on the lake. So you’re helping them to observe more than they maybe would on their own, and they’re really committing a piece of that to memory. And this is just an occasional thing, but Miss Mason said it’s well worth giving the children the habit of getting a bit of landscape by heart, which was really fun. 

The third thing is Bird Stalking. This is so funny. I always teased that we needed to do nature sits more than we need to do nature walks because when we walk we scare everything off. Especially when the kids are little.

Emily
That’s true. 

Nicole
But she talks about this time in which you would hear a bird, and you might have to just sit and be quiet for that for a minute, and you hear a bird, and then you would kind of creep and stalk that bird until you could see it in the trees where it was at. 

One thing I love about this is there are a lot of bird types that live only up in the trees. They don’t come to your feeder, they’re not eating off the ground. And if you don’t look up, you’re not going to see these kinds of birds. Lots of the warblers and things like that. And so this was a really good practice for them to do. 

And she said that when they reach that bird, when they discover it, that it is a possession for life. They’ve kind of made that connection. 

Liz
And they usually scare it away. 

Nicole
Yeah. 

Emily
I remember my first bird stalking. I was probably 28, 29 years old. And I don’t think I ever realized that female cardinals look different than the males. 

Liz
Oh goodness. 

Emily
And I saw this bird and I’m like, what is that bright orange beak? And I just kept, like it was on the ground, you know, and it was flitting from one part of undergrowth to the next and creeping along. But I got it in my mind and when I went back to my field guide, I was like, this is not a new bird, but I had never realized it. 

Nicole
Yeah. Yeah. There’s people, friends of ours, who take bird photographs and they are always including pictures that I think I never see that bird. I never see that bird. And what it is is they are really looking for the birds. They’re not just having them in passing, you know. 

And I would also note that this is a great activity for winter. 

Emily
Yes. 

Nicole
Because there’s not leaves in the trees a lot of times, and so they’re easier to see, and there’s fewer birds. So a child can really get a handle on a handle on birds that they make acquaintance with before more come back. 

Emily
And where we live in the southeastern United States, you know, in the summer in Michigan, lots of birds summer. That’s like their end migration, is up north. They don’t want it where it’s too hot. And in the winter they don’t see as many. We kind of have a lot of those northern migrants that are here in the winter that we don’t see the rest of the year because they fly north. 

Liz
Or we see them as they’re passing by on their way back and forth. 

Nicole
I discovered a whole new bird this winter that only comes for the winter and it’s a gull that lives out on the lake. 

Emily
Oh wow. 

Nicole
Yeah. It was really fun. 

So okay, the fourth is an Object Lesson. And this was really fun. So lots of you have heard me talk about object lessons before, but these early ones you do with the little kids, Charlotte Mason says that the little kids just float from one thing to another like a butterfly, never staying long enough to truly know any of it. And she says it’s the mother’s part to build that habit of attention. 

So she gives an example, and this is also in volume one. She talks about little Margaret and her daisy. And instead of letting it be just tossed aside, the mother helps her see it as a bright yellow eye with white lashes. She says it’s the day’s eye that opens to the sun and shuts at night. And now Margaret has looked long enough to really know the thing. 

Emily
So these are so just not like fully drawing, but you’re just trying to help extend their attention. 

Nicole
Yeah, just wait just a minute, look a little closer, tell a little story if you got one you can come up with just to get them to hold that attention just a bit longer. And I just can’t tell you how valuable this can be to prepare them when it’s lesson time. Kind of learn to look a little closer and just stop their attention for a minute. 

Emily
Think about it a little bit more than just a passing acquaintance. 

Nicole
Right. 

So the fifth one is not necessarily while we’re outside, but to coordinate with these activities that I’ve already mentioned is that they can already be keeping a Nature Notebook. So Miss Mason said to begin as soon as the child can keep it himself, which there’s kind of a caveat to that because she says the mother taking dictation while the writing is a labor for the child, and by five or six, he starts adding his own drawings. So you’re thinking, okay, just do the math on that. That nature notebook could be kept with a four-year-old, maybe a three-year-old, you know, like if they have anything they noticed… 

Emily
…if Mom is writing it down.

Nicole
Right. So, and then also you can be keeping a family calendar or diary, and that is just a shared record of firsts, and this can be done in any way just on an old calendar or a list and it helps the child to recognize, she says

…the first oak-leaf, the first tadpole, the first cowslip, the first catkin, the first ripe blackberries, where seen, and when. The next year they will know when and where to look out for their favourites. (1.54)

So really woven all through this is a simple pointing out of beauty also. 

And there is again a caveat to this that she says just it was every so often to point out the beauty that–

Emily
We don’t want to be a barrage of deadening that for them 

Nicole
Exactly. 

Liz
And every time you’re outside, you’re constantly going look at this, look at the cat…

Nicole
Exactly. That’s very hard for us Charlotte Mason moms who also get very taken with nature. But we want to make sure that we’re kind of holding ourselves back a little bit and just– 

Liz
More is not more. 

