ABC's of Homeschooling: C is for Charlotte Mason

C is for Charlotte Mason

Oh how I love Charlotte Mason. I am not sure at which point I came across her philosophy...but I think it was during a online homeschool conference a year or so back...no wait! It was before I was homeschooling and I was researching about it when a church friend suggestion Ambleside Online...but the whole concept of just reading (was foreign to me!) --and so I left it alone and now I love the site!! ;) Sometimes words of wisdom are given, sometimes we ignore and sometimes we just have to follow. lol.

The first year we homeschooled, it was a box curriculum and I am grateful for having it our first year because it made us realized what works and what doesn't work.

I read many a books about her philosophy and the one I really enjoy is: A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola. I am really enjoying it right now...and plan to eventually get CM series too.



You can read her (Charlotte Mason's) series online at Ambleside Online. Ambleside is such a wonderful site for me to use. I base most of my curriculum off of the site, but I don't use it entirely.

What I love about Charlotte Mason:

• No Homework
  
  
• Free Afternoons for doing what they love..playing outside, practicing Guitar, Games
  
  
• Living Books--love the reading list and there's no 'twaddle' here
  
  
• Picture & Music Study (which makes me put it in the curriculum where at I normally would not)
  
  
• Nature Study (this is a big one also--forces me outside the house! I love every minute of it)
  
  
• Narration (this saves the amount of paperwork that we DON'T have to do) Grades are usually Pass or No Pass (besides Math)
  
  
• Habit -CM says that everyone has habits; good and bad. But we must instill GOOD habits within our children (and ourselves) --good for routine
  
  
• Many, many other advantages to this particular philosophy...
  

Great Blogs that I make frequent traffic too are:

1. Ambleside Online
2. Charlotte Mason Help
3. Handbook of Nature Study
4. Simply Charlotte Mason
5. Jimmie's Collage (CM Carnival)
6. Living Books Curriculum
7. Under the Golden Apple Tree

I have a couple of post about why we chose Charlotte Mason. You can read them here and here.

Life in our homeschool has been truly enjoyable after we took on the Charlotte Mason way of education. Thanks for stopping by!!


Quotes I love from Charlotte Mason:

Teachers mediate too much. --Everything is directed, expected, suggested. No other personality out of book, picture, or song, no, not even that of Nature herself, can get at the children without the mediation of the teacher. No room is left for spontaneity or personal initiation on their part. (Vol 1, Part V Lessons As Instruments Of Education, p.188)

The most common and the monstrous defect in the education of the day is that children fail to acquire the habit of reading. (Vol. 1 Part VIII--Reading for Older Children, p.227)

Let him, on the contrary, linger pleasantly over the history of a single man, a short period, until he thinks the thoughts of that man, is at home in the ways of that period. Though he is reading and thinking of the lifetime of a single man, he is really getting intimately acquainted with the history of a whole nation for a whole age. (Vol. 1 Part XVIII.--History, p.280)

Narrating is an art, like poetry-making or painting, because it is there, in every child's mind, waiting to be discovered, and is not the result of any process of disciplinary education. A creative fiat calls it forth. 'Let him narrate'; and the child narrates, fluently, copiously, in ordered sequence, with fit and graphic details, with a just choice of words, without verbosity or tautology, so soon as he can speak with ease. (Vol. 1 Part IX.--The Art of Narrating, p.231)

"Children should be taught their duty toward God. It is their duty. That which they owe, to love Him "with all their heart, with all their mind, with all their strength" these things are seldom taught as they should be."

**If you are a CM follower...do you have any favorite blogs or tips? Thanks for sharing!!