Posted in Charlotte Mason - general

"In a child's early years, math is actually play. Counting, stacking, sorting, and balancing are all fun activities that develop mathematical reasoning.

Don't separate math from fun. Don't kill a child's natural love of mathematical play by insisting all mathematical concepts be relegated to a textbook or a workbook once she reaches the elementary years. By using math in daily life, especially in games and playtimes, not only will your child avoid the "math dread" so many of us have, but he will also end up with proficiency in many math skills. Math will come alive and become living."

Read more HERE. This is an excellent article full of book titles, practical ideas and ways to implement living math...math in our daily lives outside of workbooks and texbooks.

Posted in Charlotte Mason - general

Head on over to the 10th edition of the Charlotte Mason Carnival! Today is the LOVEliness edition! Today's carnival edition really is one of the best I have seen with the most entries. Take a peek when you have a few minutes to spend some time reading! I'm sure you will be inspired just as I am!

CM blog carnival

Posted in Charlotte Mason - general

I'm a few days late in adding this...but it looks to be a wonderful edition this week! It is all about Learning for Life at The Heart of Harmony. Check it out HERE!

Just to give you a little sneak peek...there are entries on beginning narration, dictation lessons, teaching literature with what else? LIVING BOOKS, of course! Also, there is a list of mistakes that CM should avoid making, entries on nature journaling, as well as a peek into the homeschooling days of several families who use Charlotte Mason methods.

Happy reading!

Posted in Charlotte Mason - general

This time the subject matter is music and composer studies! Enjoy the next round of Charlotte Mason Carnival! (If you're wondering what a carnival is, in my own words, it is a blogger who has taken posts from lots of different ladies and put them all together in one post - they all have to do with 1 subject...so we can learn all about music studies according to some CM moms this week!)

Enjoy!

Posted in Charlotte Mason - general

If you love the Charlotte Mason way of educating...or if you'd like to learn more - you simply MUST stop by this blog. Jacci has done a fabulous job of putting together quite a few CM entries and articles...all in one place in such a cute way!  You should take a look for yourself! I have only read a few of the entries so far, but already I have been SO inspired!

The Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival (click here)

Enjoy!

Posted in Charlotte Mason - general

I am reading Elizabeth Foss's book entitled Real Learning: Education in the Heart of the Home. First of all, I am LOVING this book! I am finding that I agree with almost everything she says about education. She has implemented a lot of Charlotte Mason ideas with her children (8 now, I think.) and has written a lot of practical help in this book for fleshing out these ideas.  I am all about a book with practical ideas!

Here is what Elizabeth says about math in the beginning of her chapter on math:

"Math cannot be confined to a written page. It needs to be touched. Your child should play with it, experiment with it, internalize it.  He should encounter the "aha!" over and over again during the years he learns at home."

I agree with this completely! So much so that we are "ditching" our workbook curriculum from last year and venturing out into the unknown.  By unknown I just mean that for a  season (not saying how long this will be...could be a few months, maybe a year, maybe more...) we are not going to use a "boxed curriculum" guide for our math. I am going to use a lot of Ruth Beechick's ideas in her little booklet entitled, An Early Start in Arithmetic. Hands on, manipulatives, 100s chart, dominoes, cuisenaire rods, pattern blocks, counting, reading living math books -- that I found here:

http://www.pennygardner.com/mathclassics.html

I am excited and nervous at the same time! I want my children to have a good foundation in math, their daddy is VERY math oriented, he became an accountant.  But, I don't think Hannah was "getting it" by writing in numbers on a workbook page this past year. I think she did great at writing down numbers and filling in the blanks, but I don't think she really GOT addition, subtraction, etc. So, I'm going to go back and allow her to see and work these things with her hands and eyes. I'm hoping this will help me feel like she is grasping it a little better. (Don't get me wrong, I"m not saying a child can't do wonderfully with a math workbook...just for now I think we need something different.)

So, there are the math woes in our household! I'm excited about what we are doing...I have always felt that young children need manipulatives, manipulatives, manipulatives...I'm not 100% sure why I moved away from that this year, but it feels right to be moving back that direction! And I was especially encouraged as I read Elizabeth's chapter this morning on math.

Posted in Charlotte Mason - general

I have been reading and reading some of these websites as I have been making our plans for next year. The more I read about a CM education, the more I love it! I would consider it a "gentle" education, much like our FIAR experience. I still want to use FIAR, but I've begun implementing some of Ms. Mason's ideas as well. I thought I would share some of the links I have enjoyed here. If I can ever figure out how to "personalize" my blog I'll add a list of homeschooling favorite links to the side.

Anyway, some of the things that jump out at me at the moment are: nature journaling and just being in NATURE as much as possible. Charlotte recommends going outside a little bit everyday, even if the weather isn't great. She recommends having your child try to draw pictures in a nature journal of anything and everything. I have been doing that with my girls this year and they love it! I will have to post some of their drawings later.

I also love that Charlotte is against using textbooks. I hadn't thought about this subject much before becoming a homeschooler but now I just want to applaud loudly to this kind of education. She recommends reading LOTS of GOOD books to your child...and there is a wonderful list that I will post of books to read with your child according to their age level. She calls these "living" books. They aren't "twaddle" which is "dumb" books that have no storyline, meaning or the little character books you see a lot of these days. I, myself, am an avid reader...therefore I love having a literature based education for my children. What better way to teach them to read than to instill a LOVE for books from the very earliest moment possible!

Well, I will quit my rambling and list some of her sites...there are much better explanations out there than I can give.

Here is the list for year "0" which would be considered Kindergarten now.

http://amblesideonline.org/00.shtml

An introduction to CM.

http://amblesideonline.org/WhatIsCM.shtml

The ABC's of Charlotte Mason.

http://bushnell.net/~peanuts/faq1.html

Penny Gardner's website.

http://www.pennygardner.com/

You should also take a peek at the blog listed in my links section for Elizabeth Foss. What a wonderfully encouraging mother! She has also written a book called Real Learning that I hope to read soon.

Happy reading!

Posted in Charlotte Mason - general

I have found another blog I really am enjoying! Her name is Melissa Wiley, she is under my "links" section. She is an author, having written books on the ancestry of Laura Ingalls Wilder, called the Martha Years and the Charlotte Years.

Anywho, she is a homeschooling mother of 5. She uses a lot of Charlotte Mason "stuff" which I am liking more and MORE. (go to www.simplycharlottemason.com and you'll see what I mean!) Here is a list that Melissa has on the sidebar of her blog. I love it!

Six Things to Include
in Your Child's Day:
• meaningful work
• imaginative play
• good books
• beauty (art, music, nature)
• ideas to ponder and discuss
• prayer