Nicole
Yeah. 

Emily
Yep. 

Well, I always talk about the lesson format. So obviously in these early years, the lessons are not a set amount of time. They’re not a set amount of frequency. 

Liz
By the way.

Emily
They’re by the way, during these hours daily in the out of doors. Charlotte Mason says 

not two, but four, five, or six hours they should have on every tolerably fine day, from April till October. (1.44)

Obviously, adjust that for your climate, your location. Here, we could go a lot earlier than April and go a lot later than October most years. 

Nicole
Might want to take off July. 

Emily
Yes, when I don’t want spend six hours outside, you know. 

Nicole
Exactly. 

Emily
But it is in this context of this quote that Charlotte Mason says that she speaks of

not what is practicable in any household, but what seems to me absolutely best for the children; and that, in the faith that mothers work wonders once they are convinced that wonders are demanded of them. (1.44)

So whatever you need to do to make it happen, you need to be spending hours outdoors. 

And then those things that Nicole just itemized, those are just a fraction and not every day, all of them. Like probably one at most every day, right? The goal is play and games. But again, to try to think about, we can do an observational exercise like a sightseeing or a picture painting. But they should be learning to know by sight the plants and animals, the weather, too, the stars, even of your own neighborhood, all those things that they can actually see around them. 

And Charlotte Mason’s very adamant, this is not a place for us to lecture, right? To follow the child’s lead, if they show an interest in the daisy, to then maybe use that as our opening to say a little bit more. 

But Charlotte Mason does give us a lot that we need to prepare at this age. So if this is a new field for you, Charlotte Mason said

there is no sort of knowledge to be got in these early years so valuable to children as that which they get for themselves of the world they live in. Let them once get touch with Nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life. (1.61)

So they need this knowledge. So just to lay that out as our kind of requirement or our goal, it’s their duty to do that so we have a duty to come alongside them and help them grow in this. 

So as far as our preparation, our duty is to learn about nature ourselves. Charlotte Mason said that

The mother cannot devote herself too much to this kind of reading, not only that she may read tit-bits to her children about matters they have come across–

So again, this is not just telling them things we find interesting, but things they’ve already observed for themselves–

but that she may be able to answer their queries and direct their observations. (1.64)

So Nicole on your website, and we will throw a link to a great page to start in the show notes, but you have lists of all kinds of books that help a mother who has maybe not any of this knowledge for themselves. 

But then of course the gold standard among us Charlotte Mason educators is Anna Botsford Comstock’s Handbook of Nature Study. And that little tidbit about the day’s eye is something that is very similar to what you will find in the pages of this. It looks very daunting. 

Liz
Like an encyclopedia.

Emily
There is a very short 20 page-ish introduction about teaching Nature Study. And then the rest of the book is divided into classes of things and comments. So find something that you can see in your yard and you as a mom read up about it. There are object lessons in here. You don’t even have to, you can ask one of those questions, maybe if it’s something that your child knows. But if they do come to you and want to know more, this is how you stock your knowledge to supply those answers. 

Nicole
And each specific thing is usually like two pages, three pages. 

Emily
With pictures. 

Nicole
It’s small.

Emily
Yeah, it’s small. 

So this again is not the time of a child’s education to do a lot of direct teaching and not a lot of object lessons. And again, when you think about what we talk about object lessons, and we will cover in future episodes here, it’s very, very gentle at this stage. 

But the principle to keep in mind is again that those observations and interests that they have made, that they are curious about and wonder about, that is what is dictating what we share with them and when.

And I would just direct you as a final resource, it really can be your handbook for child rearing at this age, is the Out of Door Life of Children section in Volume one. And that is included on your reading schedule if you’re following along with us this season. 

So, what questions do people ask at this stage? 

Liz
I think a lot of moms feel pretty daunted, especially if they didn’t learn a lot about nature themselves growing up, which is pretty common in our machine technology type of culture that we grow up in. We might watch nature documentaries on TV, but actually going out and smelling and looking and hearing and all of that. I think a lot of moms have asked me, how do I direct my child’s attention if I am so unfamiliar with nature myself? How can I interest them without having any background? 

And I will just say that your children are your best resource, they are naturally curious. If you go out, they’re going to wonder about everything they see because they do that in your kitchen too, right? So if you begin to just look at things the way they do, they’re going to follow your suit. And if you stoop and just take a moment to look more closely at a bush or an insect crawling in the grass, they’re going to be right there at your elbow wanting to do it too. And just start observing yourself.

Let your knowledge build slowly. I mean, you have to start somewhere. And it is okay to not know anything. Neither did your children when they were born. But they are willing and unafraid because the whole world is new and unfamiliar to them. So follow their example. 

Emily
Yeah. So good. 

Nicole
It reminds me that we are really learning along with our kids in a lot of ways. 

Liz
Yes. 

