The application of Charlotte Mason's principles and practices raises many questions for the teacher. This Q&A installment addresses how to answer friends who ask what Mason is all about, ADE's consultation services, and scheduling concerns, notably the practice of a "looping" approach.

This podcast faces the reality: a Charlotte Mason education is rewarding--but enormous! It is normal to become weary, worried, and woeful at times about the immense and multitudinous tasks of educating our children, not to mention feeding, clothing, and caring for them daily. The ADE mothers have been in the trenches and share strategies and wisdom for running the race without giving up.

This podcast episode explores Charlotte Mason's Home Education series, the six volumes written to thoroughly explain her educational principles and practices. Join Emily Kiser in an interview with Morgan Conner as they describe the value and special characteristics of each volume individually, and where to begin in our own journey through the information-packed pages so essential to our knowledge and success as home educators.

When we embark on the homeschool journey, many of us feel inadequate to teach because of our own lack of education. Once we start, however, our enthusiasm for learning ourselves is usually kindled. But how to find the time, what to study, and which areas are most fruitful for us are the questions this episode will address as the ADE ladies review Mason's own Mothers Education Course and what she felt were the essential areas of study for a mother and teacher.

What kind of feast did Charlotte Mason spread for the oldest students? The high school years often cause anxiety  in the homeschool teacher, but with the slow and steady progress in the lower forms, a Mason educated child is going to tackle them with relish. What was included in the upper forms, what changed,  and what stayed the same?

Charlotte Mason carefully laid the foundation for the upper years in the lower forms. What are the differences in subjects and practices once students enter the middle form and are working toward the high school years? This podcast will survey and summarize Form III.

Charlotte Mason had definite ideas for why the children should learn, as well as what was to be learned at every stage of school education. This episode provides an overview of the last two years of the "elementary years," or the top of the second Form.

Charlotte Mason's students moved to a new "form" at age 9 or 10. What makes Form II different from form I in the subject content and skills? This podcast discusses the wider room experienced by students entering the upper elementary school years.

Charlotte Mason's young students had an abundant feast. This episode summarizes and reflects on the aspects of the subjects included for the upper part of the first form of school. What do they move on to after that first introductory year?

Charlotte Mason wanted children to set good intellectual habits, and these begin in the first year of formal lessons. A. A. Milne said, "Now we are Six," Mason said, "Now it's time to read," and this episode will describe the scope of the first year of school and its lessons.

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?"

Charlotte Mason was a proponent of the instruction in Sloyd. What is it, and when and how is it taught? Emily interviews guest Brittney McGann, who has researched the topic and practiced this subject in her home and has many practical tips to share and resources to recommend.

Charlotte Mason developed her educational method for all students, but many feel that by high school they must get on to more serious preparation for college or career and abandon the course they have been on. The moms of A Delectable Education discuss the high school years, what studies are tackled, how to deal with college transcripts and applications and college entrance exams. Does Mason's curriculum prepare a child for the real world? Will they be able to succeed in a non-Charlotte Mason environment? What does high school look like if you follow a Mason approach to education?

Charlotte Mason had much to say about children even before they start formal school lessons. This podcast explores the wide world of the preschooler and what families should do to make the most of the early years, the "golden hours" of life before school officially begins.

The breadth of the Charlotte Mason feast requires a lot of knowledge for teachers. We are still learning and discuss some of those points in this episode, as well as correct comments we have made that were wrong in math, foreign language, narration, and use of lesson time.

One of the forms of physical education Charlotte Mason addressed was dance. This episode is an interview with Lance Halverson, ballroom dance instructor and, with his wife,  Mason educator of his own four children.

Charlotte Mason did not neglect the physical education of children. This episode explores the myriad ways our children's bodies can be developed in harmony with what is going on in their minds and hearts. 

This Charlotte Mason podcast addresses the inclusion of the subject of Latin in the wide feast. The purpose of language study, Latin in particular, is discussed, as well as how Mason approached this traditional subject in a living way.

Charlotte Mason's curriculum includes singing. This episode focuses on the art of singing, reasons why it should not be neglected in morning lessons,  and addresses not only the why, what, and when of this subject, but gives tips on what a teacher is to do who is not personally trained or competent in leading singing.

The increasing popularity of Charlotte Mason's method of education means an increase in misconceptions and misinformation. This episode tackles some of the "myths" that have circulated, particularly regarding what makes a living book or a textbook, what books are used in the Bible lesson, and that reading and narration are the only content of a lesson.

This Charlotte Mason podcast addresses frequently asked questions: was Mason's method designed first and foremost for the classroom? Is it essential to have a poetry teatime or morning time?

Charlotte Mason died nearly a hundred years ago, but her ideas have continued to thrive. This episode addresses a few notions that exist that do not necessarily reflect hers. Based on listener questions, we address this Q&A to some of the myths that circulate.

