A Charlotte Mason Education -

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The Charlotte Mason Monthly
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Vol. 3, No. 4  --  February 2002
Circulation:  6,400+
http://hometown.aol.com/BeeME1/
DSimple@aol.com
Copyright 2002 Deborah Taylor-Hough
ISSN: 1527-1277  All Rights Reserved
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IN THIS ISSUE:
-- "Dear Readers"
-- Charlotte Mason Quote-able
-- Education is a Life
-- Children Must be Educated on Books
-- Nature Activity:  Feed the Birds
-- 2002 Charlotte Mason Workshops
-- Letters to the Editor / Reader Tips  
-- Assorted Information (archives, retrieving back issues, etc.)
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Dear Readers,

For those of you on the West Coast of the USA and Canada, Catherine Levison will be doing two speaking engagements this spring and summer.  One will be an All-Day How-to Workshop in Surrey, B.C. (just across the border from Blaine, Washington) and the other will consist of five Charlotte Mason workshops in the Los Angeles area at The Link Convention.  

Catherine's been cutting back on her public speaking schedule this year to devote more time to home and family, so if you have an opportunity to attend either of these engagements, don't miss your chance!  Details for both events are at the end of this newsletter.

And don't forget to visit our sponsors if you enjoy the Charlotte Mason Monthly coming for free into your email box each month.

Until next time!

Simply Yours,

Debi
(Deborah Taylor-Hough)
Editor, Charlotte Mason Monthly Email Newsletter
Author, "Frozen Assets" and "A Simple Choice"
A Frugal, Simple Life
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CHARLOTTE MASON QUOTE-ABLE

"... of all the joyous motives of school life, the love of knowledge is the only abiding one; the only one which determines the scale, so to speak, upon which the person will hereafter live."

--Charlotte Mason, "School Education," (Vol. 3)
From the Original Homeschooling Series (six volume set)
Click here to browse
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EDUCATION IS A LIFE ...
Copyright 2002 Anne White
Used with permission.  All rights reserved.


We have a ten-foot long stretch of wall across from the bathroom (high traffic area!) that's useful for tacking up all the Canadian prime ministers and doing stretched-out artwork.  Last fall I used it for a chart outlining Charlotte Mason's "generous curriculum."  Visitors may be a little puzzled, but making it and hanging it (lots of Stick Tack!) has helped me clarify why we do what we're doing in school.  The sections in quotes are from CM's Volume 6, Chapter 10, slightly adapted for the wall:

Who am I?  Who are you?

"I am a child of man.  I have a natural desire to know the history of my race and of my nation, what men thought in the past and are thinking now ..." (We study History, Citizenship, Economics)


What do we know?  How do we say it?

"...the best thoughts of the best minds taking form as literature, and at its highest as poetry, or, as poetry rendered in the plastic (creative)  forms of art."  (We study Literature, Composition, Art and Music)


Why am I here?  Who made me?

"I am a child of God, whose supreme desire and glory it is to know about and to know my almighty Father." (We study God's Word, the Bible; we worship and pray)


How do I work?  What do I do?

"I am a person of many parts and passions who must know how to use, care for, and discipline myself, body, mind and soul." (We study health and physical education; we make things with our hands; we learn good habits)


What's around me?  How does it work?  Where am I?  What's in my world?

"I am a person of many relationships,-to family, city, church, country, neighboring countries, the world at large.  I live in  a world full of beauty and interest, the features
of which I want to recognize and know how to name, and a world too, and a universe, whose every function of every part is ordered by laws which I  must begin to know." (We study Science in all its branches, Geography, Mathematics including Geometry)


I hung this up and let everyone contemplate it for a few days while they brushed their teeth.  Then I decided the chart needed an Interactive Component  (more Stick Tack.)  I cut small rectangles of paper -- a different color for everybody, including Mom and Dad -- and asked them to write down things they were doing or learning, in school or out, and to stick them up in or close to the right section of the chart.  