Nicole
And often we’ll say, the book is the teacher, you can just learn with your kid. But in what we’re talking about today, nature is the teacher in a lot of ways. And we are learning along with them, just keeping that curiosity open.

Emily
We hope you’re inspired to head out of doors with your young students and begin a lifelong habit of noticing and observing the amazing world just outside our front door. There is no better time to begin to look at nature with awe and wonder than today. 

Next week we’ll start to look at Science and Nature Study for Form 1 students, so in those first three years of their formal lessons. We hope you’ll join us then.

Does the Charlotte Mason curriculum prepare students to live and work in today’s STEM-focused world? Once again, we believe Charlotte Mason was ahead of her time and gives children not just the education they need, but the one they deserve. Join us in this podcast episode to look at the big picture of Science and Nature Study in a Charlotte Mason education.

Listen Now:

Charlotte Mason, Volume 6 (Amazon) (Living Book Press – use code DELECTABLE for 10% off!)

ADE Season 12 Reading Schedule

ADE on YouTube

Emily
Welcome to A Delectable Education, the podcast that spreads the feast of the Charlotte Mason Method. I’m Emily Kiser and I’m here with…

Liz
…Liz Cottrill.

Nicole
…and Nicole Williams.

Emily
We’re kicking off season 12 by diving into Science and Nature Study. So as we work through this season of the podcast, just as in last season, we invite you to read along with us out of chapter 10 of Charlotte Mason’s An Essay Toward a Philosophy of Education, her sixth volume, and we have a reading schedule you can find in the show notes to follow along with us and really dig into everything she says about these subjects.

So the first thing we like to consider is why this subject in the first place? So why Science and Nature Study? It’s pretty integral in a Charlotte Mason education, but why is it important? And should we still include it in today’s–I mean, it seems silly to even say, do we include Science for our children? But just to look at its place in the whole curriculum and why Charlotte Mason felt like it was an important field of study. 

Charlotte Mason’s goal for every child’s education was for them to build relationships in as many directions with as many things that they encounter in the world around them. So the very first relationships a child forms are really the seeds of their science education. Observing, naming, experimenting, and deducing are all as natural to persons as breathing. So from infancy, Charlotte Mason exhorts us to go outside with our children, with our children, so they can explore and get to know the world around them.

In the first place, do not send them; if it is anyway possible, take them; for, although the children should be left much to themselves, there is a great deal to be done and a great deal to be prevented during these long hours in the open air. (1.43)

And then as they grow, they add to their vocabulary and they begin to not just understand the what of what they’re seeing, but the why behind their observations. So in appropriate developmental stages, the knowledge of the universe is open to them in their Science lessons. And they learn loads of scientific information because they’ve already built relationships with many things around them that they’ve directly observed.

So Nature Study and Science, we believe, are essential to a child’s education. They cultivate the habit of attention by looking closely at even small things around them. They help develop their curiosity and wonder about the world around them. They also provide opportunities for mental training and reasoning. Charlotte Mason said:

The power to classify, discriminate, distinguish between things that differ, is amongst the highest faculties of the human intellect, and no opportunity to cultivate it should be let slip. (1.64)

And overall Science, and particularly Nature Study in the younger years, really help a child build relationships, which is the ultimate goal of education. So children…it’s knowledge owed to them, right? 

Nicole
Absolutely.

Emily
So Nicole, why don’t you give us…paint that big picture that you were talking about in our last episode. What is the overall progression of a child’s scientific education? 

Nicole
Yeah, so in Form 1, that’s grades one through three, there’s no formal Science yet. They are really, this is all Nature Study at this time. All of their Science is Nature Study and Nature Lore, which we’re gonna talk about more in the next episode, and it’s very important. 

The lessons are short, but the work is so valuable. The child is, like you said, really learning to pay attention at this time, which will serve them really well in other subjects, by the way. They learn to observe closely, to put what they notice into their own words. Miss Mason said that 

“out-of-door Nature Study lays the foundation for Science.” (Mason, A P.N.E.U. Manifesto) 

And that is exactly what these early years are really doing. We build the habits of attention and the accurate observation that all real Science depends on, and this is going to be vital. 

Then in Form 2, so that’s grades four through six, then we begin this gentle transition to formal Science. The child keeps reading nature lore at this time, but now a Science book is added alongside of it, introducing them to the everyday marvels around them. Weather, magnets, light, and sound, and basics of Astronomy, things that they can really observe and wonder about. This is what Charlotte Mason called the Philosophy of Common Things. And the goal here isn’t mastery at all, it’s to keep the wonder alive. 

You know, we really see a shift with our kids at this age, where they can lose that wonder, but she wants to keep that wonder alive, allow them to begin asking questions, to see that the world is orderly and governed by laws. So we’re starting to get there. 

Then in Forms 3-4, so that’s grades seven through nine, and that’s how Charlotte Mason grouped this, Science becomes a fuller study and the students take up Biology in earnest and they also work through all the major branches of Science. And now the student begins keeping a science notebook and in there they’re keeping written narrations of what they’ve read or experiments they’ve made. They start reproducing diagrams and they become a treasure, they really do.

