This Charlotte Mason podcast episode  is an interview with a father. Every home has special challenges and Jonathon Landell's particular one is that of being a single father teaching his children himself. He shares how this method has changed his attitude toward education and children, has helped him with his challenges, and has brought special rewards.

Nature study is a critical part of the Charlotte Mason feast. This podcast episode is an interview with Nicole Handfield and her honest and inspiring testimony of the benefits to a mom when she takes up a nature journal herself.

Charlotte Mason referred to "slipshod" habits in reading. This podcast episode describes what she meant. Nothing is more important than reading in a literature-rich education, but there is a lot of reading habit formation that must occur between being a decoder and being a beautiful reader.

This Charlotte Mason podcast episode is a special edition of our monthly Q&A. In March, 2018, down in the deep south, Art Middlekauff, Richele Baburina, Nicole, Emily, and Liz gathered with parents from across the country for the Charlotte Mason Soiree annual retreat. Questions were collected from the attendees and addressed to these five speakers and recorded live.

This Charlotte Mason podcast episode begins a new monthly series of interviewing families from all walks of life who are implementing her method. Nicole interviews Patty Sommer, a missionary in Ghana, Africa, about her CM journey, special challenges, and beautiful benefits. Every family is unique, but Miss Mason's principles and practices fit each one.

This Charlotte Mason podcast episode addresses the teaching of foreign language. Becca Buslovich tackles commonly asked questions, shares resources, and inspires us to make our foreign language lessons effective and delightful.  

This weeks Charlotte Mason podcast episode is all about our children’s involvement with books. We have interviewed the children to hear their first hand reasons for why they like the books they like. Enjoy listening and getting ready for a new school year.

A Delectable Education Charlotte Mason podcast presents another immersion lesson in this episode. Richele Baburina, author of "Mathematics: An Instrument for Living Teaching" and math curriculum being produced by Simply Charlotte Mason, is the teacher and Nicole Williams her student in an early algebra lesson. Enjoy the process of a full lesson as well as discussion of some of the ways to make algebra a success with your student.

This Charlotte Mason podcast episode is a live Shakespeare lesson. Open your own copy of Coriolanus if you wish and listen and follow along with Emily, Liz, and Nicole as they conduct a lesson and have a brief discussion of some of the teacher's concerns in Shakespeare lessons.

This Charlotte Mason podcast demonstrates a form II French lesson. Listen to how grammar and narration are incorporated. Find accompanying pictures on the website to help you follow along.

This week's Charlotte Mason podcast is a recorded nature walk with Nicole Williams and seven-year-old Henry, Liz's grandson. Tag along and listen as they explore Henry's backyard on a cold March afternoon.  

This Charlotte Mason podcast episode is another immersion lesson experience. Nicole Williams teaches seven-year-old Henry two lessons in this episode:  first a nature lore lesson, then guids him an object lesson.

This Charlotte Mason podcast episode concerns an important pursuit in education outside of "school" lessons: scouting. Emily, Nicole, and Liz discuss how scouting became part of the child's experience in the P.N.E.U. and what possibilities it holds for children in our century.

This Charlotte Mason podcast episode is an immersion lesson for second and third grade literature. Specifically, this is the one literature book Mason never diverted from: Pilgrim's Progress.

Charlotte Mason began foreign language study the first year of school and this podcast is a demonstration of two kinds of lessons in the First Form (first through third grade). Becca Buslovich steps in as the teacher in this immersion lesson, one who is not a native speaker or expert in French herself, to encourage parents who have little or no proficiency to equip themselves to teach their children in foreign language instruction.

This Charlotte Mason podcast is the first in our summer series of immersion lessons. Listen in while Emily teaches a Bible lesson and Liz and Nicole narrate in a simulated lesson, and afterward as they discuss some particulars relevant to Bible lessons for elementary children.

This podcast episode addresses listener questions on applying the philosophy and method of Charlotte Mason. When do we teach typing? How to form good habits when disorder reigns? What to do with an only child? are today's discussion questions.

