Spreading the feast of the Charlotte Mason method of education through weekly podcasts. Join us for short discussions that provide information, examples, and encouragement to the homeschool parents putting CM's ideas into practice in their homes.
Charlotte Mason’s method of education creeps into our entire lives as educators–not just school time. This podcast is entering its sixth season and we celebrate this landmark number and beginning of season by reviewing and reflecting on a number of topics. We take a brief look back on our time together so far, changes the COVID circumstance has made on our own lives, share some news, some plans for the future personally and on the podcast, announce coming opportunities and ideas for our listeners, and wind up with tips for surviving the constant juggling of home, work, and schooling at home.
As you know, we designed our scheduling cards to be a functional tool for developing that wondrous weekly timetable that Miss Mason used to guide the school morning. The short and varied lessons and combining multiple forms are the big challenge in a smooth and successful school morning. The scheduling cards have helped simplify that daunting task.
If you have listened to our podcast a little, you know we talk a lot about continuing to learn. As we find new sources of information and keep up research we gain knowledge that sheds new light on the implementation of the Charlotte Mason method. Since we originally produced the cards, we have been able to study a few more time-tables (for a total of 3-4 per Form) and further information on certain subjects Miss Mason included in the feast. As a consequence, we have returned to the scheduling cards to adjust some proportions of subjects and their corresponding frequency. The result is a few adjustments across all forms. We actually think the new changes, though not tremendous, will help make your school lessons run more smoothly. While we were tackling the new breakdowns, we altered the size of the cards to make them more manageable to arrange and rearrange in the process of building your timetable for the year.
If you have purchased cards in the past, logging into your Purchase History will allow you to download the new cards without charge. (Keep in mind that the cards were originally sold on Sabbath Mood Homeschool, so you may have purchased them there.) If you purchased them at a conference, or we included them with your consultation, simply write to tell us where you obtained them and attach a picture of which forms you have and we will provide the corresponding revised sets.
Though the first sets we developed have been valuable, we sincerely hope the few changes in each form will make this sometimes tedious chore even more manageable for you, and that you will find the improvements to make a difference in your schedules.
As always, we sincerely appreciate all of your support, encouragement, and willingness to grow in your understanding.
This immersion lesson demonstrates how to combine children of different ages and levels of learning during a single math lesson with Charlotte Mason’s method of teaching. Emily Al-Khatib and her three sons give a dynamic picture of how a sunshiny atmosphere, order and discipline, and living ideas make math a productive and enjoyable lesson together.
Charlotte Mason is to be thanked for introducing young children to the beauty of art in school lessons. This episode of Charlotte Mason in our homes is an interview with Matthew Milliner, art history professor at Wheaton, College, whose children are being taught at home with Miss Mason’s method and who is learning to apply her pedagogy in his college classroom.
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Professor Matthew Milliner
“The wonder that Almighty God can endure so far to leave the very making of an immortal being in the hands of human parents is only matched by the wonder that human parents can accept this divine trust with hardly a thought of its significance.” (1/333)
“You will see at a glance, with this Captain Idea of establishing relationships as a guide, the unwisdom of choosing or rejecting this or that subject, as being more or less useful or necessary in view of a child’s future. We decide, for example, that Tommy, who is eight, need not waste his time over the Latin Grammar. We intend him for commercial or scientific pursuits,-what good will it be to him? But we do not know how much we are shutting out from Tommy’s range of thought besides the Latin Grammar. He has to translate, for example,-‘Pueri formosos equos vident.’ He is a ruminant animal, and has been told something about that strong Roman people whose speech is now brought before him. How their boys catch hold of him! How he gloats over their horses ! The Latin Grammar is not mere words to Tommy, or rather Tommy knows, as we have forgotten, that the epithet ‘mere’ is the very last to apply to words. Of course it is only now and then that a notion catches the small boy, but when it does catch, it works wonders, and does more for his education than years of grind.” (3/162-163)
“If mothers could learn to do for themselves what they do for their children when these are overdone, we should have happier households. Let the mother go out to play! If she would only have courage to let everything go when life becomes too tense, and just take a day, or half a day , out in the fields, or with a favourite book, or in a picture gallery looking long and well at just two or three pictures, or in bed, without the children, life would go on far more happily for both children and parents. The mother would be able to hold herself in ‘wise passiveness,’ and would not fret her children by continual interference, even of hand or eye-she would let them be.” (3/33-34)
“The question is not,-how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education-but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?” (3/170-171)
Charlotte Mason’s vision for children spread throughout the world. A special celebration called “The Children’s Gathering” occurred a few times, a holy holiday for experiencing learning together, including with parents and teachers. This episode explores highlights of the camaraderie experienced there as they worshiped, studied, played, danced, paraded, displayed and explored the treasures of the surrounding countryside in a lovely kaleidoscopic, nostalgic, and inspirational picture.