How closely should we adhere to all of Charlotte Mason's principles and practices? This podcast explores the ramifications of taking part of Mason's method, practicing some of her ideas or mixing in other curricula, and addresses whether it is positive or negative to be labeled 'A Charlotte Mason Purist.' Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "The reader will say with truth--'I knew all this before and have always acted more or less on these principles'; and I can only point to the unusual results we obtain through adhering not 'more or less' but strictly to the principles and practices I have indicated. I suppose the difficulties are of the sort that Lister had to contend with; every surgeon knew that his instruments and appurtenances should be kept clean, but the saving of millions of lives has resulted from the adoption of the great surgeon's antiseptic treatment; that is from the substitution of exact principles scrupulously applied for the rather casual 'more or less' methods of earlier days." (Vol. 6, p. 19) "We do not invite Heads of schools to take up work lightly, which implies a sound knowledge of certain principles and as faithful a practice. The easy tolerance which holds smilingly that everything is as good as everything else, that one educational doctrine is as good as another, that, in fact, a mixture of all such doctrines gives pretty safe results,––this sort of complacent attitude produces lukewarm effort and disappointing progress. I feel strongly that to attempt to work this method without a firm adherence to the few principles laid down would be not only idle but disastrous. 'Oh, we could do anything with books like those,' said a master; he tried the books and failed conspicuously because he ignored the principles." (Vol. 6, p. 270) "We have a method of education, it is true, but method is no more than a way to an end, and is free, yielding, adaptive as Nature herself. Method has a few comprehensive laws according to which details shape themselves, as one naturally shapes one's behaviour to the acknowledged law that fire burns. System, on the contrary, has an infinity of rules and instructions as to what you are to do and how you are to do it. Method in education follows Nature humbly; stands aside and gives her fair play." (Vol. 2, p. 168) Art Middlekauff's helpful article on this very topic

Charlotte Mason included a subject uncommon to most modern teachers: recitation. This podcast episode explains why she did, what it is, and how it differs from memorization. This is an essential in the feast and a great gift to the students and the people around them. Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "Children know how to read, but they cannot read." (Burrell, "Recitation") "Without them the best pieces of English writing lose half their value; the best paper read before a cultivated audience misses its aim; the best lecture is only half a lecture, and the best sermon is an opiate. With them all is changed; the light from the writer's soul is handed down from one generation to another. For good authors cannot die; the human voice is for-ever conferring immortality upon them. So magical is the power of a good reader that he can convey to an audience shades of meaning in his author which he himself does not suspect." (Burrell) "Recitation and committing to memory are not necessarily the same thing..." (Vol. 1, p. 224) "And if such appreciation can be born when a good reader and a good audience meet, is it not worse than madness for us to look on English literature as mere work for the study, mere dictionary stuff? It was meant to be interpreted by the voice of life; there is only half the passion in the printed page. If there were more good reading round English firesides, do you suppose that the masterpieces of English thought would be studied, as they often are, merely with an eye to the examiners' certificate?" (Burrell) "The child should speak beautiful thoughts so beautifully, with such delicate rendering of each nuance of meaning, that he becomes to the listener the interpreter of the author's thought." (Vol. 1, p. 223) "Knowledge is information touched with emotion: feeling must be stirred, imagination must picture, reason must consider, nay, conscience must pronounce on the information we offer before it becomes mind-stuff." (In Memorium, p. 4) "At this stage, his reading lessons must advance so slowly that he may just as well learn his reading exercises, both prose and poetry, as recitation lessons." (Vol. 1, pp. 204-205) "Perfect enunciation and precision are insisted on, and when he comes to arrange the whole of the little rhyme in his loose words and read it off (most delightful of all the lessons) his reading must be a perfect and finished recitation." (Vol. 1, p. 222) "The teacher reads with the intention that the children shall know, and therefore, with distinctness, force, and careful enunciation; it is a mere matter of sympathy, though of course it is the author and not himself, whom the teacher is careful to produce." (Vol. 6, p. 244) "The gains of such a method of learning are, that the edge of the child's enjoyment is not taken off by weariful verse by verse repetitions, and, also, that the habit of making mental images is unconsciously formed." (Vol. 1, p. 225) "There is hardly any 'subject' so educative and so elevating as that which Mr. Burrell has happily described as 'The Children's Art.'" (Vol. 1, p. 223) If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent's Review articles that would be helpful for this episode's topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy. Home Education, Part V, Chapter VII: Recitation Recitation: The Children's Art, Arthur Burrell, Parents' Review, Vol. 1, pp. 92-103 Lady Clare, Alfred, Lord Tennyson Charlotte Mason Soiree Facebook Group

Is "co-op" a Charlotte Mason term or concept? This podcast episode addresses the pros and cons of sharing the feast with others. Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "We have still to complain that Grammar and Arithmetic are rather weak. When this has been reported more than twice under the same teacher, the parents absolutely ought to get help, in these subjects, from some teacher of a neighboring elementary school." (Parents' Review, Vol. 6, p. 75) Nancy Kelly's Co-Op

This Charlotte Mason podcast episode explores what can happen when we join with other Charlotte Mason families to spread the feast together in settings beyond our home. Amy Snell shares her experience in starting mothers' study groups, a charter school program, nature clubs, and Truth-Beauty-Goodness afternoons with her community. Her wealth of wisdom and experience is not only helpful in considering what kind of shared experiences are beneficial, but what happens when relocation takes you away from your group, how to initiate groups, organizing and maintaining them, and perils to avoid. Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "[W]e endeavour that he shall have relations of pleasure and intimacy established with as many as possible of the interests proper to him; not learning a slight or incomplete smattering about this or that subject, but plunging into vital knowledge, with a great field before him which in all his life he will not be able to explore." (Vol. 3, p. 223) "Not all this at once, of course; but line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, as opportunity offers." (Vol. 1, pp. 328-29) Charlotte Mason Institute Truth, Beauty, Goodness Community