This Charlotte Mason education podcast episode is a group interview with a most significant and influential person in a child's life:  the fathers. Emily's husband, Jono Kiser, discusses with four dads concerning their understanding, involvement, and role in the education of their children.

Math is a worrisome subject for many Charlotte Mason educators. Wishing to stay true to Mason's guiding principles and up to date with current knowledge, many hesitate when choosing a curriculum. This is a candid conversation with Richele Baburina, who knows Mason's approach to mathematics, the fears modern educators face, and is knowledgeable about the latest scientific research regarding math education.

Charlotte Mason knew a child's education was secured once he entered into "living books," the heart of her educational method, and the wellspring of ideas to feed the minds of persons. This  week's podcast episode is a candid conversation about what led Emily and Liz to begin Living Books Library. Enjoy the history and be inspired to build your own collection as they rhapsodize on their favorite subject, the books, and the children who love them.

Charlotte Mason offered guidance on practical issues of all kinds and A Delectable Education's Q&A podcast episodes are our attempt to apply her wisdom to your own questions of understanding and practice. This week: dealing with the public library, when mother has special learning difficulties, and when a child should officially begin formal lessons are the particular questions addressed.

Today's Charlotte Mason podcast episode is an interview with Min Hwang, a homeschooling mom who has taken her enthusiasm for and knowledge of the Charlotte Mason method outside her own homeschooling circle to parents in traditional educational settings. You will be inspired to hear how she  shares the beauty of Ms. Mason's simple truths with parents in all walks of life that have children in public and private schools. Min's fervent love for God and trust in Mason's sound Biblical principles of parenting and educating is  bringing hope to parents in all settings. She shares practical tips for you to consider how to approach all parents with our common desire to raise children to know God, be the persons He has created them to be, and be confident in their role as parents.

A special interview from A Delectable Education: how does a Charlotte Mason education work when your child has dyslexia? Mitchell Williams, son of ADE's Nicole Williams, shares his experience as a dyslexic child about to graduate from his CM homeschool years and head out into the world.

Charlotte Mason's method of education was taught over a hundred years ago and A Delectable Education's podcast this week reiterates its relevance for the twenty-first century educator and student. After an introduction by Emily, Liz, and Nicole stating their reasons for holding to Mason's philosophy, Art Middlekoff reads his own criteria for determining which new ideas and applications are authentic to her method and how and why to dismiss those that are not.

This Q&A podcast episode addresses why Charlotte Mason included Arabella Buckley's books, how a child can come to the history rotation and always be in exactly the right place, and why all advertised Charlotte Mason curriculum does not necessarily fit in her feast.

Charlotte Mason was concerned not only with the child's mind, but all of his person. This week's podcast episode is an interview with a new Charlotte Mason-educating mom who has deliberately considered both the beauty and function of their school area and shares abundant ideas to inspire you to enhance your children's connections with their lessons by making deliberate efforts and choices regarding the organization and appeal of the schoolroom  itself.

Charlotte Mason's foundational principles encompass the relationship of parent and child. This is the third part of a series of podcast episodes discussing the role of "authority and docility"  and particularly addresses the child's side of the relationship.  

Charlotte Mason had much to say about parenting and this week's episode addresses the role of parents, their responsibilities, attitudes, and weaknesses. Mason was clear about the dignified office of authority in order to lead, guide, protect, and inspire our children to fulfill their role as obedient, peaceful, and joyful persons.

Charlotte Mason addressed parenting issues in concurrence with her philosophy of education. This podcast episode is the first of a three-part series on her third principle of "authority and docility." The first portion today concerns the right view of authority in our lives.

Application of Charlotte Mason's principles in many areas of life is the focus of the ADE monthly Q&A episodes. This month:  how do we manage children's extracurricular involvements, when should we expect children to gain independence with schoolwork, and are daily scheduled timetables relevant for the homeschool as much as they are used in formal classroom settings.  