The four year old drew a picture of herself dancing, and we put that up near the question  "How do I work?".  The nine-year-old wrote down the names of three books she's reading.  (I also added a few relating to her schoolwork, such as Latin and Tennyson's poetry.)  I made a history tag for Much Depends on Dinner, a history of food and eating.  My husband wrote under Economics "Paid the property tax on time."  He also added his current book by John Buchan.

My goal for the fall and winter (at least until the chart starts looking bedraggled) is that we'll continue to add more slips of paper, and that perhaps the different sections -- some looking a little empty -- might inspire us, even the adults, to seek out learning opportunities in those areas.  A longterm goal is to find some equally large way to illustrate "Education is a Discipline" and "Education is an Atmosphere."  I might have to build an extra wall for those, though.


SUBMITTED BY:  Anne White
--Anne is a homeschooling mother of three in Ontario, Canada.
audreyminnow@hotmail.com
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**For an online article about the Charlotte Mason Children's Motto, click here.
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CHILDREN MUST BE EDUCATED ON BOOKS
by Charlotte M. Mason.  Public Domain.
From: School Education -- Developing a Curriculum
Volume 3, pages 226-227


A corollary of the principle that education is the science of relations, is, that no education seems to be worth the name which has not made children at home in the world of books, and so related them, mind to mind, with thinkers who have dealt with knowledge.

We reject epitomes, compilations, and their like, and put into children's hands books which, long or short, are living. Thus it becomes a large part of the teacher's work to help children to deal with their books; so that the oral lesson and lecture are but small matters in education, and are used chiefly to summarise or to expand or illustrate.

Too much faith is commonly placed in oral lessons and lectures; "to be poured into like a bucket," as says Carlyle, "is not exhilarating to any soul"; neither is it exhilarating to have every difficulty explained to weariness, or to have the explanation teased out of one by questions. "I will not be put to the question. Don't you consider, sir, that these are not the manners of a gentleman? I will not be baited with what and why; what is this? what is that? why is a cow's tail long? why is a fox's tail bushy?" said Dr Johnson.  

This is what children think, though they say nothing.

Oral lessons have their occasional use, and when they are fitly given it is the children who ask the questions. Perhaps it is not wholesome or quite honest for a teacher to pose as a source of all knowledge and to give 'lovely' lessons. Such lessons are titillating for the moment, but they give children the minimum of mental labour, and the result is much the same as that left on older persons by the reading of a magazine.

We find, on the other hand, that in working through a considerable book, which may take two or three years to master, the interest of boys and girls is well sustained to the end; they develop an intelligent curiosity as to causes and consequences, and are in fact educating themselves.


EXCERPTED FROM:  School Education by C. Mason
--From the third volume of Charlotte Mason's six-volume set of educational writings, often referred to as "The Original Home Schooling Series."  Her entire work is in the public domain and can be reprinted and distributed freely, much to the benefit and delight of today's parents/educators.

The Original Homeschooling Series (six-volume set)
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Feel free to submit your own short articles (300-500 words) about how you're applying Charlotte Mason's ideas and methods in your home or classroom.  mailto:DSimple@aol.com
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NATURE ACTIVITY:  Feed the Birds
Copyright 2002 Toni Albert
Used with permission.  All rights reserved.
www.TrickleCreekBooks.com


It's fun to feed birds in winter when their natural foods are scarce, and you can do some interesting research at the same time. Collect several containers, such as margarine tubs, and fill each container with a different kind of bird food: sunflower seeds, cracked corn, nuts, chopped fruit, suet, and small birdseed. Fill one container with water, and try to keep the water from freezing solid. (Remove ice and add more water as often as you can.) Label each container, so that you can remember what was in it after it is emptied.

Devote ten or fifteen minutes a day to careful observation. Keep field guides to birds and posters of winter birds on hand. Keep written records that include the date, time of day, and weather conditions.

There are several things to observe in this experiment:

1)  Watch how much food is left in each container after birds have been feeding for awhile. Then you can tell which kinds of food are most popular with your winter birds.

2) Watch one container of food to see which birds eat that kind of food.