A Delectable Education podcast on the Charlotte Mason method answers frequently asked listener questions in this episode: what if my child hates to narrate? where and how do I begin habit training? how do I challenge my gifted child? Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "By "education is a discipline," we mean the discipline of habits, formed definitely and thoughtfully, whether habits of mind or body. Physiologists tell us of the adaptation of brain structures to habitual lines of thought, i.e., to our habits." (Principle #7) "It is possible to sow a great idea lightly and casually and perhaps this sort of sowing should be rare and casual because if a child detect a definite purpose in his mentor he is apt to stiffen himself against it." (Vol. 6, p. 102) "Let me add that the appeal of these principles and this method is not to the clever child only but to the average and even to the 'backward' child; indeed we have had several marked successes with backward children. Just as we all partake of that banquet which is 'Shakespeare' according to our needs and desires, so do the children behave at the ample board set before them; there is enough to satisfy the keenest intelligence while the dullest child is sustained through his own willing effort." (Vol. 6, p. 245) "Lack of proportion should be our bête noire in drawing up a curriculum, remembering that the mathematician who knows little of the history of his own country or that of any other, is sparsely educated at the best." (Vol. 6, p. 232) Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton (Contains affiliate links) Nancy Kelly on Habits

This Charlotte Mason podcast episode focuses on listener questions regarding bringing children into the Mason method from other previous school experiences. What are the approaches that help children of various ages transition, what are realistic expectations, and how do we help them adjust to a different way of doing lessons? Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "The success of such a school demands rare qualities in the teacher––high culture, some knowledge of psychology and of the art of education; intense sympathy with the children, much tact, much common sense, much common information, much 'joyousness of nature,' and much governing power..." (Vol. 1, p. 178) "Our aim in Education is to give a Full Life.––We begin to see what we want. Children make large demands upon us. We owe it to them to initiate an immense number of interests. Thou hast set my feet in a large room; should be the glad cry of every intelligent soul. Life should be all living, and not merely a tedious passing of time; not all doing or all feeling or all thinking––the strain would be too great––but, all living; that is to say, we should be in touch wherever we go, whatever we hear, whatever we see, with some manner of vital interest. We cannot give the children these interests; we prefer that they should never say they have learned botany or conchology, geology or astronomy. 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?" (Vol. 3, p. 170-171) I Buy a School, Marion Berry (Contains affiliate links)

Term examinations in Charlotte Mason's schools were mandatory. This podcast explores the purpose of examinations, what was covered, and how we evaluate our child's performance. Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "The children write with perfect understanding as far as they go and there is rarely a 'howler' in hundreds of sets of papers. They have an enviable power of getting at the gist of a book or subject. Sometimes they are asked to write verses about a personage or an event; the result is not remarkable by way of poetry, but sums up a good deal of thoughtful reading in a delightful way..." (Vol. 6, p. 242) "During the examinations, which last a week, the children cover say from twenty to sixty sheets of Cambridge paper, according to age and class; but if ten times as many questions were set on the work studied most likely they would cover ten times as much paper." (Vol. 6, p. 241) "The terminal examinations are of great importance. They are not merely and chiefly tests of knowledge but records which are likely to be permanent." (Vol. 6, p. 272) If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent's Review articles that would be helpful for this episode's topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy. School Education, Appendix II Sample PNEU Examinations from Programme 93 Sample PNEU Examinations from Programme 95 (click each link to see full Programme and Examination for each Form)

This Q&A episode of the Charlotte Mason podcast addresses such varied topics as introducing the Book of Centuries, dawdling and disinterested beginners, preschoolers participation, and transitioning students to independent reading. Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "In the first place, never let the child dawdle over copybook or sum, sit dreaming with his book before him. When a child grows stupid over a lesson, it is time to put it away. Let him do another lesson as unlike the last as possible, and then go back with freshened wits to his unfinished task." (Vol. 1, p. 141) "That the claims of the schoolroom should not be allowed to encroach on the child's right to long hours daily for exercise and investigation." (Vol. 1, p. 177) "Form IIB has a considerable programme of reading, that is, not the mere mechanical exercise of reading but the reading of certain books. Therefore it is necessary that two years should be spent in Form IA and that in the second of these two years the children should read a good deal of the set work for themselves." (Vol. 6, pp. 181-182) "This habit should be begun early; so soon as the child can read at all, he should read for himself, and to himself, history, legends, fairy tales, and other suitable matter." (Vol. 1, p. 227) Made in the ... Books by Christine Price History of Everyday Things, Quennell Colonial Craftsmen, Tunis (and all his other books) A Museum of Early American Tools by Eric Sloane (and many of his other books) What People Wore, Gorsline (Contains affiliate links)