Charlotte Mason's educational method encompasses all of life. This podcast episode explores the possibilities of sharing and showing love as a family through acts of mercy and service to our neighbors near and far through an interview with friend and Mason educating mom of six, Vanessa Kijewski, who shares her experiences in training her children to give.

This podcast episode on Charlotte Mason's method is the second part for discussion of paperwork and notebooks. In particular, Emily addresses all the things that help our children keep track of history chronology, and Liz and Nicole share ways they have managed the organization of papers and notebooks throughout the years.

This Charlotte Mason education podcast focuses on the papers, the recordings, and drawings--all the reproductions of knowledge in the making. In particular, Liz, Nicole, and Emily address the explicitly described or preserved examples of various notebooks Mason's students used from which we can glean ideas to benefit our own students today.

This week's Charlotte Mason podcast episode is another Q&A session with Liz, Nicole, and Emily, notably:  is it okay to start a Mason education midyear? are the special studies books too simple and deameaning to our child's intelligence? and what about a passage in Mason's writings that contradicts ideas she shares in other places?

This Charlotte Mason education podcast episode explores our responsibilities in teaching. If we have agreed to take on homeschooling as our work, what are the attitudes and practices that will make us good at our job?

Charlotte Mason encouraged a practice called "Masterly Inactivity." Emily, Liz, and Nicole discuss what this is, why it is important, and how in the world a mother actually manages to balance law and freedom in her home.

Charlotte Mason wrote vastly on the subject of opinions, and this podcast will address some of her salient points. Do opinions matter? Does each person need to form their own? What do we do to help our children make sensible opinions? These questions and more will be discussed.

This Q&A podcast episodes focuses on Charlotte Mason's counsel for exams with many students, combining many students in one book, and what to accomplish during school breaks.  

The Savior of the World, Charlotte Mason's seven-volume poetic rendering of the Gospels, was part of the Bible lesson in her curriculum for forms III-VI. Liz, Emily, and Nicole become the students as their guest teacher, Art Middlekauff, leads an immersion class to demonstrate how the Savior of the World was incorporated in a lesson.

This week's episode of A Delectable Education podcast reviews what Charlotte Mason had to say about Sunday school. Since many listeners write to ask about the application of Mason's method in their church programs, we tackled the why, what and how of implementing a living education for children outside our home.

Charlotte Mason included a category named "Sunday Reading" on her programmes and this week's podcast discusses the purpose for this set-apart reading. In addition, there are plenty of suggestions for what to read, so listen for great titles and ideas for including them, as well as check out the lists in the show notes.

This week's podcast explores why Charlotte Mason's "feast" would be indigestible without one key ingredient:  the child's imagination. Jason Fiedler, pastor and homeschool dad, is interviewed on the topic of cultivating imagination and why it is the power of mind that makes the difference in our children's education.      For the Children's Sake, Susan Schaeffer Macaulay The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis (*Affiliate Links) The Imagination in Childhood, Charlotte Mason (Parents' Review no. 27) Imagination as a Powerful Factor in a Well-Balanced Mind, E.A. Parish (Parents' Review, no. 25) Charlotte Mason Institute Eastern Conference The Living Education Retreat The Idyll Challenge Jason Fiedler's CMI Blog

