The children and I attended an interesting webinar by Jim and Sheila Carroll of Living Books Curriculum.  We listened live, but you can still see the replay here: Education in a Box

The following is the invitation I received a little while ago.

Here are the highlights
On November 5th I am leaving for Lagos, Nigeria to further train the teachers at in the use of Charlotte Mason's educational methods. Another important part of the trip is the establishment of a training center at the site of our lab school near Lagos.
 
As believers, we know that it is important to reach out to less fortunate children and making available to them the same level of Christian education and discipleship opportunities that our children are blessed with.
 
For the Children's Sake--A Webinar
As you prayerfully consider your tax-deductible support of this mission, we invite you to watch a short, 35-minute webinar so we can share with you our vision for educating the children of Africa and other Third-World nations using the Charlotte Mason method.

I have written before about the "Book of Time" the children keep as a kind of loose chronology of characters in our history studies.  They really enjoy working on these little books, and I find they help them remember the people we read about.  The only difficulty we had with them was how to keep them together in a way that still allowed us to easily add new pages each week.  Last week, at Making Books with Children, I found the solution: The Stick and Elastic Book!  Perfect!

Front cover:

(clickable)

opened:

Just sharing a quick link!  These posies from Marie-Madeleine Studio are too cute!

Festive Posies

P.S. Their sewing patterns are on sale until Wednesday!

In every church we visited while we were travelling, I was asked if we were home educating our children.  Sometimes other mothers would ask what curriculum we were using.  I was surprised at how few were aware of Charlotte Mason.  Those who had heard of Miss Mason usually had misconceptions about her methods.  Sometimes they would say something like, "Charlotte Mason... isn't that something like unschooling?" 

Simply Charlotte Mason  a wonderful resource for information and support about home education, has just finished up a series comparing Charlotte Mason to other homeschool approaches.  It is well worth reading.  As a follow up, in a couple of weeks they will be putting out another series called "Making the Transition to Charlotte Mason."  You can sign up for email updates and read the articles in your inbox (scroll down to the bottom of the blog page), or go to the SCM blog. 

A few things I've found recently...

Have you seen the Homeschool Freebie of the Day site?  They offer some really excellent things, a new freebie everyday, available for one day only.  You can look through the archives for a sampling of what they have offered.  Today's freebie is Momma's Saving Grace Homeschool Planner in pdf format by Melissa Ringstaff of A Virtuous Woman.  A very pretty, practical planner!

Sense & Sensibility Patterns posts a new freebie on Fridays.  This week's freebie, a vintage 1905 clothing article,  is still available.

You can browse Good Housekeeping articles from 1885-1850 at the HEARTH site.

Katja had fun playing the quizzes based on the Little House books.

And, finally, if you're ever looking for children's craft ideas, you're sure to find something at The Crafty Crow!

Images used with permission

A friend recently asked me for some online book recommendations for her daughter.  I found some cute things, and I'll share them here, too.

At Charlotte Mason & Home Education , I came across a cute site with lots of activities for little people : author Jan Brett. 

Some nursery rhymes: The Real Mother Goose; Mother Goose illustrated by Kate Greenaway; and Mother Goose Melodies.

Some more Kate Greenaway titles : Under the Window, and A Apple Pie

The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter (there are many individual stories here as well). 

And the recipe for the yummy cookies I just pulled out of the oven : Chocolate-Chip Meringue Kisses.

Enjoy!