Charlotte Mason's feast spreads to include the subject of architecture. A Delectable Education podcast this week is an interview with Sandra Zuidema who has discovered the joy of exploring the ideas in architecture, its history, people, structures and culture and shares ways she has introduced this to her children. Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "But any sketch of the history teaching in Forms V and VI in a given period depends upon a notice of the 'literature' set; for plays, novels, essays, 'lives,' poems, are all pressed into service and where it is possible, the architecture, painting, etc., which the period produced." (Vol. 6, pp. 177-178) "We do what is possible to introduce children to Architecture; and we practise clay-modelling and the various artistic handicrafts, but there is nothing unusual in our work in these directions." (Vol. 6, p. 217) "I shall touch later upon the burning question of a curriculum which shall furnish children, not with dry bones of fact, but with fact clothed upon with the living flesh, breathed into by the vital spirit of quickening ideas." (Vol. 3, p. 124) If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent's Review articles that would be helpful for this episode's topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy. An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education (Volume 6), Book I, Chapter 10, Section II: Art Filippo's Dome, Rockwell Story of Architecture, Waterhouse Child's History of Art, Hiller Architecture Shown to the Children, Wynne Concise History of Western Architecture, Jordan (Contains affiliate links) In a Large Room Retreat Golden Hours of Delight Retreat Charlotte Mason Institute The Duomo, Florence Chartres Cathedral Flying Buttresses Rose Windows Amiens Cathedral Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

This podcast addresses listener questions about implementing a Charlotte Mason education. How do we teach multiple children at different levels, keep up with all the books being read, teach the subject of recitation, get our children to talk about what they're learning? Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "When a child is reading, he should not be teased with questions as to the meaning of what he has read, the signification of this word or that; what is annoying to older people is equally annoying to children. Besides, it is not of the least consequence that they should be able to give the meaning of every word they read. A knowledge of meanings, that is, an ample and correct vocabulary, is only arrived at in one way––by the habit of reading. A child unconsciously gets the meaning of a new word from the context, if not the first time he meets with it, then the second or the third: but he is on the look-out, and will find out for himself the sense of any expression he does not understand. Direct questions on the subject-matter of what a child has read are always a mistake. Let him narrate what he has read, or some part of it. He enjoys this sort of consecutive reproduction, but abominates every question in the nature of a riddle. If there must be riddles, let it be his to ask and the teacher's to direct him the answer. Questions that lead to a side issue or to a personal view are allowable because these interest children––'What would you have done in his place?'" (Vol. 1, pp. 228-229) "Long ago, I was in the habit of hearing this axiom quoted by a philosophical old friend: "The mind can know nothing save what it can produce in the form of an answer to a question put to the mind by itself." I have failed to trace the saying to its source, but a conviction of its importance has been growing upon me during the last forty years. It tacitly prohibits questioning from without; (this does not, of course, affect the Socratic use of questioning for purposes of moral conviction); and it is necessary to intellectual certainty, to the act of knowing. For example, to secure a conversation or an incident, we 'go over it in our minds'; that is, the mind puts itself through the process of self-questioning which I have indicated. This is what happens in the narrating of a passage read: each new consecutive incident or statement arrives because the mind asks itself,––"What next?" For this reason it is important that only one reading should be allowed; efforts to memorise weaken the power of attention, the proper activity of the mind; if it is desirable to ask questions in order to emphasize certain points, these should be asked after and not before, or during, the act of narration." (Vol. 6, p. 17) "A small English boy of nine living in Japan, remarked, "Isn't it fun, Mother, learning all these things? Everything seems to fit into something else." The boy had not found out the whole secret; everything fitted into something within himself." (vol. 6, pp. 156-157) If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent's Review articles that would be helpful for this episode's topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy. Home Education, Part V, Chapter VIII Recitation: The Children's Art, Arthur Burrell In A Large Room Retreat TruthQuest History

Charlotte Mason included handicrafts in the curriculum and this podcast will explore the reasons. It is not an optional activity or filler, but what is the purpose? Furthermore, what sorts of things are included in this subject and how can a mother who feels inadequate possibly fulfill this requirement? Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "Points to be borne in mind in children's handicrafts are: a) that they should not be employed in making futilities such as pea and stick work, paper-mats and the like; b) that they should be taught slowly and carefully what they should do; c) that slipshod work should not be allowed; d) and, that, therefore, the children's work should be kept well within their compass." (Vol. 1, pp. 315-316) "Small children finish anything set for them to do alone very quickly as a rule, and I find it a great help if they can have some easy handicraft to be picked up in spare moments." (Parents' Review, "Notes and Queries", Vol. 44, p. 480) If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent's Review articles that would be helpful for this episode's topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy. Home Education (Volume 1), Part V, Chapter XXI School Education (Volume 3), pp. 355-359 Paper Sloyd for Primary Grades (Contains affiliate link) Paper Sloyd for Primary Grades Golden Hours of Delight Retreat