This A Delectable Education podcast Q&A episode addresses how Charlotte Mason viewed the history of other countries, whether her feast in high school was "only for girls," and some  specifics about written narration.   "And now the boy will probably leave the home schoolroom for the Preparatory School, either day or boarding, and, as I am dealing with the early training of children, I will not follow the time-tables of the home schoolroom through Classes III. (eleven to fourteen or fifteen) and IV. (fourteen to sixteen or seventeen). Must the entrance to the Preparatory School mean the abandonment of many of these subjects, and the teaching on quite other lines? I do not believe that this is in any way necessary. I have not been dealing with any special system nor advocating any special fad. I have tried to lay down certain more or less accepted educational principles, and have tried to show how these should be carried out from infancy up to the home schoolroom, and thence up to the Preparatory School. These principles are briefly the furnishing of the mind with living ideas on which to grow and develop, instead of trusting to the memory to assimilate only a daily pabulum of facts; the offering of opportunity to the mind to exercise itself in various directions, the formation of good habits which will go towards the building up of character, and the belief in the intrinsic interest to furnish the necessary stimulus for learning." ("Liberal Education" PR Article) "Many Preparatory Schoolmasters are shortening the hours of work, and are including in their curriculum nature lore, handicrafts, art teaching, and better methods of language teaching. Some only are making use of the books recommended in the programmes of the Parents' Union School and enrolling themselves on the P.N.E.U School Register. [For particulars of the Parents' Union School apply to Miss Mason, House of Education, Ambleside.] That the reform is not more rapid, is, I believe, due to the fact that such methods of teaching are not calculated to inspire confidence in the parents, who may not have had the opportunity of studying educational problems. More showy and more direct results are often demanded, and hence the true educationalist is hampered." ("Liberal Education" PR Article) "We cannot, moreover, hope for satisfactory results in the four years, which the boys usually spend at their Preparatory School, unless the ground has been well prepared, and not in a slovenly, amateurish manner. Just as the best teachers are required in the bottom of the school, so parents must prepare themselves for the training of character, the formation of habits, and the inspiration of ideas, and must be willing to seek out and to pay adequately nurses and governesses who are trained to cope with the real needs of the children. We have almost forgotten the days when through ignorance of the laws of health the children's bodies were under-nourished and otherwise neglected. We may hope that the days are also rapidly passing away when "lessons at home with a governess" means mind and soul starvation. With reform in the foundation, we may hope for some reform and progress all the way up the educational ladder." ("Home Training" PNEU Pamphlet) "We are astonished to read of the great irrigation works accomplished by the people of Mexico before Cortes introduced them to our eastern world. We are surprised to find that the literature and art of ancient China are things to be taken seriously. It is worth while to consider why this sort of naive surprise awakes in us when we hear of a nation that has not come under the influence of western civilization competing with us on our own lines. The reason is, perhaps, that we regard a person as a product." ("Children are Born Persons," PNEU Pamphlet) "Let him know what other nations were doing while we at home were doing thus and thus. If he come to think...that the people of some other land were, at one time, at any rate, better than we, why, so much the better for him." (Vol. 1, p. 281) "Our knowledge of history should give us something more than impressions and opinions." (Vol. 6, p. 171) "We introduce children as early as possible to the contemporary history of other countries as the study of English history alone is apt to lead to a certain insular and arrogant habit of mind." (Vol. 6, p. 175) An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education (Volume 6), Book II, Chapter 2 A Liberal Education in Secondary Schools, Parents' Review Article The Home Training of Children, Parents' Review Article   Episode 80: Charlotte Mason through High School Episode 48: Writing: Copywork, Dictation, and Written Narration Subjects by Form  