Their powers of observations have matured. So in Nature Study, they began looking at things that are like cross-species things. So we’re not just doing your average object lessons anymore. Now they’re looking at things like pollination and seed dispersal across many different plants and animals.

Then by Forms 5 and 6, so that’s grades 10-12, students are studying the four core Sciences by this time: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Earth Science every year. And Nature Study matures into Ecology, so the study of a whole biome at this point and how living things interact within it. And the work is really preparing them to step into life as people who can read about scientific discoveries and ask sensible questions about it and weigh the evidence for themselves. They really become so grounded in Science as an idea that is around us all the time by this point. 

So, across all these years, the goal is just this study, and really it’s twofold. First, we want our children to feel the wonder and reverence of the world around them. Charlotte Mason was very blunt about this. When you hear that quote: 

Where Science does not teach a child to wonder and admire, it perhaps has no educative value. (6.224)

That’s huge. But second, we want them to gain what she called the common information. And this is really what we would call scientific literacy today. 

The real question at the end of a child’s education, she said, 

…is not,––how much does the youth know?…but how much does he care? (3.170)

And when she uses that quote, it’s Science that she’s talking about. And how many orders of things does he care about? So that’s where that broad feast is really important. In other words, 

how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? (3.171)

I love that quote, but it’s always so exciting to me to think that’s about Science. 

Emily
And when your study is the universe, their room should be really large. 

Nicole
Really large, right.

Emily
Illimitable, actually.

Nicole
So we are aiming at this the whole way through. A student who has spent years observing, reading living books, narrating experiments, who walks into adulthood with both a sense of awe and the ability to think clearly about the scientific questions of their time. 

Emily
Yeah. So important. 

Well, Liz, do you want to share with us some of the common pushback or questions that people have when you explain to them, you know, the scope of Charlotte Mason’s Science education? 

Liz
I think a common concern that a lot of parents have, especially in this area of Science, is isn’t this approach out of date and out of step with modern Science, which has progressed and expanded astronomically in the last hundred and hundred and fifty years? And I would say yes, Science has increased in knowledge and scope exponentially. 

But all learning begins with the basic information that Nicole was just talking about, the foundational, general, concrete, simple ideas before building on those with more detailed specifics. And observation is the most fundamental aspect of Charlotte Mason’s approach to Science. She encourages attention, as Emily was saying, and inspires wonder in the children. And the questions that are raised in the Science reading and exploration just promote, spur them on to investigate things. 

Another common concern is how can children get the most up-to-date information when they read older living books on Science subjects? Anyone ever heard this before? 

Emily
Yeah, I would say they don’t have to read older books, but they do need to read living books, and that is sometimes the harder thing, is to find a more in depth Science book that is not a textbook. 

Liz
Right. Where we’re not just presenting information. ‘Cause she said that older books– 

Emily
That’s been pre digested. 

Liz
Yes. Yeah. Or written by a hundred people. She said that these books…when a lot of these scientific discoveries were new, Nicole was just pointing this out to me, and it was fresh information, they were very inspired and the enthusiasm comes through. Those authors knew what was developing and the narrative style that these books are written in, Charlotte Mason said made retention much greater. 

And since then, of course, we have developed much more micro and macro knowledge. A lot has been added, but they still need that basic understanding to go on later to learn those more specific things. Right now, in the formative years of their early schooling in Science, we’re trying to build their appetite and their delight for the subject. 

You know, it’s kind of like we read poetry to children to catch their attention and increase their delight in it long before they ever analyze it. And we cannot skip past introductory information in the Science field. You have to start at the beginning to understand all those really high level theories and practices. 

Emily
Yeah. And I think like what you were just saying, Nicole, about it building on the common information, that scientific literacy, if children can care about that, then they can attach and go on and use a textbook in later years in college or whatever. 

Liz
Exactly. 

Emily
And they have that passion and understanding. I can read really dry books about something I’m interested in because I’ve already built that relationship. And I’m just thinking of a great example is John McPhee’s Annals of a Lost World. You know, when he started that series, which became kind of his magnum opus, like the through line of his career, he thought he was gonna write an article on, you know, crossing the North American continent on I-80. 

But he was doing it at a time when Plate Tectonic Theory, it went from having never been proposed when he started that series, to by the time he ends it was now the accepted way. And I think about it kind of almost like the Copernican revolution, like what they had to do to figure out you know Kepler’s planetary motion, you know, and the hard things…like all that with geosynclines that I cannot understand. How did they think this happened before, right? 

It just is much more simple and all-encompassing, and his passion as he went through and really worked with geologists, you see the field developing at that time, but he’s on a journey, it’s a living book. He was there, it was exciting, and then he brings it to bear for us that we can understand this whole shift in Geology. And then we care about it. So then I can actually have conversations about what were geosynclines?. I talked with my brother in-law, who’s a geologist, you know, very, very crazy. But because I had that connection from reading a living book.