This episode highlights the relevance of a Charlotte Mason education for children who have unique differences as persons in one way or another, needs that affect how they relate to and respond to their education. Is Mason's method possible for children with special needs? Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "Greatness and littleness belong to character, and life would be dull were we all cast in one mould..." (Vol. 2, pg. 71) "The best public schoolboy is a fine product; and perhaps the worst has had his imagination touched by ideas; yet most of us recognise that the public school often fails, in that it launches the average and dull boy ignorant upon the world because the curriculum has been too narrow to make any appeal to him." (Vol. 3, p. 246) "Let me add that the appeal of these principles and this method is not to the clever child only but to the average and even to the 'backward' child; indeed we have had several marked successes with backward children. Just as we all partake of that banquet which is 'Shakespeare' according to our needs and desires, so do the children behave at the ample board set before them; there is enough to satisfy the keenest intelligence while the dullest child is sustained through his own willing effort." (Vol. 6, p. 245) "The teachers underrate the tastes and abilities of their pupils. In things intellectual, children, even backward children, have extraordinary 'possibilities for good'--possibilities so great that if we had the wit to give them their heard they would carry us alog like a stream in spate." (Vol. 6, p. 52) "This is what we have established in many thousands of cases, even in those of dull and backward children, that any person can understand any book of the right calibre (a question to be determined mainly by the age of the young reader); that the book must be in literary form; that children and young persons require no elucidation of what they read; that their attention does not flag while so engaged; that they master a few pages at a single reading so thoroughly that they can 'tell it back' at the time or months later whether it be the Pilgrim's Progress or one of Bacon's Essays or Shakespeare's plays; that they throw individuality into this telling back so that no two tell quite the same tale; that they learn incidentally to write and speak with vigour and style and usually to spell well. Now this art of telling back is Education and is very enriching." (Vol. 6, pp. 291-92) "People are too apt to use children as counters in a game, to be moved hither and thither according to the whim of the moment. Our crying need to-day is less for a better method of education than for an adequate conception of children,––children, merely as human beings, whether brilliant or dull, precocious or backward. Exceptional qualities take care of themselves and so does the 'wanting' intelligence, and both of these share with the rest in all that is claimed for them in the previous chapters. Our business is to find out how great a mystery a person is qua person. All action comes out of the ideas we hold and if we ponder duly upon personality we shall come to perceive that we cannot commit a greater offence than to maim or crush, or subvert any part of a person." (Vol. 6, p. 80) Parents' Review article on Backward Children

This Charlotte Mason podcast episode is the conclusion of a two part interview with Richele Baburina on math in the upper forms. Her research and experience, wisdom and love will not only calm your anxieties, but will reveal a glimpse of the wondrous possibilities and beauty awaiting you and your child as you explore the mountainous heights of an awe-inspiring subject, including valuable tips for traversing it with direction and confidence. Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "In the things of science, in the things of art, in the things of practical everyday life, his God doth instruct him and doth teach him, her God doth instruct her and doth teach her. Let this be the mother's key to the whole of the education of each boy and each girl; not of her children; the Divine Spirit does not work with nouns of multitude, but with each single child. Because He is infinite, the whole world is not too great a school for this indefatigable Teacher, and because He is infinite, He is able to give the whole of his infinite attention for the whole time to each one of his multitudinous pupils. We do not sufficiently rejoice in the wealth that the infinite nature of our God brings to each of us." (Vol. 2, p. 273) "Supposing we are willing to make this great recognition, to engage ourselves to accept and invite the daily, hourly, incessant co-operation of the divine Spirit, in, to put it definitely and plainly, the schoolroom work of our children, how must we shape our own conduct to make this co-operation active, or even possible? We are told that the Spirit is life; therefore, that which is dead, dry as dust, mere bare bones, can have no affinity with Him, can do no other than smother and deaden his vitalising influences. A first condition of this vitalising teaching is that all the thought we offer to our children shall be living thought; no mere dry summaries of facts will do; given the vitalising idea, children will readily hang the mere facts upon the idea as upon a peg capable of sustaining all that it is needful to retain. We begin by believing in the children as spiritual beings of unmeasured powers––intellectual, moral, spiritual––capable of receiving and constantly enjoying intuitions from the intimate converse of the Divine Spirit." (Vol. 2, p. 277) "Girls are usually in Class IV. for two or three years, from fourteen or fifteen to seventeen, after which they are ready to specialise and usually do well. The programme for Class IV. is especially interesting; it adds Geology and Astronomy to the sciences studied, more advanced Algebra to the Mathematics, and sets the history of Modern Europe instead of French history." (Vol. 3, p. 294) If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent's Review articles that would be helpful for this episode's topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy. Towards a Philosophy of Education (Volume 6), Book I, chapters 8 & 9 The Story of Charlotte Mason, Chomondeley Mathematics: An Instrument for Living Teaching First Step in Euclid Practical Exercises in Geometry Lessons in Experimental and Practical Geometry Paper Sloyd Episode 30: The Way of the Will and The Way of Reason+

