Charlotte Mason advice to your frequently asked questions, this time on narration with non-Mason students, required standardized state testing, and the long-awaited, “What do we do in the summer?”
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“Such prescribed reading should be a real change from ordinary school work, should be very moderate in quantity, and its quite optional character especially enforced.” (Holiday Tasks, PR)
“In this way. School work leaves so little leisure for girls or boys to be occupied with anything beyond their immediate school duties, and these become more and more absorbing as they get older. This is quite right, because the main object of school days is to enable one to become acquainted with those things which make life worth living and enable us to make the lives of others fuller and happier. But in acquiring this knowledge, there is little leisure left to think of other people, and this is a great danger in this egotistical age.” (Useful Holidays, PR)
What are your favorite summer readers that are very different from school books? My oldest girlie is 15 and would just assume not to read when she’s on a break.
Hi Jessica,
Some good authors for that age are Gary D. Schmidt (Wednesday Wars, Okay for Now, etc.), Ellis Peters (Brother Cadfael Mysteries), Gene Stratton-Porter and Elizabeth Goudge. Hopefully she’ll find something to hook her!
Thanks so much! We will look into some of those!
Would Mason have taken a break from music lessons/practice in the summer?
We have never heard of or read of Mason making such a recommendation, so this is just our own suggestion/speculation. We would guess that, just as nature study, handicraft, and reading are afternoon occupations, music practice would fall into that category. It is not taught during school lessons, which are the only thing discontinued in breaks.
Please forgive me for having so many questions, but I would love to hear your experience. Do you have examples of how three twelve week terms might be spread out through the calendar year? When would the terms be scheduled, when would breaks be taken, and how long might those breaks between terms last? Also, do you school for twelve weeks straight and then a break? And would christmas come in the middle of a term? I’m trying to see how this might all look on the calendar. Thank you for sharing your wisdom through your podcasts- you are a blessing!
Thank you, thank you for the above recommendations for Summer reading. I bought Schmidt’s Wednesday Wars and last summer it was one of the first books in a LONG time that my 15 yo picked up on her own. Then this past month we took a break between terms for a month and I picked up Okay For Now from the library since she liked the other. She gobbled it up and then badgered me to read it. Wow, so not my style, but one of my favorite books in a very long time. Thank you ??
Wonderful to find a winner and glad you enjoyed them.
-Liz