Liz
And so not all the books that are best are the old ones, but they are still good, many of them. They’re invaluable for instilling curiosity for the most part. And children want to know about the most basic things in life anyway when they’re young. And their curiosity should increase over the years. And let’s be honest, we cannot know about everything in Science, but we have to begin somewhere.

And then, sort of related to what we’ve been saying here, is a lot of people are concerned they want their children to be in the best STEM programs because that’s where they think the most advanced knowledge is. And I just want to remind us all that Charlotte Mason’s method helps achieve critical thinking in the Sciences, but life is huge, the world is big, and our children need to be in contact with all kinds of knowledge. Science needs to be kept in balance.

Nicole
I would even say that Charlotte Mason didn’t skimp on the amount of time or the amount of material that she gave to students in the Science category. That it is second only to…

Liz
…foreign language, I think. 

Emily
Or all of language.

Nicole
If you take all the languages together, that’s the only thing that takes more time. 

Emily
Well, and when you think about it, she lived at the– 

Nicole
Like Dictation, Copywork, all the languages. 

Emily
She was living at a time of great technological advancement.

Liz
It was exciting.

Emily
We are in the digital age, but like they went from horse and buggy to like airplanes in her lifetime when she was creating. You know, it just was a huge leap too. So it was also an important topic at the time. 

Liz
But I think my point is that all of education is equally important and Science needs its place in our life and will mean more to them if…I mean some of the best modern Science scientists’ books that I’ve read in the last year, I cannot believe how much they quote the classics, poetry, music…

Emily
What was that interview about the man who was a scientist, but he became a poet. And he lives in Ireland or… 

Liz
White, I think. 

Emily
Yes. And just, we see the best scientists need to not just be scientists.

Nicole
Walter Lewin has a whole chapter in the very end of his book on his real love of his life…

Emily
Which is not Physics?

Nicole
Which is abstract art. And he has a whole collection of it. It was just..so yes, and I mean just think of Michelangelo. 

Emily
Yeah. Or Leonardo. 

Nicole
Yeah. 

Liz
Leonardo da Vinci was a scientist and an artist.

Emily
We’re so glad you joined us for this discussion of Science lessons across a child’s education today. Please join us next time as we zoom in to look at what these lessons look like for the youngest children.

We’re back for Season 12, and today we’re talking about everything we’ve got planned for A Delectable Education this year. Join us in this podcast episode for all our announcements so you can follow along with us this year.

Listen Now:

Charlotte Mason, Volume 6 (Amazon) (Living Book Press – use code DELECTABLE for 10% off!)

ADE Season 12 Reading Schedule

ADE Patreon

ADE on YouTube

Emily
Welcome to A Delectable Education, the podcast that spreads the feast of the Charlotte Mason Method. I’m Emily Kiser and I’m here with…

Nicole
…Nicole Williams…

Liz
…and Liz Cottrill.

Emily

And we just want to welcome you to Season 12, which our seasons are a full year long. We have been podcasting this very same podcast with the three voices you hear today for 11 whole years. 

Nicole
Yep. Starting the 12th one.

Emily
I marked this because one of my children was like six weeks old when we started recording these podcasts and he just turned eleven. It’s just incredible. 

Nicole
And yet we were just joking that we’re sitting here all nervous. 

Liz
Like it’s the first time we’ve ever done this. 

Emily
Yeah, it’s so true. We do not feel like professionals, but in podcast years we’re like dinosaurs probably.

Well, this year on the podcast, we are continuing what we started last year, which has been very well received. We are revisiting each subject, adding our combined collective experience from teaching this way and the more that we found in the CM digital collection and our reading and rereading her volumes and really going subject by subject through the whole Charlotte Mason curriculum. Of course, we’re breaking those down into smaller bite-sized pieces to make it easier for you to find exactly what you need if you need to look for a specific age of student or just really wrap your mind around a whole subject. 

So we got to the end of last season and we were about halfway through Chapter 10 of Volume 6. So that’s what we’re doing this season, is continuing to cover the rest of the subjects, and some subjects that are not even included in Volume 6 at all which are pretty crucial. So we’ll be doing that this year, and we invite you to follow along with us as we read Chapter 10 of Volume 6, an essay called Towards a Philosophy of Education. 

Chapter 10 is called The Curriculum. To make that easy for you, we have created a Season 12 reading schedule that you can download or print from the link in the show notes of this episode. So you’ll see what date our podcast is airing on that topic and what pages to cover, and also what subject that episode is going to be on.

So as we have been talking about what we did in Season 11 and thinking ahead to Season 12, we have been able to put some things into words, and things that we’ve been hearing from our listeners, but also ourselves. And it’s a really helpful practice for us to do this methodically, revisiting each subject and really discuss things together. 

Liz
It reinvigorates because we see how it all comes together and all fits together. 