This week's podcast episode discusses Mason's purpose for music in her curriculum feast. before the "non-musical" teachers ignore this subject for school, let us carefully explore why so much music training, appreciation, and practice is included--for the children's sake.   “Does it, or does it not, make any appreciable difference to a baby to be in a home where music is part of the every-day life, where it is put to sleep with simple songs, where cheerful little musical games are introduced in their natural place, where it is led to find rhythmical expression in dances and songs, and where it hears much beautiful sound which it docs not attempt to account for or understand ? I think that all teachers of experience will agree that it does make an enormous difference, and that it is possible to pick out from a roomful of children, by their very bearing, those who come from homes where music exists.” (Holland, "Music as an Educational Subject" Parents' Review) "Some of the most important habits for a child to acquire, are (1) observation ; (2) concentration ; (3) imagination ; and (4) reasoning. ... [and Music] trains simultaneously, as no other single subject does, ear, eye, and hand, it awakens and naturally develops the imagination, and insists upon concentration and reasoning." (Holland) " Music is the language of the soul, but it defies interpretation. It means something, but that something belongs not to this world of sense and logic, but to another world, quite real, though beyond all definition. ... Is there not in music, and in music alone of all the arts, something that is not entirely of this earth ? Whence comes melody ? Surely not from anything that we hear with our outward ears and are able to imitate, to improve, or to sublimise. . . . Here if anywhere, we see the golden stairs on which angels descend from heaven and whisper sweet sounds into the ears of those who have ears to hear. . . ." (Holland) "Training of the Ear and Voice is an exceedingly important part of physical culture, which began with basic enunciation, and French lessons. She also pointed out that that every child may be, and should be, trained to sing through carefully graduated ear and voice exercises, to produce and distinguish musical tones and intervals." (Vol. 1, p. 133) "If possible, let the children learn from the first under artists, lovers of their work: it is a serious mistake to let the child lay the foundation of whatever he may do in the future under ill-qualified mechanical teachers, who kindle in him none of the enthusiasm which is the life of art." (Vol. 1, p. 31) "Intelligent love of music is one of the great joys and privileges of life, but it is denied to quite half the community, and I would argue that the cultivation thereof is in its way quite as important as technical instrumental instruction, as it is one of the greatest factors in elevating mankind." (A Musical Baby, Mrs. Glover, Parents' Review) The Child Pianist--Teacher's Guide (Curwen Method) Listener's Guide to Musics, Scholes Second Book of Great Musicians, Scholes *The Planets, Sobel The Growth of Music, Colles Elements of Music, Davenport Studies of Great Composers, Parry Enjoyment of Music, Pollitt Musical Groundwork, Shera (*Affiliate Links) Episode 74: Singing Episode 76: Drill and Physical Training Episode 34: Composer Study Heidi Buschbach's Articles on CMP (Here and Here) Sabbath Mood Homeschool's Middle School Astronomy Guide

This podcast episode describes why, to Charlotte Mason, art was a living, breathing part of life and, hence, the curriculum. How do we open the doors to beauty and truth found in art as teachers? When and how do we progress in an orderly fashion? This episode also includes guidance for the mother with little art background herself.   "But any sketch of the history teaching in Forms V and VI in a given period depends upon a notice of the 'literature' set...and where it is possible, the architecture, painting, etc., which the period produced." (Vol. 6, pp. 177-78) "For taste is the very flower, the most delicate expression of individuality, in a person who has grown up amidst objects lovely and befitting, and has been exercised in the habit of discrimination. Here we get a hint as to what may and what may not be done by way of cultivating the aesthetic sense in young people. So far as possible, let their surroundings be brought together on a principle of natural selection, not at haphazard, and not in obedience to fashion. Bear in mind, and let them often hear discussed and see applied, the three or four general principles which fit all occasions of building, decorating, furnishing, dressing: the thing must be fit for its purpose, must harmonise with both the persons and the things about it; and, these points considered, must be as lovely as may be in form, texture, and colour; one point more––it is better to have too little than too much." (Vol. 5, p. 232) "It may not be possible to surround him with objects of art, nor is it necessary; but, certainly, he need not live amongst ugly and discordant objects; for a blank is always better than the wrong thing." (Vol. 5, p. 232) [By eleven children should give] "orderly descriptions of pictures and training in this must begin gradually some years before. By an 'orderly' description is meant one in which the principal objects and their positions are mentioned first, so that a listener who has never seen the picture gains a general idea of their arrangement. Then the details are given, not haphazard but on some given plan...Although there is no teaching of composition, work along these lines prepares the way for its appreciation later on." (Picture Study, E.C. Plumptre, PNEU Pamplet) "There is no talk about schools of painting, little about style; consideration of these matters comes in later life, but the first and most important thing is to know the pictures themselves. As in a worthy book we leave the author to tell his own tale, so do we trust a picture to tell its tale through the medium the artist gave it. In the region of art as else-where we shut out the middleman." (Vol. 6, p. 213) Modern Painters, John Ruskin Art For Children series, Ernest Raboff The Renaissance: A Short History, Paul Johnson Story of Painting, H.W. Janson Child's History of Art, V.M. Hillyer (Rare, but in five volumes: Architecture 1, Architecture 2, Sculpture, Fine Art 1, Fine Art 2) Emily's Picture Study Portfolios Picture Study, PNEU Pamphlet Picture Talks, K. R. Hammond, Parents' Review, Vol. 12, No. 7, pp. 501-509  