This Charlotte Mason podcast explores the upper reaches of the hike up the math mountain. If teaching algebra and geometry are daunting to you currently, or for the future, please enjoy the first of this two-part interview with Richele Baburina, a fellow CM researcher and practitioner who has explored the wondrous reaches of mathematics as a living subject in the Mason feast. Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome Principles 16-19 from the Preface to the Home Education Series: 16. There are two guides to moral and intellectual self-management to offer to children, which we may call 'the way of the will' and 'the way of the reason.' 17. The way of the will: Children should be taught, (a) to distinguish between 'I want' and 'I will.' (b) That the way to will effectively is to turn our thoughts from that which we desire but do not will. (c) That the best way to turn our thoughts is to think of or do some quite different thing, entertaining or interesting. (d) That after a little rest in this way, the will returns to its work with new vigour. (This adjunct of the will is familiar to us as diversion, whose office it is to ease us for a time from will effort, that we may 'will' again with added power. The use of suggestion as an aid to the will is to be deprecated, as tending to stultify and stereotype character, It would seem that spontaneity is a condition of development, and that human nature needs the discipline of failure as well as of success.) 18. The way of reason: We teach children, too, not to 'lean (too confidently) to their own understanding'; because the function of reason is to give logical demonstration (a) of mathematical truth, (b) of an initial idea, accepted by the will. In the former case, reason is, practically, an infallible guide, but in the latter, it is not always a safe one; for, whether that idea be right or wrong, reason will confirm it by irrefragable proofs. 19. Therefore, children should be taught, as they become mature enough to understand such teaching, that the chief responsibility which rests on them as persons is the acceptance or rejection of ideas. To help them in this choice we give them principles of conduct, and a wide range of the knowledge fitted to them. These principles should save children from some of the loose thinking and heedless action which cause most of us to live at a lower level than we need. If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent's Review articles that would be helpful for this episode's topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy. Towards a Philosophy of Education (Volume 6), Book I, chapters 8 & 9 Strayer Upton Practical Mathematics Mathematics: An Instrument for Living Teaching First Step in Euclid Practical Exercises in Geometry Lessons in Experimental and Practical Geometry Richele's Overview of Math Instruction based on the PNEU practice with amendments for 21st century requirements Paper Sloyd Episode 30: The Way of the Will and The Way of Reason

This week's Charlotte Mason podcast addresses math in the elementary years. How much should be covered? How should it be presented? How do we build confidence, competence, and progress? Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "The Principality of Mathematics is a mountainous land, but the air is very fine and health-giving, though some people find it too rare for their breathing. It differs from most mountainous countries in this, that you cannot lose your way, and that every step taken is on firm ground. People who seek their work or play in this principality find themselves braced by effort and satisfied with truth." (Vol. 4, p. 38) [A child should know at 12 years old:] "...g) in Arithmetic, they should have some knowledge of vulgar and decimal fractions, percentage, household accounts, etc. h) Should have a knowledge of Elementary Algebra, and should have done practical exercises in Geometry." (Vol. 3, p. 301) "[Mathematics] should give to children the sense of limitation which is wholesome for all of us, and inspire that sursam corda which we should hear in all natural law." (Vol. 6, p. 231) If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent's Review articles that would be helpful for this episode's topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy. Home Education, Part V, XV Ourselves, Book I, pp. 38; 62-63 Towards a Philosophy of Education, Book I, Chapter 10, Section III Strayer-Upton's Books--helpful for mental arithmetic/story problems (Contains affiliate links) Richele Baburina's Mathematics: A Guide for Living Teaching Benezet's Article on informal math instruction in the early years Parents' Review Article on "Number"

How in the world did Charlotte Mason approach the subject of math? This podcast episode explores that question and addresses our qualms and insecurities in teaching math to our children. How do we avoid fears, tears, pushing and pulling, and reach to its infinite beauty as an instrument in acquiring knowledge of the universe? Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "Arithmetic, Mathematics, are exceedingly easy to examine upon and so long as education is regulated by examinations so long shall we have teaching, directed not to awaken a sense of awe in contemplating a self-existing science, but rather to secure exactness and ingenuity in the treatment of problems." (Vol. 6, p. 231) "...the use of the study in practical life is the least of its uses. The chief value of arithmetic, like that of higher mathematics, lies in the training it affords to the reasoning powers, and in the habits of insight, readiness, accuracy, intellectual truthfulness it engenders." (Vol. 1, p. 254) "Never are the operations of Reason more delightful and more perfect than in mathematics...By degrees, absolute truth unfolds itself. We are so made that truth, absolute and certain truth, is a perfect joy to us; and that is the joy that mathematics afford." (Vol. 4, p. 63) "Let his arithmetic lesson be to the child a daily exercise in clear thinking and rapid, careful execution, and his mental growth will be as obvious as the sprouting of seedlings in the spring." (Vol. 1, p. 261) "Mathematics depend upon the teacher rather than upon the text-book and few subjects are worse taught; chiefly because teachers have seldom time to give the inspiring ideas, what Coleridge calls, the 'Captain' ideas, which should quicken imagination." (Vol. 6, p. 233) "There is no must be to him he does not see that one process, and one process only, can give the required result. Now, a child who does not know what rule to apply to a simple problem within his grasp, has been ill taught from the first, although he may produce slatefuls of quite right sums in multiplication or long division." (Vol. 1, p. 254) "...'nearly right' is the verdict, a judgment inadmissible in arithmetic." (Vol. 1, p. 255) If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent's Review articles that would be helpful for this episode's topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy. Home Education, Part V, XV Towards a Philosophy of Education, Book I, Chapter 10, Section III Number Stories of Long Ago String, Straightedge and Shadow (Contains affiliate links) Our very favorite resource for Mathematics teaching