Emily
And when we say over and over that a Charlotte Mason education, that those principles that the method it’s founded on are very simple and few, we really mean it. But we do remember how it was when we were just starting out, right? And it just seemed overwhelming and we felt very insecure about well, what do I do? How do I do that? And I think that that is just the confidence we want to leave you with, is looking at the whole curriculum a whole subject at a time, seeing how it fits together, but really how these principles are just the same throughout. 

Just the other day Nicole and I were talking back and forth, and I said, I am having a new idea about what she meant by this. Of course, I’ve read these words over and over, but I think because of just seeing the whole big picture, it just really cemented in my mind exactly what she meant. And so we’re trying to impart some of those ideas to you along the way. 

Nicole
Yeah. And there’s some ideas that, you know, we always say “Charlotte Mason’s principles”, which is really her Short Synopsis, does not include all of the principles. 

Emily
Correct. 

Nicole
And there’s been some ideas that have just really taken shape for me as we’ve gone through this. In particular, I always start that first preliminary episode by looking at the scope and sequence from the beginning of school to the end. And to me, that little segment has been so inspiring because I’m really seeing her big picture and that there is this slow, very strong foundational beginning to every subject that we see people push back on. Why are we waiting for that? Why aren’t we doing grammar lessons? Why aren’t we doing science experiments? Why why aren’t we doing that stuff yet? And yet when we look at that full scope and sequence, we see this very strong foundation that she’s laying…

Emily
That makes possible all of the things that come after. 

Liz
And the progression matters. 

Nicole
Yes. And then we see at the other end where they’re far and away expected to do more than they would be doing in a traditional school scope and sequence, you know, in a public school situation. So that progression matters. 

Liz
It builds up steam.

Nicole
Right. And so it’s just been fun to me. I sort of get goosebumps every time I go through that progression. 

Emily
Yeah. And I think that it is our understanding of that that makes us so solidly well, Charlotte Mason said, or Charlotte Mason did this, and we trust the method, right? And that’s what we mean. 

And that maybe gives us a little bit of a reputation because we seem maybe like a little stuck in the mud or you know like a little too inflexible about those things. We love flexibility where we can and we think that there’s plenty of room in a curriculum for innovation. And it really goes against the innate desire that a lot of people have to just tell me what to do. And you’re like, well no, this is where the flexibility is supposed to come in. You’re supposed to look at the children in front of you. 

But we are immovable on those key principles and practices that Charlotte Mason talks about because we have seen the beauty of this, we’ve seen the fruit. I mean, y’all were still a hundred percent in the Charlotte Mason trenches yourselves when we started this podcast eleven years ago. 

Liz
Yes indeed.

Emily
And I had not yet even begun. And so now we’ve just – you’ve graduated children. I have got my last-year-before-high-school student and it’s just crazy. So it is that foundation that gives us the confidence that we want to share with you. So hopefully you will be encouraged as well. 

Nicole
Yeah. 

Emily
So also this season, just like we did last season, we are on YouTube. So you can watch us if you want. I don’t know. 

Liz
Do not know why… 

Emily
It feels weird. But we are on YouTube as well. And that is a great place if you want to know what a resource looks like we do try to show those on the video. So if you only ever listen to us in your ear pods you might enjoy tuning in to just look at the resources. 

Well, we have come out with some new products this summer, as we always do. Everyone’s like are you having a restful summer? And I’m like that’s when we do all of our work for A Delectable Education. So Nicole, do you want to tell us about what we’ve got? 

Nicole
Sure. We’ve got some fun things this year. We have a Form 2-3 Plutarch demonstration lesson that Solveig does. It’s super good. There are several topics here that I’m gonna cover that are things that sometimes we get nervous about, but seeing them done is so great. A Form 1-2 Handwriting demonstration lesson that our helper Jessica Barber has put on. And that is those students doing it at the same time. 

Emily
Yeah. 

Nicole
So I think that’s really useful. Form 3 Recitation demonstration lesson that Liz did with one of her grandsons that is so great. He’s so great! So you’ll have to, we have to watch that one. And then Form 1 Sand Modeling. This is a Geography subject. We’re gonna cover that this year. It’s a demonstration lesson. And you know, Geography was one of those things that we didn’t really have worked out when Liz and my kids were young. 

Emily
No, because we didn’t have the digital collection. We had her words in the volumes. 

Nicole
Exactly. 

Emily
But that didn’t really give us a sense of what does this look like fleshed out? 

Nicole
Right. So I never did this with my kids, and it was so fun to watch. And I think it would be incredibly inspiring for people. And then we also have a High School Geography demonstration lesson with you, and we have a High School Poetry demonstration lesson with your husband Jono. 

Emily
Yeah. 

Nicole
That are really good. And again, we’re always asked about high school stuff. So these are really good ones. 

Emily
And those are live lessons that we did with moms and dads who participated at the conference, so they’re not…they’re probably less equipped than your typical Charlotte Mason high schooler. But we did lessons that were appropriate for that age. 