3) Watch one bird at a time to see if it eats more than one kind of food.

4) Watch the container of water. How many feeding birds also drink water? Are more birds attracted to water on days when puddles, ponds, and streams are frozen solid?


SUBMITTED BY:  Toni Albert
--This article was excerpted from "A Kid's Winter EcoJournal: With Nature Activities for Exploring the Seasons" by Toni Albert. Published by Trickle Creek Books, committed to "teaching kids to care for the Earth."  www.TrickleCreekBooks.com
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UPCOMING CHARLOTTE MASON SEMINARS!

March 16th, 2002 -- Surrey BC, Canada
ALL DAY CHARLOTTE MASON HOW-TO WORKSHOP
9am to 4:30pm   (just across the border from Blaine, WA)
Fee: $20/US funds; $25/US for married couples
(registrations due by March 9th)

For registrants living in Canada, contact:
Phone - Kirsten, 604-501-0033
Mail - Nadine Alcott, 16555 - 24th Ave, Surrey BC V3S 0C4

For US registrations: Catherine Levison, c/o Charlotte Mason Communique'-tions, 2522 North Proctor - PMB 500, Tacoma WA USA 98406

The sessions include: Liberal Arts, a history of education, Charlotte Mason the person, method overview, habit, narration, literature, language arts, poetry, art study, history, Book of the Centuries, science, nature notebooks, short lessons, planning a school year, book selection and high school.

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THE LINK CONVENTION
Charlotte Mason Workshops
June 6-9th, 2002 -- Thousand Oaks, California (near LA)
Phone:  1-888-470-4513
(Levison's workshops are on June 7-8th)

LEVISON'S WORKSHOP TITLES:
1) Overview of the Charlotte Mason Method
2) History and Science in the Charlotte Mason Method
3) Language Arts for (Almost!) Free
4) To Structure or Not to Structure?
5) High School and the Charlotte Mason Method
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR / READERS' TIPS
(Share your helpful tips, homeschooling ideas, or personal thoughts about Charlotte Mason's methods with other readers.)
Mailto:DSimple@aol.com

Re:  Foreign language tips
Thanks for the tips about learning a foreign language. I am a sign language interpreter and I have been teaching my children American Sign Lanuge as a foreign language in our homeschool. I also teach family sign classes through our local recreation department, and my seven-year-old daughter 'team-teaches' with me. This is great motivation for her, because she has to really know the material to be able to teach and help the students in class. It is also a great confidence booster for her. She feels very important being a teacher. Thanks so much for your newsletter.  I get excited every month when I see the CM Monthly on my incoming email. Keep up the good work!  
--Laura B., Milwaukee WI

Re:  Twaddle-free reading list
I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to put together this list.  I have been reading quite a bit about CM and have come to really believe this is the way to educate my children.  I have been a bit worried, though, about finding living books.  Your list is just what I wanted to find -- a list of books that I could refer to and start with until I feel comfortable about my ability to find living books.  Thank you for helping me start my homeschooling off right.  
--Sharon W.
*Editor's Note: here's the URL for the reading list mentioned,
click here.  ~Debi

Re:  Thank you
I think that your book list is wonderful ... thank you for your time; and let me thank you now for your newsletter. I love your thoughts each month. I am a mother of seven and homeschooling them all. Your letters are an inspiration to me ... keep it up!
--Chris P. Idaho Falls
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FAMILY "TWADDLE-FREE" READING LIST
Recommended books for children and families
Click here
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Feel free to forward this newsletter to your family and friends.  :-)
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A Charlotte Mason Education: A How-to Guide
"As a teacher of twenty years, I have greatly appreciated Catherine's guidance in introducing the Charlotte Mason method in my teaching." --Maggie Dail, MA, of Master Enterprises Learning Center


More Charlotte Mason Education
"... Levison explains and clarifies Mason's ideas while also adding her own ideas resulting from her years of experience teaching this way in a home school setting ... I found these books extremely practical and thoughtful."
--Cathy Duffy author of the Christian Home Educators' Curriculum Manuals
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