This Charlotte Mason podcast episode is another Q&A. As we implement the method, challenges arise: what adjustments need to be made when I come to the method late, how should I organize my home differently, and what about the only child's needs, are this week's focus. Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "It is not an environment that these want, a set of artificial relations carefully constructed, but an atmosphere which nobody has been at pains to constitute. It is there, about the child, his natural element, precisely as the atmosphere of the earth is about us. It is thrown off, as it were, from persons and things, stirred by events, sweetened by love, ventilated, kept in motion, by the regulated action of common sense." (Vol. 6, pg. 96) "No artificial element [should] be introduced...children must face life as it is; we may not keep them in glass cases." (Vol. 6, pg. 97) The Conquest of the North and South Poles (Landmark Book), Russell Owen (Contains affiliate links) Episode 4: Three Tools of Education The Education of an Only Child, Mrs. Clement Parsons. The Parents' Review, Volume 12, p.609-621

Foreign language was a major component in Charlotte Mason's curriculum. This podcast addresses the reasons for foreign language study and how mothers of one tongue can still faithfully include it in their homeschool. Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "All educated persons should be able to speak French." (Vol. 1, p. 300) If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent's Review articles that would be helpful for this episode's topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy. Home Education, Part V, Chapter XX An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education, Book I, Chapter 10, Section II: Languages Carry On, Mr. Bowditch (Contains affiliate links) http://theulat.com/ORIGIN.HTM http://www.thespanishexperiment.com/ http://www.thefrenchexperiment.com/ http://www.theitalianexperiment.com/ http://www.thegermanexperiment.com/ http://cherrydalepress.com/

What are Charlotte Mason's thoughts on grammar and composition? Listen to this podcast to hear some of her rationale for these subjects, to dispel myths about the Charlotte Mason method and the subject of writing, as well as these moms' experience with teaching these technical and creative written skills. Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "[G]rammar, being a study of words and not things, is by no means attractive to the child, nor should he be hurried into it." (Vol. 1, p. 295) "Children will probably be slow to receive this first lesson in abstract knowledge, and we must remember that knowledge in this sort is difficult and uncongenial. Their minds deal with the concrete and they have the singular faculty of being able to make concrete images out of the merest gossamer of a fairy tale." (Vol. 6, p. 210) "But a child cannot dream parts of speech, and any grown-up twaddle attempting to personify such abstractions offends a small person who with all his love of play and nonsense has a serious mind." (Vol. 6, p. 210) "Our business is to provide children with material in thier lessons, and leave the handling of such material to themselves...They should narrate in the first place, and they will compose, later, readily enough; but they should not be taught 'composition.'" (Vol. 1, p. 247) "It is not enough that a child should learn how to write, he must know what to write." (Vol. 6, p. 234) "In fact, lessons on 'composition' should follow the model of that famous essay on "Snakes in Ireland"––"There are none."" (Vol. 1, p. 247) "If we would believe it, composition is as natural as jumping and running to children who have been allowed due use of books." (Vol. 1, p. 247)   If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent's Review articles that would be helpful for this episode's topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy. Home Education (Volume 1), Part V, XIII An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education (Volume 6), Book I, Chapter 10, Section II: Knowledge of Man: Composition & Knowledge of Man: Grammar The Bedford Handbook The Elements of Style (Contains affiliate links)

This episode marks the one year anniversary of this Charlotte Mason podcast. Over the past year, we have received dozens of questions from our listeners and this Q&A is exemplary of the requests we receive and our attempt to address widely varying topics, namely this week: where to find out-of-print living books, the relevance of Charlotte Mason today and the practice of "scaffolding" lessons.

This podcast explores what Charlotte Mason had to say about the skill of writing. Why do the children need to write? What writing must they do? How can they be taught penmanship, spelling, punctuation, and style? Join us in working through this incremental and crucial school subject. Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "I can only offer a few hints on the teaching of writing, though much might be said. First, let the child accomplish something perfectly in every lesson--a stroke, a pothook, a letter. Let the writing lesson be short; it should not last more than five or ten minutes. Ease in writing comes by practice; but that must be secured later. In the meantime, the thing to be avoided is the habit of careless work." (Vol. 1, pp. 233-34) "[T]here is no part of a child's work at school which some philosophic principle does not underlie." (Vol. 1, p. 240) "The gift of spelling depends upon the power the eye possesses to 'take' (in a photographic sense) a detailed picture of a word; and this is a power and habit which must be cultivated in children from the first." (Vol. 1, p. 241) If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent's Review articles that would be helpful for this episode's topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy. Home Education (Volume 1), Part V, Chapters X-XII Writing to Learn (Contains affiliate links) The New Handwriting

This week's podcast illuminates the Charlotte Mason method as it is being practiced in its country of origin: The United Kingdom. Emily interviews, Leah Boden, who discovered Mason and has been implementing her method in her own life and, like us, is working to support and encourage home educators in the knowledge and practice of Charlotte Mason. Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome Handbook of Nature Study Our Island Story Trial and Triumph (Contains affiliate links) Leah's Instagram Leah's Blog The Charlotte Mason Show Leah's Facebook Page Leah's Periscope Channel http://www.charlottemasonhelp.com/ Join the HomeschoolLibrary Yahoo Group if you'd like to learn more about starting a lending library!