Drawing was an essential component of the Charlotte Mason feast of subjects, and this podcast episode describes her purpose for including this skill. If drawing intimidates or paralyzes you because of your own feelings of incompetence to instruct, Emily offers practical tips for opening the world of expression through drawing for your children of all ages.   "It is only what we have truly seen that we can truly reproduce, hence, observation is enormously trained by art teaching. Personally, I believe every living soul can learn to draw from actual objects, if the eye has not first been vitiated by seeing copies of them." (Miss Pennethorne, PR 10) "This is what we wish to do for children in teaching them to draw--to cause the eye to rest, not unconsciously, but consciously n some object of beauty which will leave in their minds an image of delight for all their lives to come." (Vol. 1, p. 313) "Art, when rightly directed, is educational, for it trains not only one faculty, but all the faculties together; it trains the hand and the eye, and it trains the head and the heart; it teaches us to see and to see truly; it teaches us to think--that science can do; but it teaches us also to admire and to love; it disciplines the emotions." (Mr. Collingwood, The Fesole Club Papers) "...the great benefit of "brushwork" being that it can be made quite a moral training in exactness and decision." (Mrs. Perrin, "Brush Drawing", PR 4) "Children should learn to draw as they learn to write. The great point is that they should be encouraged, not flattered. With no help and encouragement the child gradually loses his desire to draw." (Mrs. Steinthal, "Art Training in the Nursery", PR 1) "There are two great points that must be remembered if we wish to make our system of art teaching...successful. The first is, always keep the children interested. Next, let us understand that drawing is not only learnt with a pencil and a piece of paper....The chief value of drawing is that it trains the eye to see things as they are." (Mrs. Steinthal, PR 1) "...we must be careful not to offer any aids in the way of guiding lines, points, and other such crutches; and also that he should work in the easiest medium; that is, with paint-brush or with charcoal, and not with a black-lead pencil. Boxes of cheap colours are to be avoided. Children are worthy of the best." (Vol. 1, p. 313) "The first buttercup in a child's nature note book is shockingly crude, the sort of thing to scandalise a teacher of brush-drawing, but by and by another buttercup will appear with the delicate poise, uplift and radiance of the growing flower." (Vol. 6, p. 217) "Drawing is nothing to do with talent, but can be done with observation, intelligence and application--or by seeing, remembering and expressing and is a fundamentally educative subject." (Juliet Williams, "The Teaching of Drawing and Its Place in Education", PR 34) School Education (Volume 3), p. 205 Ourselves (Volume ), Book I, Part II, Chapters II and V An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education, Book I, Chapter X (f) Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, Betty Edwards (Affiliate Links) Drawing Lessons, Florence Monkhouse (PR Article) Brush Drawing, Miss K. Loveday (PR Article) The Teaching of Drawing and Its Place in Education, Juliet Williams (PR Article) Brush Drawing, Mrs H. Perrin (PR Article) Fesole Club Papers, Mr. W. G. Collingwood What To Draw and How to Draw It In A Large Room Retreat

This week's Charlotte Mason podcast Q&A episode covers questions about transitioning through morning lessons, meeting state requirements for kindergarten, and handling the needs of a gifted child.

This podcast episode explores how a Charlotte Mason education can be enhanced by joining with others to explore nature. Nicole Williams interviews Marcia Mattern who shares practical ideas for how to make the most of our field work together from her years of experience in leading groups.