Nicole
Exactly. So you can kind of see what goes into that and what part is your part to do with your high school student because they do a lot independently. But these are some things that we need to do. 

We also have some new Teacher Training Videos. Jono is one of those also who did “Lighting Lamps: Discussing Poetry”. 

Emily
So a workshop instead of a lesson. 

Nicole
Exactly. So you can really understand what is involved in that. And then there’s one called “From Parsing to Reasoning: Exercising Logic through Grammar”. Which is so great because back when I was homeschooling, I remember that whole topic of Logic was something that people always tried to pull into the Charlotte Mason education. And this shows you that it’s already there. So it’s really great. 

And then also, this one was far more excellent than I could have imagined. “Schooling in the Lean Years: Spreading the Feast in Time of Famine”. Again, Jessica Barber does this and says so many creative ideas and encouragement because there’s a lot of us who homeschooled on a tight budget, you know, single income, and this has really great ideas. 

Emily
And single incomes that are stretched more and more as inflation continues to rise. 

Nicole
Yeah. So that was a great one.

Emily
We also have some Teacher Helps that are coming out. Liz has done a few…we get asked about this and while we will not give you Dictation passages to copy or instruct your children with because we agree with Charlotte Mason, that those have to come from the books they’re actually using for school, Liz created a resource that kinda gives you some practical how do I help my child study the words and study the passage? to help you do that.

Liz
It gives your child ideas so they can study independently. 

Emily
And then you did another Language Arts help on…

Liz
How to Write a Précis. 

Emily
Yes, a précis, which is another – had you ever heard of précis before we saw it in Charlotte Mason’s programs? 

Nicole
No.  Not at all.

Emily
It’s a very useful tool for your high school writers’ composition. 

And then we have a little bit more Bible breakdowns for the– well actually y’all, I’m gonna tell you, we revamped our high school rotations to be a little different than they have been so far, and we have our forecasting breakdowns for those, which include exam questions, to help make your… you can do all of this without these. We just have done them and hear over and over how much of a time saver they are. 

And we have a breakdown for the second book of Ourselves for Form 5-6 students, or Form 5 students, but 6 if you have not started it at that time. 

And then Melissa Petermann has got year 4 of Swedish Drill, she’s got a Folk Dance video to learn a new folk dance if you’re–

Liz
Gosh, this is a ton of stuff. 

Emily
I know! And even more, I’m sure I’m forgetting something but we have lots of great resources if that will help you as you embark on your new school year. 

Nicole
I don’t think I’ve told everybody before but I did an all-day class immersion, just chose Form 2, kind of like it’s right in the middle, chose a week of the year okay it’s gonna be the first term of their fifth grade year, you know, and pulled all these resources and just was able to okay here we go. Everything was prepared for me. And I remember that was when it really hit me because I wasn’t schooling anymore at that point, but that is when it really hit me how much time all of these resources save you that we didn’t have and you have access to, so again all of it can be done by yourself. 

Emily
Yeah and I think this is where the balance happens, between everybody thinks they want “open and go”, but really you miss out on those personal connections and seeing the child in front of you that Charlotte Mason was adamant about. But we do have things that Charlotte Mason never gave people in terms of forecasting that they had to figure that out themselves. But it can just really cut down our planning time and save us so much effort, mental energy that we don’t have to pour into that. 

Nicole
But getting that done. So that your school year goes so much more smoothly. 

Emily
Yeah, yeah. And that does free you up to be a little more creative, or you know in tune with what your child needs at any given time. 

Nicole
Yeah. 

Liz
And then next February, here we come again. This will be our seventh annual ADE at Home conference. And it’s online. It goes live February 5th and 6th but you do have access to it, because it’s recorded, for up to three months afterwards.

And early bird pricing goes live for you… on Black Friday through Cyber Monday there will be an even more discounted value that you can take advantage of. Early bird ends January 15th and the final deadline for…

Emily
Registration. 

Liz
Registration, thanks, is February 4th. 

Emily
Yeah. And we do have a card cut off. Every year we hear from people who wait until the last minute or thought that they had registered. We cannot add you after the day of the conference. 

Liz
But it is so full of content, so much inspiration, and most people don’t realize how many connections they can make with other friends over that weekend. And it’s just been a life giving event every year. So we’re doing it again.

And during that there will be a book club, and I bring this up because we have a live discussion and this year you might want to get a hold of this book and if you’ve read it before, reread it because I’ve read it many times. But Persuasion by Jane Austen will be our conference book club discussion. 

Emily
We used to do that on the podcast and now we do it live and it’s so great because it’s not just the three of us talking at one another. We get input from people who are participating. It’s so so fun. 

Nicole
Yeah, and you know, our conference…it’s so fun that we are able to do such unique activities like demonstration lessons with children around the table so you can watch somebody else…

Emily
And it’s in their native environment, so it’s not like…I’ve been to a few conferences where even a parent would bring a few of their kids and they would do a lesson, but they’re doing it in front of an audience. 