This week's Charlotte Mason podcast focuses on the all-important task of teaching our children to read. No other subject holds such promise and so many anxieties for the teacher who embarks on teaching this fundamental skill. The ladies share their own experiences and what Mason had to say to help us in the reading lesson. Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "But, as a matter of fact, few of us can recollect how or when we learned to read: for all we know it came by nature." (Vol. 1, p. 200) "Probably that vague whole which we call 'Education' offers no more difficult and repellent task than that to which every little child is set down--the task of learning to read. We realize the labor of it when some grown man makes a heroic effort to remedy shameful ignorance, but we forget how contrary to nature it is for a little child to occupy himself with dreary hieroglyphics--all so dreadfully alike!--when the world is teeming with interesting objects which he is agog to know." (Vol. 1, p. 214) "'What a snail's progress!' you are inclined to say. Not so slow, after all: a child will thus learn, without appreciable labour, from 2-3,000 words in the course of a year; in other words, he will learn to read, for the mastery of this number of words will carry him with comfort through most of the books that fall in his way. Now, compare this steady progress and constant interest and liveliness of such lessons with the deadly weariness of the ordinary reading lesson. The child blunders through a page or two in the dreary monotone without expression, with imperfect enunciation. He comes to a word he does not know, and he spells it; that throws no light on the subject, and he is told the word; he repeats it, but as he has made no mental effort to secure the word, the next time he meets with it the same process is gone through. The reading lesson for that day comes to an end. The pupil has been miserably bored, and has not acquired one new word. Eventually, he learns to read, somehow, by mere dint of repetition; but consider what an abuse of his intelligence is a system of teaching which makes him undergo daily labour with little or no result, and gives him a distaste for books before he has learned to use them." (Vol. 1, pp. 206-207) "We must remember the natural inertness of a child's mind; give him the habit of being read to, and he will steadily shirk the labour of reading for himself; indeed, we all like to be spoon-fed with our intellectual meat, or we should read and think more for ourselves and be less eager to run after lectures." (Vol. 1, p. 228) "He should have practice, too, in reading aloud [from the books] he is using for his term's work. These should include a good deal of poetry, to accustom him to the delicate rendering of shades of meaning, and especially to make him aware that words are beautiful in themselves, that they are a source of pleasure, and are worthy of our honour; and that a beautiful word deserves to be beautifully said, with a certain roundness of tone and precision of utterance." (Vol. 1, p. 227) "The attention of his teachers should be fixed on two points--that he acquires the habit of reading, and that he does not fall into slipshod habits of reading." (Vol. 1, p. 226) If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent's Review articles that would be helpful for this episode's topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy. Home Education, pp. 199-222) Better Late Than Early, Raymond Moore Reading-Literature Series Thirty Million Words, Dana Suskind (Contains affiliate links) Montessori Small Moveable Alphabet Reading-Literature series on MainLesson.com

This week's podcast episode on the Charlotte Mason method of education--the delectable education--is a question and answer session. Listen to this lively, animated, and slightly controversial discussion of short lessons, nature study, free time, and Bible lessons. Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "Five of the thirteen waking hours should be at the disposal of the children; three, at least, of these, from two o'clock to five, for example, should be spent out of doors in all but very bad weather. This is the opportunity for out-of-door work, collecting wild flowers, describing walks and views, etc." (From "Suggestions" accompanying Programme 42) "The Children's Day will, on the whole, run thus: Lessons, 1 1/2 to 4 hours; meals, 2 hours; occupations, 1 to 3 hours; leisure, 5 to 7 hours, according to age." (From "Suggestions" accompanying Programme 42) "Children between 6 and 9 should get a considerable knowledge of the Bible text. By 9 they should have read the simple (and suitable) narrative portions of the Old Testament...and [the Synoptic] Gospels." (Vol. 1, p. 249) The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling (Contains affiliate links) Episode 20: Nature Study Episode 22: Interview with Cheri Struble John Muir Laws' Website Episode 41: Interview with Jack Laws, Part 1 Episode 42: Interview with Jack Laws, Part 2 Episode 17: Bible, The Living Book Living Books Library post on Electronics Parents' Review Article: Imagination is a Powerful Factor in a Well-Balanced Mind A Delectable Education's Schedule Cards

This week's Charlotte Mason podcast focuses on language. Mason's method was based on a child's nature, and this is most apparent in observing how her method runs along the line of a child's natural acquisition of language skills. Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "Many persons consider that to learn to read a language so full of anomalies and difficulties as our own is a task which should not be imposed too soon on the childish mind. But, as a matter of fact, few of us can recollect how or when we learned to read: for all we know it came by nature." (Vol. 1, p. 200) Thirty Million Words, Dana Suskind (Contains affiliate links) The Teaching of Mathematics: The Story of An Experiment

This week's Charlotte Mason podcast is another Q&A session with Emily, Nicole, and Liz. It is inevitable, as we implement the feast, that questions of presentation and content arise about details not mentioned in the designated episodes on those subjects, and here are some of the latest ones. Listen Now: If you are seeing this message, please make sure you are using the most current version of your web browser: Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome "Never be within doors when you can rightly be without>" (Vol. 1, p. 42) "There is no selection of subjects, passages, or episodes on the ground of interest." (Vol. 6, p. 244) Anne White's Plutarch Books can be found here (Contains affiliate links) Nancy Kelly on Plutarch Anne White's Study Guides free online Overdrive Media Console