Nicole
Yeah. 

Emily
And it just… you can tell they’re nervous or you know it’s just not their normal location. But now because of the online format we have the opportunity to just kind of peek into their actual morning lessons. And over and over we hear that that is the most valuable part of it, and how many of those demo lessons do we do per conference? 

Liz
I think it’s around 15. 

Emily
Yeah so we do arrange, you know some are in cottage schools or hybrid schools as well as online classrooms or individual students or a family who’s doing multi-age, we try to have a range of subjects. We also do a range of ages of student so that you really can get that every time. And we do release a few of those every year, but it is not nearly the amount that we have every conference. And so that is just so, so valuable. 

Liz
And the participants also contribute with, you know, showing their crafts that they’ve been doing or their nature notebooks and pictures and sharing so many ideas. It’s wonderful. 

Emily
And this is our third year of doing the Live Lessons where we have some Charlotte Mason teachers who are doing a lesson, just like we talked about, the two of the videos came from this the first year we did it, and it was so well received. And I think it’s one thing to see a family doing it, it’s another thing to actually participate yourself. 

Nicole
Right. 

Emily
And so we wanted to do both of those things. So we have a few where it’s over video, but you still get to narrate with the group, you get to participate in all of the parts of the lesson. So it’s just a great time. 

Nicole
Really feel what it’s like to be a student. 

Emily
Exactly. Plus, you know, our dozens of workshops on deepening your understanding of various parts of the Charlotte Mason method. 

And then Nicole, you want to tell us about our Patreon, which we always are mentioning, but what do people need to know about that? 

Nicole
You know, we started our Patreon because Patreon was a way to allow people to support our podcast, because a podcast is just not something that you make money on, it’s free. 

Emily
And actually costs money. 

Nicole
Yeah. That’s true. 

Liz
But we do a lot of work, and it helps keep the work coming to you. Some of those products would not be here if we didn’t have that support. 

Nicole
Right. So that’s kind of the idea behind Patreon and how it got started. But maybe just because we’re us, we couldn’t leave it at that. You know, a lot of them would just kind of like once in a while there’s a blog post or something, but we really try to give our best to our Patreon. 

We do early releases of things so they can get teacher helps for free. Where, you know, later we’ll put them on our website for sale. We do special discounts. We just talked about the conference, and Patreon members will get a discount to the conference for the entire time that registration is open. 

Emily
So they get content every month of the year. 

Nicole
We sometimes do exclusive podcast episodes for them…

Emily
…or meetups or you know Q&A’s where they can submit questions and we will reply to them. 

Nicole
Yes. Yeah. So we have just a lot of encouragement. Liz writes blog posts just for them. 

Liz
And Nicole sometimes puts awesome nature videos on there. 

Nicole
Yeah. Last year I did a whole series of just individual worksheets where people could go out and just have a fun little adventure in nature. 

Emily
Yep. So fun. 

Nicole
So yeah, so we’re always trying to do something over there. It’s not just a forgotten place. It’s important to us. 

Liz
And it is vital to this podcast. We could not do it without their support. 

Nicole
Yep. 

Emily
Yeah. And we so appreciate all of you who do support us over there. 

So if they want to join our community at Patreon, what do they do? 

Nicole
Well on our website there is a link to Patreon. That’s probably the easiest way to get there. But Patreon.com/ADelectableEducation is another way to get there. 

And I didn’t mention that often you give ideas for organization. 

Liz
Yeah, if you want to know how she maintains her sanity with four children, teaching, and doing all this podcast. 

Nicole
And one of the most fun things you’ve done year after year is show a time lapse of your morning school, that’s like over 10 minutes, all shrunk down, but you can see everybody getting up and doing Drill and back down, and you’re working with these kids, and now you’re over here working with these. And it’s just such a good thing to see. 

So our Patreon has like just a regular monthly fee and you have access for everything from the past year. But if you do go in at a higher level, you get everything from, you know, further…

Emily
That’s ever been posted.

Nicole
Yeah, yeah. And then you can kind of compare those over the years. It’s really fun to see. So yeah, lots of stuff over there. 

Emily
So we have a lot going on this year on A Delectable Education, and we hope you’ll join us for it.

We are excited to continue our journey through the rest of the curriculum with you this season. As has become a tradition here at A Delectable Education, I’d like to close this very first episode of the new school year with a liturgy from Every Moment Holy, Volume 3.

O God, who in wisdom laid the world’s foundation, remind me it is no trivial task to teach, to inspect and wonder, to discipline and discern, to see the world through the eyes of those still fresh in learning it, to show them nature as you made it, and invite them to know it more fully. 

Teaching often seems summed up in mere grades and emails and papers and raised hands and disruptions, but really it is a feast, a community, a gift, a discovery of the world and its inherent value. We see in teaching a divine act that forms and shapes. It weaves in all of history and matter and truth and goodness and offers it to students in a way which may guide their thoughts and their decisions and may change them for good.